A Cross Cultural Comparison of Four Gnerations of American, - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

A Cross Cultural Comparison of Four Gnerations of American, Brazilian, French, and German Male and Female First Names Categorized According to Gender, Decade of Birth, and Geo-Location of Birth Michael Jenkins, Tristan Roney, James Wuehler, Scott Irvine, Beate Kehl, Jessica Hancock, Leslie Koenen, Deryle Lonsdale, Matthew Spackman and Bruce Brown American Name Society – January 7, 2007

Design • The names and corresponding information were acquired through the combination of the following resources: � Four Generation Genealogy Sheets of 7 Undergraduate Students � Four Generation Genealogy Sheets of several native Germans � The website familysearch.org � Families and Friends

Design • A reduced list of non-redundant first names for both male and female names were produced with approximately 50 names per gender for each nation. • Respondents rated each of these names on a set of seven adjective pairs: � Informal/formal � Old-fashioned/modern � Unfamiliar/familiar � Unusual/popular � Undistinguished/distinguished � Unattractive/attractive

Design • Our previous intent was to determine the rater accuracy of identification of gender, location, and decade of birth. • Our current intent is to find out how the subjective properties of given names are compared according to the gender, birth geo-location, and birth decade associated with each name for the four national groups (USA, Brazil, France, and Germany)

Scatter plot for the Correlation Scatter plot for the Correlation between Actual Decade and Judged between Actual Decade and Judged Decade Decade on the 45 Most Common American Women’s Names on the 45 Most Common American Women’s Names 16.00 r = .689 14.00 12.00 r 2 = .475 .475 10.00 8.00 Half Signal 6.00 and 4.00 Half Noise 2.00 .00 .00 2.00 4.00 6.00 8.00 10.00 12.00 14.00 16.00

Scatter plot for the Correlation between Actual Decade and Scatter plot for the Correlation between Actual Decade and Judged Decade Judged Decade on the 48 Most Common Women’s Names on the 48 Most Common Women’s Names 16.00 r = .515 14.00 12.00 r 2 = .265 .265 10.00 8.00 One Fourth Signal and 6.00 Three Fourths Noise 4.00 2.00 .00 .00 2.00 4.00 6.00 8.00 10.00 12.00 14.00 16.00

Lens Model Analysis of Adequacy of Adjective Ratings of Lens Model Analysis of Adequacy of Adjective Ratings of Names in Accounting for Decade Identification Accuracy Names in Accounting for Decade Identification Accuracy .800 .700 .600 .500 .400 .300 .200 .100 .000 r for male mediated unexplained r for female mediated unexplained Male Lens Model Stats Female Lens Model Stats

distinguished formal complex attractive popular familiar modern

Elinor Emma Edith Florence Eva Elva Edna Emily Elpha Ella Elsie Flossie

Results • Gender comparisons for combined American data. American male names on the whole are rated above the midpoint of the scale (4.00) on 7.000 formal and distinguished, with Female names lower on these. Both male and female 6.000 names are above the midpoint on familiar. 5.000 Female 4.000 Male Complex Formal Distinguished Attractive Popular Familiar Modern 3.000 2.000 1.000

Results • Gender comparisons for combined German data. German names, both male and female, are seen (by Germans) as more complex and formal than 7 American names (by Americans). 6 American names are seen as more familiar. 5 4 Male Female 3 2 1 0 Formal Popular Modern Complex Distinguished Attractive Familiar

Results • Decade comparisons for American female data. At the top right, the dark blue profile is 1820, the tan one is 1970, and the teal profile that is high on both left and right is 1990. At the bottom right, the sky blue profile is 1850 and the medium blue one is 1890. 7.000 1820 6.000 1990 1970 5.000 4.000 3.000 1890 1850 2.000 1.000 0.000 Complex Formal Distinguished Attractive Popular Familiar Modern

Results • Decade comparisons for American male data. At the top right, the medium blue profile is 1990, the tan one is 1970, and the dotted profile below them is 1820. At the bottom right, the sky blue profile is 1910 and the yellow one is 1930. 7.000 1990 6.000 1970 1820 5.000 4.000 1930 3.000 1910 2.000 1.000 0.000 Complex Formal Distinguished Attractive Popular Familiar Modern

Results • Decade comparisons for combined German data. At the top right, the pink profile is 1800, the turquoise one is 1960. Similar to the American data, both recent names and also early 19 th century ones are seen as popular, familiar, and modern. German names from 1980 are low on complex, formal, and distinguished. d1790 7.0000 d1800 d1810 6.0000 d1820 5.0000 d1830 d1840 1800 4.0000 1960 d1850 d1860 3.0000 1980 d1870 2.0000 d1880 1870 d1890 1.0000 d1900 .0000 d1910 l r n x d e r d1920 a a e a r e v m e l i l i u h l p t i d r c s p m m o o a i o F u a M d1930 r o P g t F C t n A i t s d1940 i D d1950

Results • Location comparisons for combined American data. 7.00 pacific coast 6.00 “other” northwest 5.00 4.00 northeast 3.00 At the top right, the blue profile is the pacific coast and the maroon profile is the northwest. 2.00 The upper left teal colored profile is “other,” and the purple profile at the bottom left is the northeast. 1.00 0.00 Complex Formal Distinguished Attractive Popular Familiar Modern

Results • Location comparisons for combined German data. Names from Bavaria (Bayern), Hamburg, and Meckl-Schwerin are rated as relatively high on the attractive/popular/familiar adjectives. Names from Westfale have a somewhat lower profile across all seven adjectives. BadenW 7.0000 Bayern 6.0000 Brandenb Bremervo 5.0000 Meckl-Schwerin Hamburg Bayern Hamburg 4.0000 Hessen MecklSch 3.0000 Neidersa 2.0000 NordrWes Westfale Potsdam 1.0000 Rhinelan .0000 Schleswi l r n x d e r a a a e v r e m e l i l i u h l Westfale p t i d c r p m s m o o a i o F u a M o r P g t F C t Other n A i t s i D Foreign

Discussion • Names are often cyclic � Names of grandparents are often come back into popularity. � In the 1980s it seems that there was in Germany, an increase in “modern,” often foreign, names. � Knowledge of how names cycle through the generations and the relative location of names in the semantic spaces of persons born in different decades may help in understanding comparative naming practices in various nations.