Abstract
First names are identifiers that can be both arbitrary and highly personal and are therefore often interpreted as stemming from individual choice. Yet, we can discern a clear homology between first names and social groups. In this article, we investigate, on the basis of in-depth interviews with 12 couples who are expecting a child, how people draw symbolic class boundaries by selecting and rejecting first names. The interviews reveal how the egalitarian ethos, characteristic of The Netherlands, is contradicting with overt status display, which pushes people to judge others’ class taste in a concealed but consistent way.
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