Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id NAA07774 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Mon, 4 Jun 2001 13:00:02 +0100 Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2001 12:43:20 +0100 To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: Re: Children's names Message-ID: <20010604124320.A1500@ii01.org> References: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D3101745ED5@inchna.stir.ac.uk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.3.15i In-Reply-To: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D3101745ED5@inchna.stir.ac.uk>; from v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk on Mon, Jun 04, 2001 at 11:06:04AM +0100 From: Robin Faichney <robin@ii01.org> X-RBL-Warning: (orbs.dorkslayers.com) 195.8.69.94 is listed by dorkslayers.com Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
On Mon, Jun 04, 2001 at 11:06:04AM +0100, Vincent Campbell wrote:
> Interesting stuff,
>
> Here's a good example, I expect, of the weird ways the media do have an
> impact. In the UK, celebrities with unusual names, or popular soap
> characters have an impact on names. A good example would be 'Courtney', the
> name given to the baby of Grant and Tiffany Mitchell- characters in
> 'Eastenders'. I don't remember where it came in the lists, but I remember
> newspaper reports saying it had moved up significantly.
And where did the Mitchells get the name from? Courtney Cox seems a
likely candidate. Another UK soap, The Archers, had a mildly amusing
theme around 10 years ago when a working class baby was named Kylie,
after the soap actor turned singer. The Archers covers a cross-section,
class-wise, and the reaction of the middle classes was basically "oh
my god!" I think that's an accurate reflection of social reality in
the UK.
> Religion, ethnicity and nationalism have a role in name choice also, I
> expect. Very interesting to hear that Danes often give their kids English
> names. Of course, there's been a trend in the US for African-Americans to
> develop variations, and new names to avoid their slave names. In Scotland,
> some like to make a point of spelling their names the gaelic way (even when
> it's not a gaelic name in the first place), and so on. Pagans try and avoid
> biblical names, and so on.
Do you have any examples of non-gaelic names spelt gaelic-style?
> Like you say, possible memetic subject there. Perhaps studying the trend
> for new names amongst African-Americans would be a good way in to finding
> their origins, rates of spreading, and mutation on the way. I bet someone's
> done this somewhere.
Probably. It seems rather an obvious research topic (though so do many,
in retrospect). But I wonder what, specifically, a memetic perspective
would add to any study of naming trends?
-- Robin Faichney Get your Meta-Information from http://www.ii01.org (CAUTION: contains philosophy, may cause heads to spin)=============================================================== This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing) see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
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