Vol. 31 No. 4 (1983)
Research Article

Symbolic Interactionist Sociology and Onomastics

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  • Donna K. Darden
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1179/nam.1983.31.4.288

Published 1983-12-01

Copyright (c) 1983 Maney

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

Abstract

This study demonstrates that personal names present an excellent opportunity for symbolic interaction sociologists to engage in research devoted to determining the nature and structure of their key variable, meaning. Using the technique of multidimensional scaling, ten men's names are mapped in 3- and 4 dimensional space. The four dimensions are identified as Character, Maturity, Sociability and Virility. The three dimensions are identified as Activity, Evaluation and Potency combined with Age. Both solutions are acceptable using standard criteria. Nicknames are shown to be a composite of the other dimen.sions, rather than a separate dimension.

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