(translated by B.Bonzom-Gourc)
The young parents want to give to their newborn all the chances. They try to conceive him at the best opportunity, to welcome him under the best material and care conditions, to dress him at best, to feed him as per the appropriate hygienic rules, etc....
They have to choose his name (the one of the father or/and of the mother), to give him a firstname not too much common neither excessively original, without ridiculous eccentricity or deleterious transmission (for instance we admit to avoid giving the same firstname to two young children of the same family, neither the one of a dead older or of a family’s criminal predecessor, suicide person, etc...
Some think also that the etymological characteristics, the historical, artistic or religious incarnations, the phonemic data will act upon on the personality of the child and have to be chosen then with discernment.
Many abuses, unjustified pretentiousness, even false assertions are at the root of various index, using several languages, that make the fortune of their authors instead of being in their honour.
We will find a simplified but discerning critique under the pen of Florent Tournus.
Not that we have to throw out all link between the firstname and the parents’ attitude which has prevailed to its choice. Sometimes, they refer to a member of the family, even to all descendants that use to name themselves from one generation to the other one, as it used to be for the family name. They choose it also according to some religious criteria : sacred names of some prophets in Islam and among Jewishes, Holy name among Christians, various functional names in Africa, designations linked to a wanted destiny or to a positive characteristic, tone more or less “hard”, sonorous or spelling coherence with the family name, etc.
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We can also suspect a link of conformity or of
opposition between the wish of the parents then symbolized and the reaction
of the child who gives his assent or an absolute refusal to it, in an homogeneous
or contradictory way.
The study of the possible links between the structure of the phonemes’pronunciation
and some symbolical characteristics (in term of fusion or in order to set
up frontiers) lead us to consider, in that also, a trend to identify onself
or to rebel against such symbolical characteristics. This is for me of a certain
theoritical interest but there would be some difficulties in setting it as
a strong practical application.
A such application could not reach the impact that it gets – or could
have – at the communication level (for the making of slogans or the
creation of homogeneous brand names as per the aim pursued by the individual
or the advertising firm).
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