Customer Reviews

The Language of Names: What We Call Ourselves and Why It Matters

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This was a great book to read. It covers more topics than anyone could imagine and many interesting facts were presented. For instance, one neat thing I learned was that people who are named after their fathers are more likely to end up in a mental institution. The book also talks about name-changing in Ellis Island, names of geographical locations, maiden names, and much more. Highly recommended!

What We Call Ourselves and Why It Matters -- this subtitle promises much, but, unfortunately, the authors haven't delivered on it. A better subtitle for The Language of Names would be Dozens of Neat Anecdotes About Names in Thematic Form But Without a Common Thread. There's no premise to this book, just thematic chapters that discuss maiden names, sports team names, etc. That doesn't mean that this isn't an interesting book. At times, The Language of Names is really quite interesting, but this book isn't what the package claims it is.

I recommend this book as a fun exercise in why we name ourselves what we do, not as a serious effort to uncover why it matters.

One other point: the chapter on maiden names attacks at length the tradition of the woman taking the man's name, which is really out of context with the rest of the book. A history of why women take men's names and what the other options are would fascinate. Attacking men and belittling what others choose to do, at least in this context, does not.

A rose by any other name may smell as sweet, but if husband and wife team Justin Kaplan and Anne Bernays are to be believed, the names we call ourselves are anything but irrelevant. Their recent book, "The Language of Names," reiterates and expounds upson everything everyone of importance has ever said about the link between our names for ourselves, our children, our idols, and our cities. And, while much of what the authors have to say makes for diverting reading, the book is by no means the treatise on names that it is packaged to be.