Embarrassing Middle Name: Difference between revisions
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(There was another Freakonomics piece which correlated naming choice with maternal education levels - when names fell out of fashion, their assignment by more educated mamas dropped while their use by the less educated continued?) |
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There are examples of this in [[Real Life]]—some cultures believe that to publicly reveal the name of their newborn child will curse them (or attract unwanted infernal attention); their solution is to give the child a 'placeholder' name that is [[Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?|purely humorous or inappropriate]], and allow them to take their 'real' name when they reach a certain age. |
There are examples of this in [[Real Life]]—some cultures believe that to publicly reveal the name of their newborn child will curse them (or attract unwanted infernal attention); their solution is to give the child a 'placeholder' name that is [[Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?|purely humorous or inappropriate]], and allow them to take their 'real' name when they reach a certain age. |
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It's also common in some cultures for infants to be named in honor of ancestors (typically grandparents) or as part of a multi-generational naming tradition. This can result in embarrassment as names |
It's also common in some cultures for infants to be named in honor of ancestors (typically grandparents) or as part of a multi-generational naming tradition. This can result in embarrassment as names slip into our out of fashion over the years; if "Gertrude" or "Ethel" were popular in the Klondike Gold Rush era but rare today, the implicit presumption is that anyone who still has the names is elderly. Some names become strongly associated with a certain gender over time (e.g., Meredith, Hilary, Ashley). May also lead to a [[Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?]]. |
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Occasionally, some part of the name will match the child's future occupation (Bill the accountant, Mr. Carr the mechanic, Ms. Taylor the sewing machine vendor...) just by happenstance. |
Occasionally, some part of the name will match the child's future occupation (Bill the accountant, Mr. Carr the mechanic, Ms. Taylor the sewing machine vendor...) just by happenstance. Sometimes, the choice of names correlates not only with race, ethnicity or the era in which they were assigned, but to the parents' economic status or education levels. Freakonomics [http://freakonomics.com/podcast/marijuana-pepsi/ analysed this to death]. Certainly it is possible to succeed despite a name like "Marijuana Pepsi, PhD." but did you have to [[Johnny Cash|name your boy "Sue"]]? |
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