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Personal names and identity

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Author

Summary, in English

In all societies, personal names are important as a means for recognizing and distinguishing people. The paper, following Claude Lévi-Strauss’ theories on how people systematize the surrounding world through named categories, focuses on how we use names to gain knowledge about who a person “is”. We base our conclusions on culturally shared knowledge about how specific names are related to gender, age, ethnicity, and so on. The paper ends with a discussion on names used in virtual settings, like on-line computer games and web communities, which is an area of great interest for further studies.

Publishing year

2007

Language

English

Pages

35-40

Publication/Series

Nytt Om Namn

Issue

46

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Institutt for lingvistiske og nordiske studium/Namnegransking

Topic

  • Ethnology

Keywords

  • virtual communities
  • culture
  • names
  • categorization
  • identity

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0800-4676