what's in a name
Last night I met a little girl named Lauren. I'm not sure how old she is, 8 maybe. And to me she looks and acts like a "Lauren". I've known several girls named Lauren in my lifetime and all of them have shared a very particular "Lauren" vibe. This girl, even before I knew her name, made me think of a girl named Lauren I knew from Tallahassee. Is she the same person she would have been had she not been named Lauren?
My question is... how much of who we become has to do with the social norms associated with names. Would I have turned into a slightly different person had my parents decided to actually call me Katherine my whole life instead of Katie? Would it have effected my interactions, my courage, my friendships? Are there certain connotations connected with the name "Katie" that have influenced my development? What if I had been called by middle name my whole life. What sort of person would I be as a "Denise"?
Names are powerful. It's the single word we hear directed at us most often. When the name doesn't fit, we can change it and ask our friends to call us something else, a chosen name. Something that "fits" us when the cultural implications of the "given" name are not aligned with our person. We often have more than one name for different social circles and situations. We create nicknames for others in order to have names that are situationally fitting.
Is the culmination of a name's meaning purely based on our own individual experiences where all factors are quickly synthesized into a bundle of meaning? Is there inherent meaning in the name itself, perhaps carried over from the origin of the name? Can we transcend these meanings in our development or are there just too many variables? If we called a rose by any other name would it still smell as sweet? Or is part of the sweetness in the name "rose"?
Thoughts?
My question is... how much of who we become has to do with the social norms associated with names. Would I have turned into a slightly different person had my parents decided to actually call me Katherine my whole life instead of Katie? Would it have effected my interactions, my courage, my friendships? Are there certain connotations connected with the name "Katie" that have influenced my development? What if I had been called by middle name my whole life. What sort of person would I be as a "Denise"?
Names are powerful. It's the single word we hear directed at us most often. When the name doesn't fit, we can change it and ask our friends to call us something else, a chosen name. Something that "fits" us when the cultural implications of the "given" name are not aligned with our person. We often have more than one name for different social circles and situations. We create nicknames for others in order to have names that are situationally fitting.
Is the culmination of a name's meaning purely based on our own individual experiences where all factors are quickly synthesized into a bundle of meaning? Is there inherent meaning in the name itself, perhaps carried over from the origin of the name? Can we transcend these meanings in our development or are there just too many variables? If we called a rose by any other name would it still smell as sweet? Or is part of the sweetness in the name "rose"?
Thoughts?