Names, Structural-Functional Perspective and Data

Stanley Lieberson was a respected sociologist from Harvard who studied trends and fashions.  He used the Social Security Names database to study how names spread in popularity.  His research is an example of how the social institution of family creates stability.  The naming of new babies is not simply personal; families influence each other.  Read this NY Times[iii] article about Lieberson then try your own research with the data.  If you wish to markup this reading, download it here.

WHATEVER happened to Lisa, Mary, Karen, Susan and Kimberly?

On top in the 1960's, they've been shoved aside by Emily, Madison, Hannah, Ashley and Alexis. Those were the most popular names for American girls born in 2001, according to data released last week by the Social Security Administration.

As for Michael, David, John, James and Robert -- the top five for boys in the 1960's -- only Michael remains. The others have been replaced by Jacob, Matthew, Joshua, and Christopher. (The lists are at www.ssa .gov/OACT/babynames.)

Nobody runs ads to persuade parents to choose Emily or Joshua for their newborns. No magazine editors dictate that Ryan is the new Michael.

But names still shift according to fashion. Once-popular names seem tired and out of date, new ones exciting. Old-fashioned names, like Emily, take on the allure of vintage clothing. Style revivals happen in names, too.

Contrary to what many critics of markets believe (and many fashion industry executives wish), fashion isn't a predictable commercial phenomenon driven by manipulation and advertising. Fashion -- the process by which form seems exhausted and then refreshed, without regard to functional improvements -- exists even in completely noncommercial ''markets.''

In ''A Matter of Taste'' (Yale University Press, 2000), Stanley Lieberson, a Harvard sociologist, analyzes how tastes in names shift. In the process, he sheds light on how fashion works.

Economists usually assume that tastes don't change. To explain shifts in demand, they look for changing relative prices. That approach imposes disciplinary rigor -- ''tastes changed'' could too easily explain just about anything -- but it makes accounting for fashion hard.

Professor Lieberson offers an explanation even an economist can accept. The taste for names or sounds may change, but those changes reflect underlying preferences for novelty, conformity and divergence.

Name choices, like clothing choices, reflect the desire to be different, but not too different. The ideal balance varies, and new fashions begin with innovators who want to stand out. If the innovations have the right aesthetic appeal, they spread to people who aren't as nonconformist.

''There must have been some people starting off with Madison,'' Professor Lieberson said in an interview. ''That type of person is no longer naming their kid Madison.''

Parents who today pick Madison for their daughter's name, he said, ''would not have given the same name, the same sounds, earlier because it was a weird name.''

Indeed, Madison didn't show up on the lists until the 1980's, when it was the decade's 539th most popular name. Three of last year's top 20 girls' names -- Madison (No. 2), Taylor (No. 12), and Brianna (No. 18) -- weren't in the top 1,000 in the 1960's. (Taylor was 865th for boys.)

Like designers who experiment with new ideas, parents have to choose babies' names without knowing exactly what other parents are choosing. The result is a complex, often surprising, dynamic.

Parents frequently find that the name they ''just liked'' is suddenly common, expressing aesthetic preferences. Professor Lieberson became interested in names after he and his wife named their first daughter Rebecca, only to find there were little Beckys everywhere.

Like hemlines, names don't bounce around randomly. Newly popular names tend to build on what has gone before, exploring the aesthetic possibilities of certain styles. ''People are in effect branching off an existing set of tastes,'' Professor Lieberson says.

Beginning in the late 1960's, for instance, names beginning with La became popular for African-American girls. The first to hit the top 50, Latonya, was a play on the existing name Tonya. Latanya and Latasha similarly built on older names. ''But then the La's developed a life of their own,'' Professor Lieberson notes, leading to brand-new names like Latoya and Latrice.

Although some ethnic names remain distinctive, those differences tend to dissipate over time. Today's list of top boys' names shows the influence of Latino immigrants -- Jose is No. 30, Luis No. 44, Carlos No. 55, Jesus No. 66 -- and the 1960's list reflects earlier Irish and Italian immigrants (and the influence of Catholic saints' names more generally). Over a relatively short period, however, immigrant families begin to select names from the general pool.

Professor Lieberson cites data from Illinois matching mothers' ethnicity with popular names. From 1985 to 1988, Jose was the fifth-most-popular boys' name among Mexican-American mothers. But it followed Michael, Daniel, David and Anthony.

Contrary to common assumptions about how fashion works, names don't simply trickle down from high-income, well-educated parents to lower-income, less-educated parents. Newly popular names tend to catch on with everyone at about the same time, and they spread both up and down.

Whether names or clothes, fashion reflects the primacy of individual taste over inherited custom. The freer people feel to choose names they like, rather than names of relatives or saints, the faster names go through cycles. Boys' names, which tend to be more influenced by custom, change slower.

The turnover, Professor Lieberson says, ''is much faster now than it used to be,'' and a smaller proportion of all names are concentrated among the most popular. So there's a constant need for new names, as formerly unusual ones become too common.

''It will become apparent in a few years that there are tons of Madisons, and people will act accordingly,'' he says.

Maybe Saige (No. 939) or Ximena (No. 894) will be the next Madison. Or maybe Virginia, No. 391 today but No. 7 in the 1920's, is due for a revival.

(S1) 2.1  What are some of the claims that Lieberson made?  What was his reasoning?

Now, examine the data that Lieberson used.  Go to the SSA Baby Name Database[iv]. 

(S2) 2.2  Choose one of his claims and see if you can find data to support it.  Explain your findings below.

(S2) 2.3 Now search the database for a different patterns.  Try to 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...  Explain your findings and the supporting data below.

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[i]Palmer, Nathan.  Teaching Social Forces With Baby Name.  Sociology Source. The Society Pages.  September 19, 2011.  https://thesocietypages.org/sociologysource/2011/09/19/teaching-social-forces-with-baby-names/

[ii]Kremer, William.  Does A Baby’s Name Affect It’s Chances in Life?  BBC News Magazine.  April 11, 2014.  https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26634477

[iii] Postrel, Virginia.  Economic Scene; How Can the Marketplace Gauge Fashions?  Consider What to Name the Baby.  NY Times, 2002.  https://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/23/business/economic-scene-can-marketplace-gauge-fashions-consider-what-name-baby.html

[iv] Social Security Administration. Get Ready For Baby. https://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/

[v] Mitchell, Corey.  A Teacher Mispronouncing a Student’s Name Can Have a Lasting Impact. Education Week.  PBS Newshour.  https://www.pbs.org/newshour/education/a-teacher-mispronouncing-a-students-name-can-have-a-lasting-impact?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=pbsofficial&utm_campaign=newshour

[vi] A Declaration of Self.  Santa Clara County Office of Education https://www.mynamemyidentity.org/

Day 1 - Welcome to Sociology!

As the first day began, I said, "Let's get started."
Then, we sat in silence.  Sitting in silence was awkward and unusual for most of us. Some students felt the need to fill the silence with a comment or a joke.  Clearly, this is not the way most of us are used to beginning a class, especially the first one of the semester.

What’s happening here? What are all of the thoughts that came to mind as you sat in silence?  Why did you think these things?


Silence and thinking sociologically
I like beginning the semester like this for two reasons.  First, I use this to show that most students already think sociologically, albeit in a simplified manner.  Sociologists analyze groups of people and how the people are shaped by the groups of which they are a part.  You have been a part of dozens of classes over the years.  You have seen firsthand how these classes begin every semester.  Nearly every class you have been in has started with the teacher standing in front of you and saying this is what you should or shouldn't do, etc... From participating in all of these first classes, you have begun to expect certain things from them. That is, loosely, what sociologists do; analyze people in groups and look for patterns of behavior and then analyze how those patterns affect people.


Silence and education as a social institution
Secondly, the silence is also a critique of modern education.  Education is a social institution.  Sociologists study institutions and how they affect people.  Education as an institution has trained students to be passive and sit back and wait for a teacher.  Students want to know only what is necessary for a "good" grade.  It is not about learning; instead, it is about schooling.

This critique of education came to me from Bernard McGrane's Book The Un-TV and the 10MPH Car.  McGrane makes the case that students have been trained to follow and become good at school - but not good at learning. Their curiosity and excitement for learning has been squashed by a system that rewards docility and conformity. Rather than taking initiative for their own learning, students expect the teacher to provide them with exactly what they need - "Just tell me what to do," is the attitude.  Institutions perpetuate the norms.  The way we have done something often gets passed down from generation to generation.  This creates expectations that we do not even question.  In a sense we silently comply with what we have unconsciously learned.

Our class will ask students to engage in the learning; to take part in the process and become conscious of it.  Our class will also ask students to share their own experiences and relate them to sociology.  We all learn from each other. We are all both teacher and student.  Be open to understanding things you thought you knew from a new perspective.  Be open to understanding your classmates insights.  Keep a beginner's mind, an empty cup.

Listen for the silence.

What is sociology? How does the silence experience exemplify what sociological thinking is?

What am I trying to reveal about the institution of education by doing the silence experiment?

Other impacts of silence.

A third reason why I like beginning the year with the silence is because it is uncomfortable.  Sociology will make you aware of issues in society that are uncomfortable.  Sociology will sometimes talk about topics like suicide, racism, sexism, hatred, rape and violence.  Ignoring these issues does not make them go away.  In fact, our silence in their presence allows them to quietly be accepted in society.

Checkout teacher Clint Smith speaking at a TED Talk about silence.  It is often our own silences that speak louder than our words.  This is especially true in a culture that teaches you to be a follower; to sit down and shut up and conform.  Watch that video.  
Think about the speaker's message.  I want you to find your voice.  To learn who you are as a person and to learn to speak up for what you believe in in an educated and meaningful way.  Silence can reinforce oppression.  Silence can maintain institutional order. If you are going to study sociology, you must be open to learning about these uncomfortable topics.  Moving out of our comfort zones can make us stronger and more confident people.  Ultimately, this will result in our growth as scholars and human beings.  The end result of sociology can be to make us more compassionate people who live a more meaningful existence.

Besides being open, there are a few other non-negotiable details for class.  You can download the course syllabus here.  Note these important aspects of the syllabus:

• Be open, present and prepared.  
• There is a mandatory final research paper regardless of whether you have an A- or not.
• You will be expected to be an active learner - not a passive learner or simply a test taker;  this will require participation, discussion and classwork.
• Grading will be based on three goals or standards: Participation, Application and Research.

If you can agree to this, I will ask you "Are you fired up?" And, you should answer, "Ready to go."

I will do this each day to check in with you.

1.  Bookmark my blogpage or add it to your homescreen:
https://sociologysal.blogspot.com/

2.  Be sure your iPad is up to date.  See the helpdesk in the link if it is glitchy.

3.  If you have text ability, join the Remind account for your class:

• Per 4:  text @g9k4eb to the number 81010
• Per 6:  text @76g63 to the number 81010
• Per 7:  text @2h9226 to the number 81010

A Little boy and an Old Man.

Finally, let me tell you a story about a little boy and an old man.  That story, adapted from a Nepalese tale is here.

HW: 

1.  Please read through the syllabus and let me know if you have any questions.

2. Create a Google document.  Save it as:
Last Name,  First Name Period  
For example, if I was in period 4 it would look like this:
Salituro Chris 4

3.  Share it with me.  

Then - answer the questions in this Student Survey.

4.  Please interview some family members: How and why you have the name that you have.  How did you get your legal name?  If you prefer being called a nickname, then ask about that as well.  How did you get that nickname?

About me.