Naming as social practice

The case of Little Creeper from Diamond Street

Bibliographic Data

ID7901665
AuthorsBetsy Rymes (0000-0002-1911-0432, University of California, Los Angeles, corresponding author)
Year1996
Volume25
Issue2
Pages237-260
Publication date1996-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLanguage in Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0047-4045 • E-ISSN: 1469-8013
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0047404500020625
OpenAlexW2123770637
LanguageEN
Citations received45
References cited24

Proper names have often been discussed by philosophers of language without the benefit of anthropological insights. This article combines research from these two fields in order to move toward a theory of naming as social practice – emphasizing the nature of naming and nicknaming as it is crucially attached to cultural history, social context, and individual experience. To exemplify this notion, the article outlines naming and its various functions as described by and used in the narratives of one young man from the “Diamond Street” gang who goes by the nickname “Little Creeper.” A discussion of outsiders' interpretations of gang names indicates how the meaning of a name can be transformed in different social contexts without losing its association with the initial referent. (Naming practices, proper names, ideology and language, at-risk youth

Context (archaeology) · Epistemology · Ideology · Linguistics · Meaning (existential) · Narrative · Order (exchange) · Political science · Politics · Referent · Sociology · History · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition · Law · Names, Identity, and Discrimination Research · Philosophy

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