Yet how we define our name and the names of others changes for each person.
As per the egocentrical manner of this blog, when evaluating my own name, Annabelle, we can observe the simple quantity of variety that a name can hold within the characteristics of the person who claims it.
The most famous examples of the name "Annabelle" range from the somber poem, "Annabelle Lee" by Edgar Allen Poe to the modern and rather creepy representation of the name through a possessed doll in movies such as "The Conjuring" and "Annabelle".
Yet I do not view myself as the kind of person who is somber, creepy, or even possessed (or am I?). If I had to, I would describe myself as a dreamer and very fickle.
The sheer inconsistency of the characteristics of names is best explained via a game.
Try playing the 20Q name game with your own name or the name of someone you know well. Did you get their name? Probably not. In fact, chances are the algorithm-based genie was as far from the truth as possible.
But if names are so fickle, why not change the societal nomenclature to be more consistent and representative of the people who posses names.
We could create a system in which names are assigned to people by a common ruling of personality traits instead of the current system of whatever the parents want.
But the question arises, what age should we begin the assignment of names in order to get a good and accurate representation of the person? Perhaps the mark of the transition to adulthood, the start of puberty, would be the ideal time. Yet even with that we are all very familiar with the change that is subject between the start and end of puberty. So some might argue that physical maturity around age 20 would be ideal.
Maybe we need to simplify things a bit and take inspiration from an already existing and ingenious interpersonal nomenclature system, the traditional Native American nomenclature.
Native American (being a very broad term) cultures had a dynamic not present in common day naming. All names were subject and almost expected to change as a person evolved and achieved different things. The name was almost a manner of storytelling, kind of like the summary in the inside cover of almost every work of literature.
If only names were as easy as to change to our own liking, hopes, and ambitions as they once were in pre-colonization America. We could really know more about the people around us and feel like our personal id tags mean a little bit more than just a word given to us as our name. Names would almost become a form of poetry.
Personally, I would take a bit more ambitious approach to my self-assigned name.
You can go ahead and start calling me "Tumblr Famous".
But the question arises, what age should we begin the assignment of names in order to get a good and accurate representation of the person? Perhaps the mark of the transition to adulthood, the start of puberty, would be the ideal time. Yet even with that we are all very familiar with the change that is subject between the start and end of puberty. So some might argue that physical maturity around age 20 would be ideal.
Maybe we need to simplify things a bit and take inspiration from an already existing and ingenious interpersonal nomenclature system, the traditional Native American nomenclature.
Native American (being a very broad term) cultures had a dynamic not present in common day naming. All names were subject and almost expected to change as a person evolved and achieved different things. The name was almost a manner of storytelling, kind of like the summary in the inside cover of almost every work of literature.
If only names were as easy as to change to our own liking, hopes, and ambitions as they once were in pre-colonization America. We could really know more about the people around us and feel like our personal id tags mean a little bit more than just a word given to us as our name. Names would almost become a form of poetry.
Personally, I would take a bit more ambitious approach to my self-assigned name.
You can go ahead and start calling me "Tumblr Famous".
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