Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T23:09:19.624Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Nominal Partisanship: Names as Political Identity Signals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 April 2014

R. Urbatsch
R. Urbatsch*
Affiliation:
Iowa State University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Sending a signal of partisan identity carries greater expressive benefit, but also greater expected cost, for members of the public when they are more exposed to adherents of the other party. To see whether the cost or the benefit dominates in the decision to send partisan signals, this article considers partisan signals sent by names of newborns, particularly girls named “Reagan,” in US state-years from 1976 to 2011. Results indicate that the benefits of expressing identity increase more than do costs in the face of a large out-group: higher proportions of Democrats in a state increase the relationship between Republican populations and the tendency to name daughters “Reagan.”

Type
Features
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 47 , Issue 2 , April 2014 , pp. 463 - 467
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Aceto, Michael. 2002. “Ethnic Personal Names and Multiple Identities in Anglophone Caribbean Speech Communities in Latin America,” Language in Society 31 (4): 577–608.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aura, Saku, and Hess, Gregory D.. 2010. “What’s in a Name?” Economic Inquiry 48 (1): 214–27.Google Scholar
Barry, Herbert III, and Harper, Aylene S.. 2013. “Racial and Gender Differences in Diversity of First Names,” Names: A Journal of Onomastics 58 (1): 47–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Becker, Birgit. 2009. “Immigrants’ Emotional Identification with the Host Society: The Example of Turkish Parents’ Naming Practices in Germany,” Ethnicities 9 (2): 200–25.Google Scholar
Berger, Jonah, Bradlow, Eric T., Braunstein, Alex, and Zhang, Yao. 2012. “From Karen to Katie: Using Baby Names to Understand Cultural Evolution,” Psychological Science 23 (10): 1067–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bloothooft, Gerrit, and Onland, David. 2011. “Socioeconomic Determinants of First Names,” Names: A Journal of Onomastics 59 (1): 25–41.Google Scholar
Christopher, Andrew N. 1996. “The Psychology of Names: An Empirical Reexamination,” Journal of Applied Social Psychology 28 (13): 1173–95.Google Scholar
Disdier, Anne-Célia, Head, Keith, and Mayer, Thierry. 2010. “Exposure to Foreign Media and Changes in Cultural Traits: Evidence from Naming Patterns in France,” Journal of International Economics 80 (2): 226–38.Google Scholar
Edwards, Rosalind, and Caballero, Chamion. 2008. “What’s in a Name? An Exploration of the Significance of Personal Naming of ‘Mixed’ Children for Parents from Different Racial, Ethnic, and Faith Backgrounds,” Sociological Review 56 (1): 39–60.Google Scholar
Fryer, Roland G. Jr. and Levitt, Steven D.. 2004. “The Causes and Consequences of Distinctively Black Names,” Quarterly Journal of Economics 119 (3): 767–805.Google Scholar
Ginsborg, Paul. 2005. The Politics of Everyday Life: Making Choices, Changing Lives. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Goren, Paul, Federico, Christopher M., and Kittilson, Miki Caul. 2009. “Source Cues, Partisan Identities, and Political Value Expression,” American Journal of Political Science 53 (4): 805–20.Google Scholar
Hillman, Arye L. 2010. “Expressive Behavior in Economics and Politics,” European Journal of Political Economy 26 (4): 403–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kalist, David E., and Lee, Daniel Y.. 2009. “First Names and Crime: Does Unpopularity Spell Trouble?” Social Science Quarterly 90 (1): 39–49.Google Scholar
Laham, Simon M., Koval, Peter, and Alter, Adam L.. 2012. “The Name-Pronunciation Effect: Why People Like Mr. Smith More Than Mr. Colquhoun,” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 48 (3): 752–56.Google Scholar
Mateos, Pablo, Longley, Paul A., and O’Sullivan, David. 2011. “Ethnicity and Population Structure in Personal Naming Networks,” PLOS One 6 (9): e22943.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newman, Andy. 2013. “Michael’s Still the Top Name for New York Babies, and There Are Reasons.” New York Times. http://wap.nytimes.com/blogs/cityroom/2013/05/16/michaels-long-reign-continues-in-new-york-and-sophias-tenure-grows/Google Scholar
Oliver, J. Eric, Wood, Thomas, and Bass, Alexandra. 2013. “Liberellas versus Konservatives: Social Status, Ideology, and Birth Names in the United States,” paper presented at the Midwestern Political Science Association Annual Meeting.Google Scholar
Schwartz, David C. 1974. “Toward a More Relevant and Rigorous Political Science,” Journal of Politics 36 (1): 103–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ura, Joseph Daniel, and Ellis, Christopher R.. 2012. “Partisan Moods: Polarization and the Dynamics of Mass Party Preferences,” Journal of Politics 74 (1): 277–91.Google Scholar
Varnum, Michael E. W., and Kitayama, Shinobu. 2011. “What’s in a Name? Popular Names Are Less Common on Frontiers,” Psychological Science 22 (2): 176–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whissell, Cynthia. 2006. “Geographical and Political Predictors of Emotion in the Sounds of Favorite Baby Names,” Perceptual and Motor Skills 102 (1): 105–08.Google Scholar
Wright, Gerald C., McIver, John P., and Erikson, Robert S.. 2007. Aggregated CBS News/New York Times national polls [electronic file]: http://php.indiana.edu/∼wright1/cbs7603_pct.zip.Google Scholar