PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Babies named for fathers but not mothers reflect US cultural ideologies

2013-11-08
(Press-News.org) Contact information: Lisa M.P. Munoz
spsp.publicaffairs@gmail.com
703-951-3195
Society for Personality and Social Psychology
Babies named for fathers but not mothers reflect US cultural ideologies November 7, 2013 - From Cal Ripkin, Jr., to MLK to Robert Downey, Jr., finding men named after their fathers is easy. Children named after men in the family – with so-called patronyms – are common around the world. But what about matronymns – names for a mother or grandmother? New research shows that matronymns are rare and that family naming trends follow a regional pattern in the United States: People in states with a relatively high emphasis on honor are more likely to use patronyms, especially in the face of a terrorist threat.

"Studying naming trends can be a subtle means of peering into a society's beliefs and values without ever having to ask people to report directly about their beliefs and values," says Ryan Brown of the University of Oklahoma. Brown is not an expert in baby names but rather studies cultural values and trends. He became interested in the connection between names and cultural values when his collaborator, Mauricio Carvallo, was researching names for his new baby girl. They started to wonder whether values associated with honor and reputation affected whether people named their children after men or women in the family.

Social scientists define "cultures of honor" as places where the defense of reputation plays an unusually important role in social life. "For men in a typical honor culture, the kind of reputation that is highly prized is a reputation for toughness and bravery," Ryan says. "For women in a typical honor culture, the most valued reputation is a reputation for loyalty and sexual purity." Two decades of research has shown that people in the Southern and Western regions of the United States tend to embrace honor cultures more than in the North.

To see how those values translate into children's names, Ryan and colleagues designed several studies to look at naming trends. The studies included surveying people about their beliefs and their likelihood of naming their children after men or women in the family and included a novel, indirect method to look at actual U.S. baby name trends. In all the studies, published today in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, they found that people who endorse honor ideology were most likely to use patronyms.

In the study of U.S. name trends, the researchers used Social Security Administration data to identify the 10 most popular boy and girl names in each state in 1960, 1984, and 2008. The idea was to look at 24-year cycles to see how frequently the same names popped up one and two generations later and then to compare it to regional trends of honor beliefs, controlling for a variety of other regional differences and demographics.

"Each state was given a patronym score and a matronym score by tallying how many of the 10 most popular names in one generation showed up again among the most popular names given to the next generation, or in the generation after that," Ryan says. "Higher scores show that baby names were being recycled from one generation to the next, and these scores showed a regional pattern to them similar to the patterns we see with other behaviors connected to honor ideology around the United States."

States in the South and West tended to have higher patronym scores than did states in the North. And those same states ranked higher in indicators of honor ideology – such as execution rates, Army recruitment levels, and suicide rates among White men and women. They also found that after 9/11, the use of patronyms increased in culture-of-honor states. And similarly, people who were asked to think about a fictitious terrorist attack were more likely to say they'd use patronyms if they also strongly endorsed honor ideology.

"The same pattern was not observed, however, when it came to matronyms, which is exactly what we expected," Ryan says. "Matronyms, unlike patronyms, are not any more popular in the South and West compared to the North, and they do not predict any statewide variables to a significant degree."

Indeed, matronyms are very rare in Western culture. "Everyone probably knows a guy who is a 'junior,' given the exact same name as his father, and many know someone who is 'such-and-such the third,' having the same name as both his father and his grandfather," Ryan says. "But when was the last time you met a woman who had the same name as her mother, much less the same first and middle names as her mother, like Sally Anne Jones, Jr.?" Some famous female juniors include former First Lady Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, Jr., Carolina Herrara, Jr. (daughter of the clothing designer), and Rory (aka Lorelai) from the TV show Gilmore Girls.

In the new analysis, Elizabeth was the only female name that showed up frequently across generations as a possible matronym. "Perhaps one of the reasons for this name's greater intergenerational use is that there are so many nicknames based on the name Elizabeth: Liz, Lizzy, Beth, Eliza, Lisa, Betty, etc.," Ryan says. "So, a girl named Elizabeth could be given her mother's name and most people might not even realize it."

Ryan says that this naming trend is one of the most pronounced gender differences we still see in society. "Women who once could only strive to work as nurses, teachers, or librarians can now aspire to be astronauts, brain surgeons, or senators," he says. "But don't expect anyone to give a girl her mother's name."

"The greater use of patronyms in these cultures reflects and transmits the value of masculinity and the male name," Ryan says. "A person's name, after all, is what people call that person, but it also represents that person's reputation – how he or she is known in a community – and all of the respect, status, or infamy that goes along with that reputation."

Ryan hopes that the current work shows how cultural values and events shape important personal decisions, such as naming children. "Our baby naming practices can shed light on what we care about, in a subtle way, and they might also serve as a mechanism for transmitting our cultural values from one generation to the next."

INFORMATION:

The study, "Naming Patterns Reveal Cultural Values: Patronyms, Matronyms, and the US Culture of Honor," Ryan P. Brown, Mauricio Carvallo, Mikiko Imura, was published online on November 7, 2013, and is forthcoming in print in February 2014 in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, a journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP). Most common patronyms*:
Michael
James
William
Robert
Christopher

*From the Social Security Administration database developed for Brown et al., study SPSP promotes scientific research that explores how people think, behave, feel, and interact. The Society is the largest organization of social and personality psychologists in the world. Follow us on Twitter: @SPSPnews

Science stories are bigger in Texas... Get your next big story at the SPSP annual meeting in Austin, TX, Feb. 13-15, 2014! Press registration is now open. http://www.spspmeeting.org

END



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Children born prematurely face up to a 19 times greater risk of retinal detachment later in life

2013-11-08
Children born prematurely face up to a 19 times greater risk of retinal detachment later in life First large population-based study investigating long-term risks supports need for ophthalmologic follow-up of children and adults born before 32 weeks of gestation SAN ...

New method predicts time from Alzheimer's onset to nursing home, death

2013-11-08
New method predicts time from Alzheimer's onset to nursing home, death Draws on information from a single patient visit NEW YORK, NY (Nov. 7, 2013) – A Columbia University Medical Center-led research team has clinically validated a new method ...

NASA satellites see Super-Typhoon Haiyan lashing the Philippines

2013-11-08
NASA satellites see Super-Typhoon Haiyan lashing the Philippines Super-Typhoon Haiyan was lashing the central and southern Philippines on Nov. 7 bringing maximum sustained winds of a Category 5 hurricane. NASA is providing visible, infrared and microwave satellite ...

Mayo Clinic: Less-invasive option as effective as esophagus removal in early esophageal cancer

2013-11-08
Mayo Clinic: Less-invasive option as effective as esophagus removal in early esophageal cancer JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Use of a minimally invasive endoscopic procedure to remove superficial, early stage esophageal cancer is as effective as surgery that takes out and rebuilds ...

Cost-effective method accurately orders DNA sequencing along entire chromosomes

2013-11-08
Cost-effective method accurately orders DNA sequencing along entire chromosomes A major step toward improving the quality of rapid, inexpensive genome assembly A new computational method has been shown to quickly assign, order and orient DNA sequencing information along ...

Unique change in protein structure guides production of RNA from DNA

2013-11-08
Unique change in protein structure guides production of RNA from DNA Gladstone-led study sheds light on critical molecular process SAN FRANCISCO, CA—November 7, 2013—One of biology's most fundamental processes is something called transcription. It is just ...

Anxiety help comes, eventually, via primary care

2013-11-08
Anxiety help comes, eventually, via primary care Racial disparity evident PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — A new study by Brown University psychiatry researchers found that seven in 10 primary care patients with anxiety disorders eventually received potentially ...

Wireless device converts 'lost' energy into electric power

2013-11-08
Wireless device converts 'lost' energy into electric power Metamaterial cells designed by Duke engineers provide electric power as efficiently as solar panels DURHAM, N.C. -- Using inexpensive materials configured and tuned to capture microwave signals, researchers ...

The Tao of pee

2013-11-08
The Tao of pee 2 presentations at the upcoming APS Division of Fluid Dynamics Meeting in Pittsburgh explore the science behind urination WASHINGTON D.C. Nov. 7, 2013 -- Although we don't often think about it, fluid dynamics touches ...

Researchers suggest plan to address hypoxia in Gulf of Mexico

2013-11-08
Researchers suggest plan to address hypoxia in Gulf of Mexico URBANA, Ill. – Despite a 12-year action plan calling for reducing the hypoxia zone in the Gulf of Mexico, little progress has been made, ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

KAIST Develops Retinal Therapy to Restore Lost Vision​

Adipocyte-hepatocyte signaling mechanism uncovered in endoplasmic reticulum stress response

Mammals were adapting from life in the trees to living on the ground before dinosaur-killing asteroid

Low LDL cholesterol levels linked to reduced risk of dementia

Thickening of the eye’s retina associated with greater risk and severity of postoperative delirium in older patients

Almost one in ten people surveyed report having been harmed by the NHS in the last three years

Enhancing light control with complex frequency excitations

New research finds novel drug target for acute myeloid leukemia, bringing hope for cancer patients

New insight into factors associated with a common disease among dogs and humans

Illuminating single atoms for sustainable propylene production

New study finds Rocky Mountain snow contamination

Study examines lactation in critically ill patients

UVA Engineering Dean Jennifer West earns AIMBE’s 2025 Pierre Galletti Award

Doubling down on metasurfaces

New Cedars-Sinai study shows how specialized diet can improve gut disorders

Making moves and hitting the breaks: Owl journeys surprise researchers in western Montana

PKU Scientists simulate the origin and evolution of the North Atlantic Oscillation

ICRAFT breakthrough: Unlocking A20’s dual role in cancer immunotherapy

How VR technology is changing the game for Alzheimer’s disease

A borrowed bacterial gene allowed some marine diatoms to live on a seaweed diet

Balance between two competing nerve proteins deters symptoms of autism in mice

Use of antifungals in agriculture may increase resistance in an infectious yeast

Awareness grows of cancer risk from alcohol consumption, survey finds

The experts that can outsmart optical illusions

Pregnancy may reduce long COVID risk

Scientists uncover novel immune mechanism in wheat tandem kinase

Three University of Virginia Engineering faculty elected as AAAS Fellows

Unintentional drug overdoses take a toll across the U.S. unequally, study finds

A step toward plant-based gelatin

ECMWF unveils groundbreaking ML tool for enhanced fire prediction

[Press-News.org] Babies named for fathers but not mothers reflect US cultural ideologies