What’s in a name? How your toddler’s name shapes who they are
Did you spend months before your baby was born choosing a name? Perhaps you’d had a name in mind for you baby even before pregnancy – or waited a few days after they were born to choose one that was just right for them. However you chose their name, and even if you now call them something different a lot of the time, names are an important part of who we are.
Sociologists are becoming increasingly interested in names, and how these relate to people’s experiences and how they are perceived. Taking a quick look at statistics about names in England and Wales you can see that there are trends in the names we use.
Top three boys and girls names in England and Wales over the years[1]
1904 – William, John and George, Mary, Florence and Doris
1944 – John, David and Michael, Margaret, Patricia and Christine
1994 – Thomas, James and Jack, Rebecca, Lauren and Jessica
2021 - Noah, Oliver and George, Olivia, Amelia and Isla[2]
Sociologist Jane Pilcher founded the People’s Names Reasearch Network in 2021, bringing together social scientists and other people who are interested in the study of names.[3] She suggests names give information about sex, gender, ethnic and racial identities, as well as being used to give a rough idea of someone’s age, as the popularity of names changes over the years.[4]
According to psychologist Jozef Nuttin, your toddler is likely, as they start to recognise letters, to prefer those from their own name.[5]
What this shows us is that your toddler’s name is likely to be an important part of how they understand who they are – and of how other people see them.
Given the importance of your toddler’s name to their growing understanding of themselves – it is important to correct people who don’t pronounce your toddler’s name correctly and to remind people to use the correct spelling when writing their name.
As your toddler starts to use other people’s names, they might sometimes mispronounce these; if your toddler does this, repeat the name correctly so your toddler hears the correct pronunciation.
References:
[1] Office for National Statistics (15 August 2014). Top 100 baby names in England and Wales: historical data. https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/livebirths/datasets/babynamesenglandandwalestop100babynameshistoricaldata
[2] Office for National Statistics (5 October 2022). Baby names in England and Wlaes:2021 Available at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/livebirths/bulletins/babynamesenglandandwales/2021#top-baby-names
[3] Pilcher, J. (n.d.) Peoples names research network. Available at: https://www.janepilcher.me.uk/personal-names-research-network/
[4] Pilcher, J. (21 August, 2014). The meaning of names. Available at: https://www.janepilcher.me.uk/2014/08/the-meaning-of-names/
[5] Hoorens,V. (7 February, 2023). Tell me what’s your name, and I will tell you which letters you like! Mondonomo. Available at: https://mondonomo.ai/article/tell_me_whats_your_name/