Title Sociolinguistic tendencies of baby names in English speaking countries /
Translation of Title Sociolingvistinės vaikų vardų tendencijos angliškai kalbančiose šalyse.
Authors Adminienė, Vilija ; Nausėda, Aurimas
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Is Part of Acta humanitarica universitatis Saulensis. 2009, T. 8, p. 329−336.. ISSN 1822-7309
Keywords [eng] Proper names ; Sociolinguistic analysis ; Speech community ; Precedent phenomena ; Allusions ; Baby names ; Newspapers ; Magazines
Abstract [eng] The paper discusses sociolinguistic tendencies of baby names in three English speaking countries: Britain, Canada and the USA. The descriptive method and sociolinguistic analysis were used to describe linguistic aspects related to names of babies in theoretical literature. The reviews of researchers covering proper names in linguistics have been briefly discussed. Ratings of popular boy names provided by state statisticians of Britain, Canada and the USA reveal prevalence of different baby names. This is also related to the comments of linguists David Crystal and Anne D. Mills that conventional names are not very popular in Britain, Canada and the US. The terms “speech community”, “precedent phenomena” related to the use of unusual baby names in the American, Canadian and British newspapers and magazines help to reveal that parents tend to choose names for their babies paying attention to peculiarities of the speech community and associations coming from two types of discourse: 1) famous works of literature, films, songs; 2) descriptive details fixed on the mind of the individuals. Also the new sociolinguistic trend to name babies where their parents conceived baby was noted. In the examples from the mentioned media it could be clearly seen that the process of baby naming is related to cultural influences. The present research could help linguists to analyse complicated naming and semantic motivation process, which is shaped by socio-cultural norms.
Type Journal article
Language English
Publication date 2009