Personal Names: Materials and Methods

Abstract

This issue of Names is concerned exclusively with the study of personal names. I shall not refuse to perform an anatomy on the very body of articles I l;>ringbefore readers. Before doing so, I must confess two things. One, I had to exorcise my whimsicality which sorely tempted me to entitle this introduction Chaucer, the Celts, the Choctaws, and Callie Mae. A cool rationalist at heart, I reje,cted these pulsating consonants for the staid, but nonetheless lucid, title at the top of this page. Two, the contributors must be absolved from any charges of collusion for writing about names in the South. Neither they nor I were involved in sub rosa activities to capitalize on onomastics in Dixie. Each contributor wrote suo nomine and sui juris. These admissions behind me, I shall now explore some of the common themes and shared concerns of this issue. Each essay sheds light on the richness and variety 'of personal names. Although there is much appreciation of individual names, the emphasis is on what names tell us about a culture. Names reflect the distinctiveness of a culture just as accurately as fingerprints do for an individual. The contributors have excavated the written artifacts of a culture census materials, commencement announcements, lists of family names, literary texts, tribal newspapers, and obituaries to interpret its evolution and values. Ovid Vickers explores the totems and taboos behind Choctaw names; viewing names from a sweeping historical perspective, he documents the enculturation of this noble tribe. Grady MeWhiney and Forrest McDonald use name analysis to understand the settlement history of the Old South, observing that' 'the further south and west from Philadelphia the more Celtic the population. As in name so in custom is their thesis. Studying the names of the quick and the dead of the New South, John Algeo and Adele Algeo record how shifts in taste and temperament are accompanied by changes in names. Their work reveals how deep mores about traditions, family, politics, and even gender surface in the selection of a name. Emerson Brown, Jr. focuses on the vital role names play in the art of a culture. When Chaucer employs the name January, he expects imagination, learning, playfulness, and even some sense of morality from his audience.