POPULARITY VS. ASSOCIATION: NAME CONNOTATION

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POPULARITY VS. ASSOCIATIONNAME CONNOTATION

• By Cathy A. Busby

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- INTRODUCTION- SIDE 1 POPULARITY- SIDE 2
ASSOCIATION- METHODOLOGY- POSSIBLE RESULTS-
CONCLUSION
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INTRODUCTION

• Mother-to-be interested in names
• Positive or negative connotation of individual
  names
• Connotation primarily based on popularity OR
• Connotation primarily based on association

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SIDE 1 POPULARITY

• Expectant Mothers
• Baby name books trendy names

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SIDE 1 POPULARITY

• SSA Social Security Administration
• http//www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/
• Any year after 1879
• Stereotyping
• Popular names have a more positive connotation
• Ex. Jessica is seen as a skinny, fun, attractive
  girl

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SIDE 2 ASSOCIATION

• Positive
• Family names
• Friends past and present
• Influential people
• Heroes/Idols

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SIDE 2 ASSOCIATION

• Negative
• Ex-boyfriends or girlfriends
• Rude boss/co-workers
• Bad influences
• Overall connotation based on experience with
  people of that name

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METHODOLOGY

• Survey
• Will be given to 100 people (high-school
  education or higher)
• Twenty male names and twenty female names
• Ten names from each gender will be extremely
  popular names (defined by baby name books and
  SSA)
• Ex. Brandon or Ashley
• The remaining ten names will be older, less
  common names
• Ex. Fred or Agnes
• Subjects will link positive or negative
  adjectives with each name
• They will also specify if they know someone with
  that name
• Analyzing data
• Survey information will be collected and reviewed
• Similar positive/negative adjective connotation
• Personal association

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SURVEY EXAMPLE

• Name HAROLD
• Please check the box if you personally know
  someone with this name.
• Please check the boxes corresponding to the
  adjectives that you would use to describe someone
  with this name.

• Cheerful
• Depressing
• Smart
• Unintelligent
• Good-looking
• Unattractive

• Productive
• Lazy
• Thin
• Overweight
• Social
• Withdrawn

• Groomed
• Unkempt
• Graceful
• Clumsy
• Funny
• Humorless

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POSSIBLE RESULTS

• Side I
• The majority of the tested names without a
  personal connection will be associated with the
  same/similar adjectives for each specific name,
  and will derive an overall positive or negative
  connotation for the individual names based on
  popularity
• Side 2
• The majority of the tested names that people have
  a personal connection to will have varying and
  different adjectives (skewed results) that
  correspond to the name, indicating that
  connotation is based on association
• The side that has a greater percentage of results
  (51) will be deemed to influence name
  connotation the most

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CONCLUSION

• The survey will help to show whether name
  connotation is based on popularity or association
• Problems
• Results could be based on personal preference
• Not enough participants
• No association with names tested (primarily
  popularity)
• Future work
• Larger sample size
• More specific data analysis