Culture, Identities, and Gendered Power: Mexican American and Mexican Immigrant Baby Naming Practices

• In Event: 247 - Regular Session. Negotiating Gender Norms

Abstract

The names parents choose for their children matter. Names are labels that shape how individuals are treated and can influence the development of personal identities. In the nascent yet growing sociological literature on naming, scholars focus on names themselves as cultural outcomes, symbolizing either parents’ desire to follow fashion or, for ethnics, their degree of acculturation. In this work, the naming outcome itself encapsulates the role of culture in naming. In this article we argue that sociologists should also leverage the study of baby names to better understand how baby naming practices affect processes of social inequality, specifically those related to gender and race. In doing so, we shift the focus from the naming outcome to the naming process, highlighting the role of gendered power in this process. We discuss the practices, considerations, and understandings involved in creating a pool of possible names, negotiating mothers’ and fathers’ interests and desires, and arriving at a final decision. Our focus on the naming process provides a critical vantage on the mechanisms through which both culture and inequality operate in society. Indeed, central to our approach is the idea that culture operates as a form of raced and gendered power, and has a more consistent impact on the mechanisms through which the naming process unfolds than on the naming outcome itself. We base our results on 46 interviews with Mexican and Mexican American parents living in Los Angeles County.

Authors

• Christina Alicia Sue, University of Colorado-Boulder

• Amy C. Wilkins, University of Colorado-Boulder

• Adriana Nunez, University of Colorado