What’s In A Name?

Names and name calling are far from innocent things. The hoary old chestnut “ Sticks & stone may break my bones ….” may have have idealistic ring to it, but the truth is far removed from the idyll it assumes. We only have to look at the current obsession for political correctness to see how sensitised society has become. Using the ’N’ word is a career terminating mistake. Describe an incline whilst the wrong nationality is on it and again that career terminating warning light starts blinking. So what is going on? It seems fine for one black skinned individual to refer to the other as ’niggah’ but a white one doing the same, that’s racism. And so it goes on. It’s not just restricted to ethnophauliisms.

Take the word ‘Gay’, time was it quite innocently referred to a mood. I even knew a girl called Gay in younger, merrier times. Then it became a slur reference to homosexuals and now it has been reclaimed by the self same group and used in their struggle for social, political and religious acceptance. Does anyone now use the word ‘gay’ in its archaic sense? No. In the same vein, how many boys are called ‘Adolf’ or ‘Hannibal’? The former, a pariah following the Second World War, the latter was quite acceptable ….. until ‘Silence of the Lambs’. A counterexample, names chosen by royalty for their children suddenly leap up the popularity stakes. Is a common child having the same name as a prince or princess is going to make their fortune in later life? I doubt it.

But name calling is subtle and pervasive. It is not just the person designated that is affected. It is the effect on the name caller and surrounding people that is as important. Choose a flattering name and the person goes up in the callers' estimation and those around them. It will most probably have a flattering and positive effect on the recipient too. Choose a derogatory name and the opposite happens. An extreme case; call someone ‘adulterer', a girl in Pakistan perhaps, and within minutes those sticks and stones will materialise, those bones will be broken. Normally the effects are less immediate and dramatic. Names and words have emotional loadings. Emotions influence opinions and vice versa. Both influence behaviours. If the name sticks, immediate meanings and then distant associations sink insidiously into the subconscious. Instanteous emotional responses come first. But, over time opinions form. emotional reactions embed. People typically seek evidence to support opinions; conscious realisation and reinforcement. Finally, we have manifestation in overt behaviours. Reification, that’s what’s in a name.