Subscribe to our newsletter. When thinking about naming baby, the answer is more complex than it may first seem. Parents consider all sorts of things like whether the potential first name rhymes with the last name, what the initials spell, and if a particular name reminds them of the elementary school bully or a favorite aunt who always smelled of gardenias. However, there's a bit of sociology afoot in baby naming as well. Naming children is an aspect of our collective behavior.
Names come in and out of fashion.
They reflect popular tastes, and they reflect concerns with gender and status. A study by Harvard University's Stanley Lieberson, Susan Dumais, and Shyon Baumann published in the prestigious American Journal of Sociology , sheds light on how each of these factors influence the popularity of giving children androgynous, or gender-neutral, names. Their findings provide an example of sociology that is informative, applicable to our everyday lives, and just plain fun stuff. I'll cover some highlights that demonstrate these points. The article itself, however, provides extensive theoretical discussions not addressed here.