Saw this brief article in the Chicago Tribune featuring research by Indiana University’s Brian Powell. I have to confess I was surprised by the results:
Over 70 percent of Americans report that wives should change their last names to their husband’s when they get married.
I would have guessed that it was 60% or lower at this point. Partners with multiple last names seem so conventional now. Maybe I’ve been living in a blue state too long. . .
My father goes by his middle name. It wasn’t really his choice. The first day he went to kindergarten, his teacher announced that she was no longer going to call him by his first name because there were already 5 other Toms in the class. (He never told me if any of his classmates got to keep the name Tom, or if they all had to go by their middle names.) My dad could have switched back to his first name later, I guess. However, I imagine after a year with all your friends calling you by your middle name that sort of thing just sticks.
I don’t think my father’s experience is that common these days (for many reasons). However, Philip Cohen has just posted some data that might explain why. Fewer people are naming their kids “popular” names. Instead, they’re trying to come up with unique baby names. This means that there are far fewer Toms and the common names like Tom or Emma spend less time in the list of the top 100 names.
Source: Philip Cohen
What’s driving the changing trend in names? Philip argues that it reflects a change in attitudes about identity. I think there’s something to that. However, he doesn’t really address the impact of pop culture on names. Stanley Lieberson does a nice job examining how names can be used to study fashion and cultural change. For instance, his research is useful for highlighting how name becomes gendered. Take the name “Kim.” Through the first half of the 20th century, Kims were common among both men and women. Then the actress Kim Novak came along in the late 50s and became a huge star. Suddenly, the number of men named Kim dropped, while the number of women named Kim went through the roof.
Of course names not only reflect changing attitudes and cultural shifts, they also can impact the life outcomes for our kids. In a paper from 2003, Bertrand and Mullainathan found that “racially marked” names encountered a higher rate of job discrimination. And David Figlio in a 2005 paper found that teachers had lower expectations for kids with African American sounding names.
So what are parents supposed to do?
