Exploring Name Tendency: Taking Children’s Names as a Case
Abstract
This paper is inspired by a chapter talking about name bias in the book Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubnertalks and it discusses names (including first name and last name), typically children’s names from two perspectives, namely semantics of names and pragmatics of names. This paper also analyzes the way that the names of children are given by their parents in different countries, particularly in China and Germany, with the impact that these names have on children’s personality and career development. A name may seem like a simple combination of letters, but its impact on people may be much greater than imagined, whether in school or the workplace. Prejudice is the key factor that these consequences can have on a child’s future, such as ‘black-sounding’ names or gender-specific names. However, these biases are generally subconscious, and it is difficult for people to realize this and prevent such prejudice.
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