Personal Identity And Social Identity

In order to find his identity he went against his parent’s wishes in attending Columbia, but instead attending Yale. But before he set off for college he went through the legal process of changing his name. To his surprise it was a very mechanical task. His reasoning to the judge for the change “I hate the name Gogol, “he says I’ve always hated it.” “Very well”, the judge says stamping and signing the form, then returning it to the clerk. He is told the notice of the new name must be given to all other agencies, and that it’s his responsibility to notify the Registry of Motor Vehicles, banks, schools” (102). Although the moment in the courtroom was not as momentous as he had imagined, he stepped in there as Gogol Gangouli and left as Nikhil Gangouli in twenty minutes. A moment he waited eighteen years for finally arrived. Now that he is free of his parents and his old name, he can now be confident, especially with women in introducing himself without anticipating unwelcomed questions about his name.

Each of these texts all highlight the importance of identity and names, and how having a name that doesn’t fit European standards can make life in our society much harder. When your name doesn’t fit the European standards it can be harder to get a job, and you become more vulnerable for bullying. Some also allude to the idea that a name is something you must identify with as well, and that it’s a piece of you.

In summary, this reading passage talks about the relationship between one's name and his or her personal and cultural identities. Richard Crasta, the author of reading, introduces the relations between name and three types of personal and cultural identities: The cultural background, the wishes of parents, and the impressions even biases on personality. From my personal experiences, most of Crasta's contentions are plausible, yet some are subjective and obsolete.

This journal speaks on how names are seen as some form of “talent” as it is bestowed upon us on birth. This also has religious implications as some feel as their name is a gift talent given from god. Everyone's name within “their eyes were watching god mean something. An example of this would be Tea Cake. “John Callahan says that Tea Cake "revivifies" names” . The names also have a slightly overshadowed sense of racism, as in a way most of the names given to black people have a sort of dumbed down approach to them. Going back to the complete disregard of the “Afro-American” culture by the

I have had two different names growing up. My parents came to America at the turn of the new millennium with big dreams and hopes. Coming from a devout Jainist society, their perspectives towards life were very different; they believed in hard work and most of all nonviolence. I, on the other hand grew up in a sweet, small southern town on the tip of Florida. Life was all about going to the sandy beaches, chilling with pals, and just having a “good ole time”.

Someone’s name can put extreme cultural pressures on them. For example, Firoozeh Dumas writes in her essay that when she first moved to America using her Iranian name of Firoozeh people tended to avoid her. With her first name sounding foreign she writes that most avoided her because it seemed to make her “…’Unapproachable’…” (78). Others did not know how to properly pronounce her name and did not want to attempt to learn how to say her name

Charles Plant, in his Globe and Mail essay presents this conundrum: “as a grandpa-to-be, I have opinions on what my grandchild is named – if not any influence”, writing about his own, then later his daughter’s, struggles with naming their respective children. Plant goes into detail about our decidedly patriarchal naming system, and whether or not grandparents have any influence in the all-important tradition of the naming of a child. Stripped down to its most basic concepts, this essay is about one of the most prevalent forms of sexism: the tradition of naming all of our children after their paternal surname. Plant believes that children should carry their mother’s surname, though he concedes that mothers in turn carry their own paternal surname, revolutions must start from somewhere. He also highlights the fact that male sons often carry their father’s given and surname, often stylized as “Junior” or “the Second” and so on.

Most people will agree that a name is a very important identity for a person. Beautiful names are usually given to lovely babies. Unpleasant names, however, are often criticized as bad images for people having them. Many children with “ugly” names face discrimination at school and are isolated or beaten by other children. People may wonder why parents can give that kind of “ugly” names to their children while other parents give their children nice and wonderful names. In fact, there are many factors that affect how parents will name their children, and the three main factors are culture, convenience, and socioeconomic status.

At the age of twenty-five I became a mother for the first time and reality hit me. As a young naïve woman, I never really put too much thought into important life choices and the long-term consequences of any of my choices, naming my first born wasn’t hard for me because I allowed my sister, whom thought would never have children to name her, with my other two children deciding their names wasn’t about what better opportunities they would have but rather my liking. Although, in contemplating on something as simple as naming one’s child and the effects it may have as they become adults I now realize the importance of my childrens names. I can now hear how the names of my children sound more American than those of some of my friends and family but I not only hear them I understand the advantages or disadvantage that they may face in society. This was again another life choice that I had no realization of how this would affect my children’s future until now.

Throughout history, names have been used as a form of identity and a way to trace family history, however slavery revoked this right from the Negro community. According to Liseli A. Fitzpatrick “names not only aid in the construction of identity, but also concretize a people’s collective memory by recording the

What is identity? A loose definition of identity is a sense of who we are. So how do we develop or define our identity?

“The sense of personal identity and uniqueness that a name gives us is at the heart of why names interest us and why they are important to us as individuals and to our society as a whole. In spite of their importance, though, most people know very little about names and about the effects they have on us an on our children in everyday life. In a very real sense, we are consumers of names, and we have a need and right to know about the psychological, magical, legal, religious, and ethnic aspects of our names” (Deluzain).As children grow up, they always wonder where their names came from. Every name comes with a story behind it. For example, I was given the name Ayah Hesham Mahdy. My name originated from my family, who are Egyptian and believe

Your name is your identity and how you present it to society can greatly affect your life and the way you live. After reading both passages, I have concluded that the relationship between a person’s name and their personal acceptance with society is a complex matter and depends on your culture and language with which you were raised.

““Names are not always what they seem.”” ― Mark Twain, Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World”. Labels, tags, names and titles given to an individual do not truly define their true character. Society are the ones who give tags and labels to one failing to know the person’s identity. One must recognize that a name is just a form of differentiating a person, but not their uniqueness that comes along with them.

“Some…memberships are more salient than others; and some may vary in salience in time and as a function of a variety of social situations” (Tajfel, 2-3) Salience of identity, in the way that we need to understand it in the case of perception and decision making, can be operationalized as the likelihood that a particular identity will be invoked within a certain situation that the individual is being faced with (Hogg, Terry, & White, 257). As mentioned previously, everyone holds various identities but salience is the process through which we subconsciously decide which we be used to base our decision making or preferences on. “The salience of a particular social identity for an individual may vary from situation to situation and indeed from