The impact of deadnaming
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10344235 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Emma Lane (0000-0002-7915-6862, University of California, Berkeley, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Publication date | 2025-08-04 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Philosophical Quarterly (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0031-8094 • E-ISSN: 1467-9213 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1093/pq/pqaf060 |
| OpenAlex | W4412886591 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 22 |
To deadname is to call a trans person by a name they have rejected. Deadnaming has a visceral impact. Why? This paper canvasses several possible answers. While deadnaming may sometimes evoke painful memories or communicate that the speaker is transphobic, I suggest that deadnaming is hurtful for fundamentally prohibitionist reasons. When a deadname is used, it violates a prohibition that has been enacted by a trans person’s exercise of linguistic authority; violating this prohibition is impactful. I sketch how this explanation of impact can be readily extended to provide a rights-based account of the normative dimensions of deadnaming, too
Feminist Epistemology and Gender Studies · Hate Speech and Cyberbullying Detection · Philosophy · Political Philosophy and Ethics
Inflammatory Language
Slurring Perspectives
Illocutionary harm
The semantics of deadnames
Meaning without content
Uptake and refusal
Chosen Name Use Is Linked to Reduced Depressive Symptoms, Suicidal Ideation, and Suicidal Behavior Among Transgender Youth
Misgendering and Its Moral Contestability
Slurs as ballistic speech
Names Are Predicates
Sociolinguistic Variation, Speech Acts, and Discursive Injustice
Slurs and register
Whose Uptake Matters? Sexual Refusal and the Ethics of Uptake
Retitling, Cultural Appropriation, and Aboriginal Title
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |