Vol. 62 No. 3 (2014)
Research Article

Changing One’s First Name in France: A Fountain of Youth?

PDF
  • Baptiste Coulmont
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1179/0027773814Z.00000000080

Published 2014-09-01

Keywords

  • nicknames,
  • prison,
  • inmates,
  • criminals,
  • monikers,
  • underworld culture
    • ...More
    Less

Copyright (c) 2014 Maney Publishing

Creative Commons License

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

Abstract

Abstract

A change of name is a change of identity. Many studies have focused on changes in ethnic identity, because those who change their name are often descendants of migrants or migrants themselves. This article focuses on first name changes in France. It shows that those who change their first name are indeed overwhelmingly the descendants of migrants, but that their identity change is multidimensional. Changing one’s first name is also a way to get a younger first name.

PDF

References

  1. Arai, Mahmood and Peter Skogman Thoursie. 2009. “Renouncing Personal Names: An Empirical Examination of Surname Change and Earnings.” Journal of Labor Economics 27(1): 127–147.
  2. Besnard, Philippe and Guy Desplanques. 1999. “Les catégories socioprofessionnelles à l’épreuve de la stratification temporelle des goûts.” Revue Française de Sociologie 40(1): 97–109.
  3. Besnard, Philippe and Cyril Grange. 1993. “La fin de la diffusion verticale des goûts? (Prénoms de l’élite et du vulgum).”L’Année Sociologique 43: 269–294.
  4. Bozon, Michel.1987. “Histoire et sociologie d’un bien symbolique, le prénom.” Population 42(1): 83–98.
  5. Bromberger, Christian.1982. “Pour une analyse anthropologique des noms de personnes.”Langages 66: 103–124.
  6. Broom, Leonard, Beem Helen P., and Harris Virginia.1955 “Characteristics of 1,107 Petitioners for Change of Name.” American Sociological Review 20(1): 33–39.
  7. Bursell, Moa.2012. “Name Change and Destigmatization Among Middle Eastern Immigrants in Sweden.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 35(3): 471–487.
  8. Coulmont, Baptiste.2011. Sociologie des prénoms. Paris: La Découverte.
  9. Courduriès, Jérôme.2008. “«?Re-naître?» à l’autre sexe. Le changement de prénom des transsexuels à l’état-civil.” États civils en questions. Papiers, identités, sentiment de soi. Ed. Agnès Fine. Paris: Editions du CTHS,225–242.
  10. De Klerk, Vivian and Irene Lagonikos. 2004. “First Name Changes in South Africa: The Swing of the Pendulum.”International Journal for the Sociology of Language 170: 59–80.
  11. Desplanques, Guy.1986. “Les enfants de Michel et Martine Dupont s’appellent Nicolas et Céline.”Économie et Statistique 184: 63–83.
  12. Drury, Darrel W. and John D. McCarthy. 1980. “The Social Psychology of Name Change: Reflections on a Serendipitous Discovery.” Social Psychology Quarterly 43(3): 310–320.
  13. Duthie, Laurie.2007. “Western Names for Chinese Identities: The Acquisition and Use of Western Personal Names Among Chinese Business Professionals in Foreign-Invested Corporations.” Asian Anthropology 6(1): 53–80.
  14. Goffman, Erving.1975. Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.
  15. Heymann, Laura A.2011. “Naming, Identity, and Trademark Law.”Indiana Law Journal 86: 381–445.
  16. Heymann, Laura A.2012. “A Name I Call Myself: Creativity and Naming.” UC Irvine Law Review 2(2): 585–625.
  17. Jacob, James E. and Pierre L. Horn. 1998. “Comment Vous Appelez-vous?: Why the French Change Their Names.” Names 46(1): 3–28.
  18. Kang, Tai S.1971. “Name Change and Acculturation: Chinese Students on an American Campus.” The Pacific Sociological Review 14(4): 403–412.
  19. Khosravi, Shahram.2012. “White Masks/Muslim Names: Immigrants and Name-changing in Sweden.” Race & Class 53(3): 65–80.
  20. Lapierre, Nicole.1993. “La francisation des noms.” Ethnologie Française 23(2): 207–214.
  21. Lapierre, Nicole.2006. Changer de nom. [1st ed. 1995]. Paris: Gallimard.
  22. Lapierre, Nicole.2012. “Fortunes et infortunes de la nomination.”La Lettre de l’enfance et de l’adolescence 87: 51–58.
  23. Lévi-Strauss, Claude.1966. The Savage Mind. The Nature of Human Society Series. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
  24. Lieberson, Stanley.2000. A Matter of Taste. How Names, Fashions, and Culture Change. New Haven: Yale University Press.
  25. Lieberson, Stanley, Dumais Susan, and Baumann Shyon.2000 “The Instability of Androgynous Names: The Symbolic Maintenance of Gender Boundaries.” The American Journal of Sociology 105(5): 1249–1287.
  26. Maass, Ernest.1958. “Integration and Name-changing Among Jewish Refugees from Central Europe in the United States.” Names 6(3): 129–171.
  27. Masure, François.2008. “Des noms français? Naturalisation et changement de nom.” États civils en questions. Papiers, identités, sentiment de soi. Ed. Agnès Fine. Paris: Éditions du CTHS,245–273.
  28. Nagata, Mary Louise.1999. “Why Did You Change Your Name? Name Changing Patterns and the Life Course in Early Modern Japan.” The History of the Family 4(3): 315–338.
  29. Scherr, Arthur.1986. “Change-of-Name Petitions of the New York Courts?: An Untapped Source in Historical Onomastics.” Names 34(3): 284–302.
  30. Shear Kushner, Julia.2009. “The Right to Control One’s Name.”UCLA Law Review 57: 313–364.
  31. Strauss, Anselm.1959. Mirrors and Masks: The Search for Identity. Glencoe: Free Press.
  32. Willingham-McLain, Laurel.1997. “Arrosoir, Oui, Manhattan, Non: Naming and the Law in France.” Names 45(3): 185–202.