Identity, though complex, can be encoded in a name. The name bears the stamp of the namers’ traditions and their hopes for the child. The infant's characteristics influence the choice to some degree and, to a degree, a name affects the person who bears it. The interface between names and personal identity is illustrated clinically in syndromes of transsexualism and multiple personality, in twinning, and in the development of the ego-ideal.
References
1.
AlbottW.L., BruningJ.L.: Given names: a neglected social variable.Psychol Record, 20: 527–533, 1970.
2.
AndersonJ.: Ralph Waldo Ellison, American writer.New Yorker Magazine, Nov. 22, 1976.
3.
BiltonR.W.: Biblical names of literary Jewesses.Names, 21: 103–109, 1973.
4.
BoshierR.W.: Self-esteem and first names in children.Psychol Rep, 22: 762, 1968.
5.
BrenderM.: Some hypotheses about the psychodynamic significance of infant name selection.Names, 11: 1–9, 1963.
6.
DufourR.: Le phènomène du Sipiniq chez les Inuit d'Iglulik.Recherches Amerindiennes au Quèbec, 3: 6–69, 1975.
7.
DufourR.: “Les noms de personnes chez les Inuit d'Iglulik.” M. A. Thesis, Université Laval, 1977.
8.
EaglesonO.: Students’ reactions to their given names.J. Soc Psychol, 23: 187–195, 1946.
9.
EllisA., BeechleyM.: Emotional disturbance in children with peculiar given names.J Gen Psychol, 85: 337–339, 1954.
10.
EriksonE.H.: Identity and the life cycle.Psychol Issues, 1, 1959.
11.
FalkA.: Identity and name changes.Psychoanal Rev, 62: 647–657, 1975–76.
12.
FeldmanH.: The problem of personal names as a universal element in culture.American Imago, 16: 237–250, 1959.
13.
FlugelI.: On the significance of names.Br J Med Psychol, 10: 208–213, 1930.
14.
FodorN.: Nomen est omen.Samiksa, 10: 9–45, 1956.
15.
GuempleD.L.: Saunik: name sharing as a factor governing Eskimo kinship terms.Ethnology, 4: 323–335, 1965.
16.
HartmanA.A., NicolayR.C., HurleyJ.: Unique personal names as a social adjustment factor, J Soc Psychol, 75: 107–110, 1968.
17.
HoustonT.J., SumnerF.C.: Measurement of neurotic tendency in women with uncommon given names.J Gen Psychol, 39: 289–292, 1948.
18.
JahodaG.: A note on Ashanti names and their relationship to personality.Br J Psychol, 45: 192–195, 1954.
