What’s in Our Name? Exploring Meaning and Narrative Identity in Parents’ Naming of Firstborn

This qualitative study explores the name of the firstborn as a linguistic self-representation that expresses the parent’s evolving narrative identity. Twelve first-time parents of one-year-olds underwent personal and joint-couple interviews to explore the act of bestowing a name and the experience of bearing one. We found that parents chose names that echoed self-related wishes and conflicts corresponding to themes of belonging and individuality, ideal self, choice and control. While the child’s name evoked positive connotations, their relationship with their own name was more complex and ambivalent. We propose that the act of naming is an act of self-authorship, in which parents choose names that both establish a similarity between themselves and their child, and embody their unfulfilled wishes.