LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 22:4 April 2022
ISSN 1930-2940

Editors:
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         T. Deivasigamani, Ph.D.
         Pammi Pavan Kumar, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Managing Editor & Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.

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A Sociolinguistic Study of the Implications of Masculine Personal Names
among Urban Communities in Jordan

Dr. Atef Aljbour

Abstract

The present study attempts to investigate personal masculine names throughout three successive generations (grandfathers, fathers, and sons) among an urban community in Jordan. It aims at investigating the sociolinguistic implications of the names and pointing out the factors influencing the process of name-giving among the people of such communities. Analysis of 300 school students’ names of the elementary stage together with their fathers and grandfathers’ names indicated that naming has different social reasons and cultural backgrounds. However, no significant differences in this regard was noticed across the urban generations. The names among these different categories have almost the same implications and backgrounds. They center on either the religious or the societal values dimensions. The most frequent names in each of these generations turned out to have the same motives. The only difference, albeit slight, was the existence of a few foreign names in the sons’ category, and days’ names in the fathers’ category opposed to none in the other categories.

Keywords: Masculine Personal Names, Sociolinguistic Implications, Onomastics, Jordan, Urban Communities.

1. Introduction

Personal names exist in all cultures and human languages and can be a fundamental source of information about the holder. A personal name says Hawana (1977: 2), can reflect the nationality, religion, or race of its bearer. Apart from mirroring the social, cultural, ethnic, and ideological backgrounds of the named person, personal names can call to mind the events and conditions encountered in people's lives and recount stories of historic importance (Ansu-Kyereme, 2000:27).

Onomastics, which is concerned with studying proper nouns, subdivides into two main parts. These are anthroponomy which is concerned with studying personal names, and toponymy which refers to studying place names (Agyekum, 2006; Mutanda, 2016; among others).

The interest in personal naming has been attracting scientists representing varying fields of studies over the years, and it has been the subject of comprehensive inspection in a broad array of languages and cultures. In addition to first names, other types of names have been investigated. Investigating family names, for example, was the subject of many studies (Hussein, 1997; Al-Tahat, 2014, among others). Furthermore, nicknames and the functions they serve, the motivations behind them, their classification, and their effects on the holders have been the subject of extensive investigation (Kolawole, et al., 2009; Garayevaa, et al., 2016, to mention only a few).

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Dr. Atef Aljbour
Language Center
Hashemite University, Zarqa
Jordan
Tel: 962-772-400-199 E-mail: aljbour2005@yahoo.com
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