Sociocultural inscriptions in a personal name: A case study of name-giving in Latvia

Abstract

The study of name-giving practices is of particular interest not only because of the sociocultural inscriptions but also of a broader idea of on-going processes within a concrete society; names can serve as its barometer.The Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia has provided an overview of hundred most popular personal names in Latvia in the past hundred years.Merging data from this tool, indepths interviews and findings of Latvian onomasticians, I investigate the namegiving process in contemporary Latvia.What aspects does the name-giving involve and how does the personal experience influence it?In which sense one can talk about preferences, choices, traditions and transmissions?It is not the popularity or unpopularity of a name but a sense of certain freedom of choice that unites the name-givers in contemporary Latvia, their motivation always being an intersection of local social and cultural realms, such as the name day calendar.

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