Vad säger mitt namn om mig? : En folkonomastisk studie av vuxnas syn på relationen mellan namn och identitet

• The purpose of this article is to study how Swedish adults conceptualize the relationship between their name and identity and how their views relate to scientific theories. It also discusses to what extent the relation between name and identity changes throughout life and which social factors may influence this. The data consists of 173 written survey answers, including both highly structured answers and freely written comments. Perspectives from folk onomastics, sociocultural identity theory and psychological theories life span identity are combined in the analysis. Results indicate that most people do not experience that their name reveals anything about their identity, however a third of the participants do see such a relation. This is often conceptualized as a process and includes both personal and social identity traits. A third of the participants further perceive that this relationship has changes throughout life and basing on these results the article suggests a tentative model of the life development of name identity through certain phases.

Subject headings

HUMANIORA  -- Språk och litteratur -- Studier av enskilda språk (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Languages and Literature -- Specific Languages (hsv//eng)

Keyword

folk onomastics

name and identity

lifespan identity

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)