Building gender identity from the selection of the first name
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.48075/odal.v1i1.24165Keywords:
Given name, attribution, parental project, gender identityAbstract
This paper reflects on the role given names attribution plays in the construction of gender identity of their bearers. The theoretical framework is based on Marta Lamas Encabo’s work about gender (2000, 2015, 2016), and on socio-anthroponymy research about naming practices and name giving. It is suggested that the selection of given names, as part of the attribution process (Aldrin 2011), contributes to the construction of the bearer’s gender identity by making him/her part of a culture that distinguishes, fundamentally, between the masculine and the feminine.The proposal rests on the symbolic dimension that implies not only the concept of gender as a socio-cultural notion, but that of language as conceptualization and mental categorization of the world. The discussion presented here allows to recognize that the construction of the bearer’s gender identity begins at the very moment in which his/her first name is chosen (which would be a part of the parental project proposed by Jean-Gabriel Offroy 1992). The culturally made distinction between male and female will be created and reproduced socially through the preference for certain given names even though an epicene is chosen.
Key-words: Given name; attribution; parental project; gender identity
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