Naming Conventions and the Perception of Selfhood:A Cross-cultural Reflection on Women’s Surnames in the Anglosphere vs.the Hispanic Model

The naming convention in English-speaking countries(e.g.,USA and UK),and several others in the Western culture,where women traditionally have adopted their husbands’surnames,is compared with the naming convention in Spain and Latin America,where women do not relinquish their maiden surnames.From a cross-cultural perspective spanning over three centuries,from Madame de Staël and Virginia Woolf to Hillary Clinton,this essay renders instances of women who took on the surname of their spouse upon marriage.It appears that even nowadays many women,including feminists,choose to comply with this patriarchal habit.Entanglements arising upon divorce or remarriage,such as traceability and perception of selfhood,especially for women with academic and professional profiles,are discussed here.Samples collected from life and literature across a fairly representative cultural range and diverse moments in history help to reach conclusions and come up with a consistent argument.Winds of change seem to be blowing with Vice President Kamala Harris,whose case is mentioned at the end of this essay.To circumvent the confusion for individuals and families(especially“blended”ones)that could result in the discrimination between males and females,on the one hand,and on the other hand,between married and unmarried women,the Spanish naming convention is proposed as a perfect compromise.This consists in every person bearing two surnames from birth and for good:one of each parent.Thus,women would keep their name(s),and along with them their perception of their self and their social and professional identity.

An Etymological Study of English Surnames

Surname, as precious cultural heritage, has been playing an important role in human development. Closely related with history, religion, tradition and the like, it draws lasting attention from many scholars and is studied from various angles. However,the study of English surnames in light of etymological is rarely conducted. This thesis regards English surnames as a kind of ordinary words as well as special words. By analysis, the thesis makes an attempt to dig in the origins of English surnames and aims to demonstrate the feasibility of applying lexicology theories into surname analysis and embody their significance in practice.

A Bayesian Mixture Model Approach to Disparity Testing

The topic of this article is one-sided hypothesis testing for disparity, i.e., the mean of one group is larger than that of another when there is uncertainty as to which group a datum is drawn. For each datum, the uncertainty is captured with a given discrete probability distribution over the groups. Such situations arise, for example, in the use of Bayesian imputation methods to assess race and ethnicity disparities with certain insurance, health, and financial data. A widely used method to implement this assessment is the Bayesian Improved Surname Geocoding (BISG) method which assigns a discrete probability over six race/ethnicity groups to an individual given the individual’s surname and address location. Using a Bayesian framework and Markov Chain Monte Carlo sampling from the joint posterior distribution of the group means, the probability of a disparity hypothesis is estimated. Four methods are developed and compared with an illustrative data set. Three of these methods are implemented in an R-code and one method in WinBUGS. These methods are programed for any number of groups between two and six inclusive. All the codes are provided in the appendices.

外国汉语学习者所需的语用信息在何处提供?——以英汉学习词典中的surname词条为例

目前,供外国汉语学习者使用的汉英学习词典数量不多,其中的语用信息比较缺乏,不够系统。因此,为他们编写的学习词典中系统地提供语用信息非常必要。为了提供汉语语用知识,词典的方向性非常重要。从本质上讲,汉英学习词典对于外国汉语学习者而言是理解型的而非产出型的词典。有助于产出的语用信息最好在英汉学习词典中以多种方式提供。文章以surname为例说明了汉语语用信息在英汉学习词典的纵观、中观、微观结构中的呈现方式,并提供了该词条的样例。在英汉学习词典中为外国汉语学习者提供语用信息方面,还有很多问题可以进一步探讨。

A Surname Study in Terre Haute

The history of surname can be traced back to 12th century.People divided surnames into four categories:occupational names,nicknames,names of relationship and local names.This study tries to clarify a small number of surnames in Terre Haute,to describe their meanings and origins,and to discover the variation of the same surname,and discuss the significance of it.We can conclude from the study that local names took the largest account of all surnames in Terre Haute,USA.

Statistical distribution of Chinese names

This paper studies the statistical characteristics of Chinese surnames, first names and full names based on a credible sample. The distribution of Chinese surnames, unlike that in any other countries, shows an exponential pattern in the top part and a power-law pattern in the tail part. The distributions of Chinese first names and full names have the characteristics of a power law with different exponents. Finally, the interrelation of the first name and the surname is demonstrated by using a computer simulation and an exhibition of the name network. Chinese people take the surname into account when they choose a first name for somebody.

Initial Inquiry to English Names

This article is about some rules and sources of English names.