As your classmates enter the room,
1. Please take out the packet from yesterday, read through the syllabus and let me know if you have any questions.
2. Turn to the back page of your packet and find the "Student Info" sheet.
Take out Target Takeaway sheet.
The TT sheet is a summary of the skills that I want you to take away from the class.
What's your name and its origin?
What is your legal name given at birth?
How did you get this name? Why do you think you are named this?
What is the name you prefer to be called?
How did you get this nickname? When and why did you start using this name?
Individuality or connection to community?
Your name is one of the first pieces of your identity. It is what you learn to respond to and what you call yourself. It seems to be an example and expression of your individuality, however, it is an excellent example of how individuals are really not separate from community. Instead, each of us is shaped by community.
Your name is personal and it has a unique and specific genesis. However, the story of how you got your name is a story of connection and dependence on others. You did not choose your name, it was given to you. It was the beginning of your socialization, the influence of society on who you are. Sociologist Nathan Palmer describes the social influence on naming babies in his post at Sociology Source;
What emerges from this naming process is a trend. Many names go in and out of fashion; trending up in popularity and then back down. An easy way of illustrating this to your students is to use the US Social Security Administration’s “Popular Baby Names” database. This easy to use website allows you to search any name and see how it ranks against the 1000 most popular baby names. For most students their names go from out of fashion in the decades before their birth, then they become popular right around their birth, and then fall out of popularity again.
So, the seemingly individual decision parents make for their kids, is not an isolated decision. Many parents are influenced to name their kids based on names that are trending (even though parents don't realize the name is trending).
Examine the name data:
Click here to see the Social Security Administration's baby name database (pictured at left). It details the top 1000 baby names for boys and girls for the last 100 years. After you click the SSA link above, enter your name and change the search to "1900 & later" and click "GO" to lookup your birth name.
6. Does it show up in the database?
7. What year was the most popular year for your name?
8.1 Now search the database for different patterns. Identify at least one pattern. Some ideas you might consider: choose a name and analyze it over time, can compare different years, compare different genders, etc...
Why do these patterns occur? The U.S. is a very large country ~300 million people!
This article from the NY Times details how names become more and less popular over time. The article cites the work of sociologist Stanley Lieberson from Harvard.
"...in 1950, 5% of US parents chose a name for their child that wasn't in the top 1,000 names. In 2012, that figure was up to 27%.As late as the 18th Century, it wasn't uncommon for parents to call multiple children the same name - two Johns for different grandfathers, for example. Now parents increasingly look for unique names or spellings of names. As Jean Twenge points out in her book the Narcissism Epidemic, Jasmine now rubs shoulders in naming lists with Jazmine, Jazmyne, Jazzmin, Jazzmine, Jasmina, Jazmyn, Jasmin, and Jasmyn."
So, the first part of this exercise reveals that parents are influenced in different ways to name their kids. However, as we will see, the name that parents choose also influences the kid. There has been a host of research detailing the ways that people are influenced by their names.
Effects of names
This lesson from Nathan Palmer on Sociology in Focus explains the importance of having your name pronounced correctly in class, especially by teachers.
What are some ways that having your name mispronounced might affect you? What are some of the messages that mispronouncing a name might send?
Can the mispronunciation of a name be a small part of a larger message?
This Newshour report from PBS explains more about the importance of pronouncing names correctly.
The American Sociological Association also published a lesson on the Trails Database called "What's in a Name?" This lesson focuses on the cultural importance of names. In questions above, if you put a nickname that was more "American" than your original name, why? Some follow up questions from the professors at UCLA who authored this lesson are:
- Does altering of a family name to a more “American-sounding” name has any benefits to the individual. Does the alteration of names exemplify assimilation?
- Does assimilation has any costs to the individual, such as cultural devaluation and family history.
- Does anyone whose names has been altered feel any enduring, negative self-perception or shame?
- Are there any potential benefits to name reclamation?
This BBC article cites two sociologists: Dalton Conley of NYU and David Figlio of Northwestern University. Figlio's research shows that siblings may face more or less discrimination by teachers depending on the perceived social class and race of their names.
Here is additional research about names:
Business Insider, "13 Surprising Ways Your Name Affects Your Success."
Science Focus, "Name Game; How Names Spell Success in Life and Love."
Live Science, "Good or Bad, Baby Names Have Long-Lasting Effects."
New Yorker, "Why Your Name Matters."
Freakonomics podcast "How Much Does Your Name Matter?"
Takeaway:
Most importantly, I want to learn and pronounce your name correctly. And, I would like you all to do that for each other.
Secondly, however, this introduction to you, also introduces us to sociology:
- Sociologists use research to understand the influence of society on individuals such as interviews and existing sources.
- Individuals are shaped by social institutions such as education and family. These institutions provide structure that influences individuals.
- Sociologists often focus on inequalities in society such as discrimination based on culture, gender, race and social class. Sometimes this discrimination is institutional and so it might go unnoticed.
- Finally, sociologists study the shared meaning between individuals.
Well my name is Maor. It is an Israeli and Hebrew name. The name comes from Genesis in the bible (in Hebrew). On the fourth day God created the Sun and the Moon, two objects that create light in order to separate the day from the night. And in Hebrew an object that creates light is called "Maor". My parents chose this name because I was their first born child and I brought light into their life and house, and my mom really liked the name. My name is mispronounced very often, yet I've learned to live with it. I don't go out of my way to correct people, and unless it's someone I wish to be close with, I don't really care. I'm proud of my name and and don't plan to "Americanize" it, since it carries my heritage and religion more than anything else.
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