Abstract
We analyze gender differences in immigrants’ ethnic boundary making using the example of name giving. We draw on the well-established finding that immigrants are more likely to choose a name that is common in the host country (strategy of boundary crossing) for female than for male descendants. We distinguish between two dimensions that help us to understand the gender gap in naming: the impact of origin-specific factors (institutionalization of gender equality in the country of origin and religious affiliation) and immigrants’ level of integration into the host country. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study on immigrants from 49 countries, we show that both sets of factors have a strong impact on immigrants’ boundary making in naming, as well as on the extent of the difference between daughters and sons: traditional gender role attitudes foster the gender gap in naming, whereas integration into the host country reduces it.
Highlights
People who migrate from one country to another usually face a multitude of changes in their lives, ranging from learning a new language to adapting to new institutional settings, such as the education system, labor market, or politics, to less codified contexts of daily life, such as dress codes, food consumption, or religious practice
We suggest that the strategy of choosing assimilated names for daughters, in order to protect them from ethnic discrimination, as suggested by Sue and Telles (2007, p. 1411), is grounded in gender roles and specific conceptions of femininity: traditionally, masculinity is associated with strength, dominance, and assertiveness, whereas femininity is linked to weakness and vulnerability
Our analyses show that immigrants’ name-giving practices are gendered: girls more often receive names that are common in the host society than boys
Summary
People who migrate from one country to another usually face a multitude of changes in their lives, ranging from learning a new language to adapting to new institutional settings, such as the education system, labor market, or politics, to less codified contexts of daily life, such as dress codes, food consumption, or religious practice. Some studies have identified gender differences in naming (Lieberson 2000; Sue and Telles 2007; Becker 2009): they all find that parents choose boundary crossing significantly more often for their daughters’ first names, whereas they are more likely to stick to boundary maintenance when naming sons. By analyzing naming practices of Mexican immigrants in the USA, he shows that the phonetic features in Mexican and USAmerican names are more similar in girls’ than in boys’ names; girls receive names that are common in the host country more often than boys Following this example, the prescribed gender gap in naming may be a side effect of differences in linguistic similarities between boys’ and girls’ names of the name pools of the host and home countries and may occur regardless of the parents’ genderrelated attitudes. The selection of a first name is an expression of the parents’ preferences, unrestricted by material and institutional constraints, and can be interpreted as a pure expression of the desired degree of boundary crossing or boundary maintenance respectively
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