Popular Baby Names

They are tools to bring community and accentuate the similarities of all humans. Sekou, was named after a prison inmate by his mother (Mary). This name gave him community with his mother because no matter where a person is or if they want it or not, the person that named them has a presence in their life. When he later met another person named Sekou, he felt a bond between them (Mary). Because of their name, these two people, who may not have had anything else in common were connected to each other. Arturo’s name was not only used in a way that hurt him, but that also tied him to his family and his history. He was named after his father, who was named after his father, who was named after his father, and this continued a long time back (Johnston). His name connected him to his family, especially his grandmother, who he will remember telling him stories about his name after she dies. Additionally, Julia’s name was used to link different sides of herself. When she was in class she was Judith. At home she was Julia, pronounced with an “h.” While with her friends she sported many different affectionate nicknames, including “Hey Jude” and “Jules.” Depending on what someone called her she knew how she was expected to behave and what the relationship between her and the other person was. Everybody has a name. It is a characteristic that man shares. Although it may be slight, knowing and using a person’s name ties humans

This is shown in these texts, “I would like to baptize myself under a new name, a name more like the real me, the one no one sees. Esperanza as Lisandra or Maritza or Zeze the X. Yes, something like Zeze the X will do.” (“My Name” By Sandra Cisneros), “The name Youngeun is a barcode. The name Rachel is a Made in America sticker slapped onto a Korean flag.” (Names by Rachel Rostad), and “When I was nine years old, I spent the summer at a stay-away camp being called "Tiffany".” (What’s In A Name by Okaikor Aryee-Price).

I have normally regarded my name as simply boring. Samuel is easily pronounced, easily shortened, and incredibly ordinary. I understand my name holds sentimental value to those closest to me and I do identify with some of the characteristics embedded within it. While I know that names do not define personality, I cannot help but to find annoyance within multiple aspects of my birth-given label.Weirdly enough, I know my name fits me because no matter how hard I have tried, I cannot imagine being referred to as anything other than “Sam”.

Early on I worked from the premise that people don’t exercise enough imagination when naming their children and merely employ the same names over and over again. Every child in the country carries the name David or Robert or Ann or Mary. Well, that isn’t true and there’s an abundance of unusual, exotic, strong, wonderful names currently being worn with pride.

At birth everyone is given a name by their parents. Your name is part of your identity and how you are addressed and recognized by the world. The different verities among the population created other names given to different races. These names are offensive, demeaning and are only used to refer to a person in a disrespectful manner. They can also cause a segregation among a nations people, these names are forced upon people weather they are rich or poor, old or young, male or female and are used to describe the same race of people. In the class reading "What 's in a Name? “by Henry Louis Gates he reminisces about a personal experience of his that he had with his father. In the story he describes his father was a hard worker and, because of this he was in high financial standings and, he was well respected and given privileges that at the time was rare for people of his race but he was still black and his name, his individual identity was not important instead he was given a racial identity, this is the only thing he was known as, this type of negative recognition is something many black Americans can relate to. One’s race is a predominant part of our identity and is what causes discrimination.

Chapter six of Freakonomics, kind of plays off of chapter five of what it takes to be “a perfect parent”. Therefore the beginning of chapter six starts off by saying the first official act of being a parent is giving the baby a name (Levitt and Dubner, 2009). In recent years the baby naming industry has skyrocketed. There are all kinds of baby naming books, websites, generators, etc… Parents have set in their mind that if they name their baby the wrong name they will be doomed for life. However, in a recent situation, a father has named his son Winner, he thought how could a son fail with this name. In a few more years he has another son and names this won Loser. Despite his name, Loser ended up being the successful one, graduated from college, and joined the NYPD. As you can assume, Winner ended up being the unsuccessful one, having an enormous criminal background. The question then comes up, “does the name you give your child affect his life? Or is their life reflected by their name?” (Levitt and Dubner, 2009).

Though she admits that there has been a change in the society in the recent past where individuals are now more willing to learn and accept the ethnic names of others, there is still major social problems which affect people who use ethnic names. That other children had corrupted her name to something else may be indicative of a form of bullying, which has been proved to have disastrous effects on its victims in the long run. Rather than be a victim of social awkwardness, it would be easier to adopt a name which is not

Growing up in a dominantly hispanic family, I had many family members, yet few names. So, it’s a wonder in my own mind, how I wound up with the name Tiffany. Built into the strong family oriented atmosphere that I still live in today, yet still sticking out of my family like a sore thumb. Worse than that, I was not even awarded the liberty of a middle name to fall back on, or for the sake of having a traditionally long name like everyone else. Yet, even though the odds were against me in this case, I still learned to appreciate my own name.

Chapter six of Freakonomics shows a comparative study done by Roland G. Fryer Jr. He compares children’s first names throughout different decades in California. The study references between black children and white children names, and low income families along with high income families name choices. We also look to see if these names have an effect on the outcomes of these children’s lives.

Names often carry with them significant cultural meaning within families, especially in southern

For this project I interviewed Kevin Engle from our class who sat right next to me the day we were assigned the project. It turns out that Kevin was never intended to have his first name be what it is. He was initially going to be called Kyle or Kasey, but his parents felt that his first name was a good name in between those names for him to have. It is actually interesting because his brother’s name is Jake which meant that his parents named their kids from oldest to youngest in alphabetical order. Kevin’s last name comes from Germanic origins and is actually a translation for angel in German. Despite this, Kevin’s family is not entirely from Germany and has its roots blended with a mix of European culture from Germany to England as well as

Therefore, names in this case effects expectation. In the reports from the 50’s and early 60’s, many young black shared a common name with whites like, Micheal, jake, peter but in the late 6o’s when the black movement was increasing with different groups, young parents at that time, began to name their children unique names but it wasn’t until the 80’s and 90’s that the sort of “ made up” name were associated in black culture.

The forename, “Logan” didn’t start to gain popularity until the 1980’s and reached an all-time peak in 2006 where 3,555 children were named “Logan” for every million born. Since 2006, there has been a roller coaster effect where the name loses and regains popularity, but never undergoes any significant changes by always staying in the top 20 of most popular names. I was born in the state of Colorado, where “Logan” is the 10th most popular name. However in the state of Texas (where I currently live), the name “Logan” ranks 38th out of the 100 names listed.

My mother always liked the name Taylor, so much so, that when she was little she wanted the name to be her own. My mother’s birth name is Tawanda which to her is deemed as a “ghetto” name. I never really understood why she would want to give up a name that left a certain twang on your tongue after saying it. The only way I could comprehend her reason for this was the fact that my mother desired a life outside of the New Orleans St.Bernard projects; a life that offered her more than week old lunch meat and flying roaches as roommates. A girl with the