Recently, there are many books issued for one purpose only, which is to collect the largest possible amount of human names in one book, with the aim of this book being a help to parents in choosing a name for their next child, and parents usually look at this matter from the first month of pregnancy, and we notice in modern generations the choice of some somewhat complex names, whose meanings and connotations are often unclear.
This interest in choosing a name may seem exaggerated, but the choice of name is probably more important than we think, not in terms of uniqueness or strangeness as many tend to do today, but because a child's name may have a role in shaping a person's identity during his childhood and even after his maturity.
Taking away a name is worth taking away an identity.
The roots of this matter go back to the ancient Egyptian civilization, where the cursed or hated person from society was deprived of his name, so no one called him by it, as a means of punishment, as if by this act they were not only robbing him of his name, but also robbing him of his identity. (1)
Statue of the god Horus "among the ancient Egyptians" (Pixaby)
This exceptional importance of a person's name in the ancient Egyptian civilization appears in the myth of Horus and Isis, where Horus had a secret name that no one can know, because those who know him can control him, and the matter does not depend on ancient Egypt, in the Christian religion during the rituals of exorcism of demons, which is recognized until now in the Vatican, we find that the priest who works to expel the devil cannot expel him or have power over him unless he knows his name. (1)
In his book "Pattern and Growth in Personality", published in 1963, the American psychologist Gordon Allport, one of the founders of personality psychology (2), says: "Our name remains the most important pillar of our self-identity throughout life", Allport was one of the first psychologists who paid special attention to the study of human personality, expecting that there are factors and patterns through which some qualities can be expected in the human personality, and the name in his view was one of the most important of those Factors. (11) (12)
Name as a symbol of the self
A person's name usually shows an aspect of his personality, whether his race, religion, or any other aspect of his being, and the name itself is usually able to generate different reactions in different societies, for example, American research conducted after the events of September 11 found that biographies submitted to works, which bear Arabic names, were more likely to be rejected than names whose owner appeared to be white or not of Arab origin, and here the difference becomes The name "Abdullah" and the name "James" make a difference that determines the nature of the life that this individual lives, do you think that this will not affect his personality and mental image of himself?
Choosing a rare and strange name for your children is not always in their favor, what you give your son is not a gift, but a cause that he carries with him for the rest of his life that he tries to explain to others. (Shutterstock)
In this regard, David Zo, a research professor of name science at the University of Arizona(3), says: "Because the name is used to identify the individual and communicate with him daily, it - the name - unconsciously represents his mental self-image of himself, especially the mental image that he thinks others see him with", it is definitely not limited to names that are alien to the identity of the state, such as Arabic names in the West, for example, there are more common examples of names and their impact on the formation of the individual's personality, such as negative names (animal - colt - Al-Arian), or the slightly outdated names of a young man among his peers with modern names, all of this affects how others treat us, and thus affects the formation of our mental image of ourselves.
Perhaps we should make it clear by now that choosing a rare and strange name for your children is not always in their favor, what you give your son is not a gift, but a cause that he carries with him for the rest of his life that he tries to explain to others, when he asks a lot about the meaning of his name or when others pronounce his name wrongly. In an important study on name complacency published in 1998, researchers report that uncommon names are associated with problems with social adaptation, asserting that an unusual name in turn leads to unexpected reactions from others, which then leads to unexpected evaluations of the owner of that strange or rare name.
The same study further showed that people with uncommon names were more likely than their peers to want to skip school and drop out of school as a child, and their scores on tests were often lower than those of their peers.
In another study published in 2010 in the medical journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, titled "Bad First Names: The Effect of Name on a Person's Appreciation and Relationship with Others", researchers collected data from 5,12 adult participants who had names considered bad in their community's culture, and that data showed that a person with a bad name, rejected by society, or a stranger is at risk of losing self-esteem, feeling lonely, and can even affect His ability to absorb and his degree of intelligence.
The Dorian Gray Effect
(Social Media)
What these studies and others simply say is that the name plays a role that should not be ignored in the formation of an individual's personality and mental image of himself, but can you really believe that the name can have a role in the external appearance of a person? In fact, psychologists and sociologists have observed a phenomenon that humans are exposed to in terms of the relationship between their names and their external appearances, and they called this phenomenon the "Dorian Gray effect". (6)
Dorian Gray is a character in Oscar Wilde's novel The Portrait of Dorian Gray, who in the events of the novel was not aging, while his life-size painting is what shows signs of aging, and scientists chose this name to illustrate how internal factors can unexpectedly affect a person's physical nature, including being influenced by the name given to him by his parents when he was young. (6)
In a study published in 2016, entitled "We Sound Outwardly Like Our Names: The Manifestation of Name Stereotypes in the Human Form"(7), researchers confirmed the existence of a strong relationship between people's names and their external appearances, and this is because the mental image formed by a person based on the stereotype of the name in society has an impact on his external appearance, because he often begins to act according to this image unconsciously, of course we do not mean here the genetic features of humans, but we mean All other acquired cosmetic features such as hairstyle, attention to the skin, the quality of the cosmetics used, and everything that contributes to the formation of the external appearance of the human being.
Even nicknames have an effect
The researchers found that nicknames or nicknames given to a child by their peers played an important role in shaping their mental image of themselves, negatively or positively. (Shutterstock)
This is with regard to the names that our parents choose for us, but there are other names that are attached to us over time, which are nicknames, which have a great impact on us, especially the names given to us in our childhood by peers as a bullying.
In the nineties in Egypt, for example, "Bakkar" was called any child with dark skin relative to the famous cartoon character at the time, while the name "Dabdouba Al-Tekhina" was called for any plump child, and "Abu Arbaa Oyoun" for children who wear glasses, and "Balya" for the short person, so do those names that our friends called us and stuck to us from a young age because of something in our external appearance have an impact on our self-esteem and self-confidence?
In a research paper published in the "Child Research Net" website, entitled "The Social Effects of Nicknames" or "The Social Impact of Nicknames"(8), researchers found that nicknames or nicknames given to a child by his peers played an important role in shaping his mental image of himself negatively or positively, stressing that children who are called negative nicknames lose confidence in themselves from a young age, especially if the nickname concerns skin color or Body size.
Our names and life choices
Studies show that names play a significant role in shaping their owners' attitudes, choices, and life preferences. (Shutterstock)
Well, obviously, the name is far from just a "word" that distinguishes us from others, but it is something that shapes our identity and self-image of ourselves, and it also plays an important role in how others perceive us, but there is another area where the name intervenes in our lives unknowingly and unconsciously, which is determining our choices in life.
Recently, researchers (9) in sociology and psychology found that people's names have a role in their choices regarding who to marry, where they live, and the profession they dream of, and there is even a comparative study conducted in America and Belgium that showed that a person's name may affect his political choices.
In a 2011 study published in the journal Psychological Science, titled "Can Your Name Influence Your Choices?" (9) The researchers confirmed that the letters of each person's name play a role, unconsciously, in determining their career choices, where they live and whose life partner, and the study called this phenomenon "implicit egotism" or "implicit selfishness", which means the unconscious tendency of people to prefer things that resemble themselves. (9)
Of course, it is not limited to the name, and it may not even be the most important factor, but previous studies and others indicate that names play a significant role in shaping the orientations, choices and life preferences of their owners (9), so psychologists and sociologists are always advised to think carefully about choosing a child's name, not to be complex, rare or strange to his peers, but to be a good companion for his journey in life, and not an obstacle in the way of achieving his dreams or self-confidence.
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