Overcoming Functional Fixedness in Naming Traditions: A Commentary on Pilcher’s Names and “Doing Gender”

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2017

Publication Title

Sex Roles

Volume

77

Issue

2018-11-12

First page number:

823

Last page number:

828

Abstract

Because people’s names are central to everyday life, their role in the gender system is often overlooked. In the target article, Pilcher (2017) brings novel attention to the ways in which naming traditions allow individuals to enact gender in their lives. In this commentary, I expand on Pilcher’s argument that naming traditions merit more attention than they currently receive. Specifically, I begin by discussing links between forenaming and the gender binary. I then describe the ways in which the marital surname tradition reflects gendered power dynamics. In an effort to spur additional scholarly attention to naming traditions, I also delineate fruitful areas for future research. These future directions primarily focus on identifying why and how individuals “do gender differently” through their naming practices. © 2017, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.

Language

english

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