Introduction

Name Identity and Social Control

From the moment we are born, every human is given a name. Reflective of culture, time period, and familial influence, this name acts as a symbolic extension to the outside world, and is a direct connection to self-identity: we respond to our individual names in public spaces, sign legally-binding documents with them, and recall faces when certain names are said. 

Yet at the same time, the power of a name can often be skewed to fit into changing social climates, and channeled into a form of hegemonic domination. When my grandfather immigrated to the United States from Japan, his name was legally changed by the government to ‘Ben’ for ease of assimilation, replacing his birth name of ‘Hitoshi.’ The ability for our society to force new names upon incoming immigrants, or to Anglicize exotic place-names to accommodate Western language, contributes to a long history of subconscious control by a dominant culture. 

This raises important questions: how much of our identity resides in our names, and how intrinsic or arbitrary can names be? Do we use names out of laziness or societal expectation, or is there an indefinable spark of self that a proper name contributes? Similarly, how does reclamation of something as simple as a name empower our self-possession? Using five examples from historical, literary, and popular media, I will examine how names have been used for social control, but can also be reclaimed as a point of personal self-awareness.