What's in a Name?

Introduction

The anthropological study of personal names (or anthroponomy), ethnonyms and toponyms aroused little interest before the 1960s. This field seemed of secondary importance when compared with themes such as kinship, social organization and religion. Research and reflection on this subject has increased since then, as is evidenced by the number of seminars, symposia and publications which have been devoted to it. Nevertheless the subject is no easier to study in the field, because it requires a good knowledge of the language and the local culture studied, and also because it is often the case that personal names are not used outside specific social contexts. Although there is no standard methodology for this kind of enquiry, a good inventory of personal names and of naming processes should be made in the initial stages of all social anthropological fieldwork, because it enables one to perceive a group's social and symbolic relationships with others in time and space. Combined with the study of genealogies and systems of naming/reference, such an inventory permits a more general investigation of all aspects of social and religious life (Tooker and Conklin, 113 - 150).

If the attribution of personal names has been recorded in all known human societies, and thus considered as a universal by G.P. Murdock, the nature and forms of naming processes are extremely varied across the world. Alford distinguished four aspects of 'naming', the first of which is the initial naming process, usually taking place at birth, and sometimes having a provisional or private character (the 'umbilical name' described by Lévi-Strauss would fall into this category, as would the provisional name given by the midwife in some Amazonian groups). The second aspect is the way in which personal names individualize and classify people. Names can be chosen to match the child's sex, birth rank or clan. They can create a bond of homonymy or have a sacred character. Third, there are changes of name - nicknames as well as new names given after birth, during the main transitions in the life cycle, during an illness, or after an exploit. The final aspect mentioned by Alford is the use or non-use of names and role terms: avoidance of a name, symmetrical or asymmetrical usage for certain relations, and a distinction between usage in address and usage in reference. This work far from exhausts the subtlety of the classificatory or religious functions of personal names; its objective - the quantification of selected traits present in diverse monographs and articles, restricts its field, mainly due to the absence of a standard methodology of data collection (O'Connor, 205-220).

Discussion

The name plays a huge role in human life. As they say, as a ship name so it will float. The name has many mysteries to unravel the hitherto no one has. However, some progress in this direction is still made. We can now determine their compatibility with the opposite sex judging by their names, we can determine sexual preference. Many people even call their children in accordance with the ...