TOK Presentation

History (2 min)

From a historical point of view, we can look at names like labels. In the early 1000 England surnames were used to identify ones job upon introduction. In 1066, the Norman barons introduced surnames into England, and the practice gradually spread. More specifically ones surname or last name. If you were a blacksmith your surname would be Smith, Tailor or Taylor for someone who is a Tailor, Mason for a person who works with stones/builds houses, or just plain Fisher for a fisherman. Through classification of these names we can find out what profession someone would partake in, in the 1000s and maybe even to present day. The historical knowledge of ones past can be crucial to their identity. When I was researching my last name I found that Sutton usually referred to the southern farm or property within a kingdom and the people who lived there/owned the land. If it were 1375, the knowledge of my name would cause people to treat me with respect because I would have been wealthy and owned large plots of land.

Intro (1-2 min)

Hi! my name is Emma Sutton and recently I've become obsessed with this tweet that I'm sure we have all seen *share screen* the tweet reads " The Hanks family are a compelling case study for Nominative Determinism. If you call your kid Colin, you're getting a Colin. And if you call your kid Chet, you're getting a Chet. When they reference a Colin, the writer conveys that when they picture a "Colin", they imagine a person who is put together and maybe often wears a suit, just how Colin Hanks is an Actor. She also gives Chet the negative connotation, Chet Hanks is somewhat of an overgrown frat boy. Clearly two very different personalities are represented by them. and I feel that this has something to do with their names.

Conclusion (1 min)

History, Intuition, Language, and RKS's all effect how labels and classification decide the power of a name to a great extent. They each help us learn more about who a person is and how they came to be that person. Nominative determinism is just a theory still, but I firmly believe that our names justify our choices and subconsciously cause us to choose our own paths in life. Thank you all for listening!

Language

In regard to Language labels and classification decide the power of a name by their perception. A name is usually the first thing you learn about a person. I know that when I told my friend that my name was almost Sloan she was disgusted because she knew someone named Sloan who she hated. So she will forever have a negative connotation to that name. Language heavily influences the power of a name. Names are unique (unless your parents are unoriginal), unique names are often remembered easily. I know that growing up speaking English and in America has shown me that many cultural names are discriminated against. Some of my friends go by different "American" names rather that their actual names. I believe that this is because people discriminate against people because of their cultures. Their "American names" can influence them to take different paths because they identify with them rather than their given names. Language also lets us classify people due to their names because of the spelling. The way we say, and spell names is extremely important as well it shows where we came from. Spelling Aedan (A-E-D-A-N) in the traditional Gaelic way gives you a glimpse into who a person is and what kind of background they have. Or spelling Jakob in the traditional Jewish way (J-A-K-O-B) instead of Jacob can show a person's religion and that is definite in deciding a path for someone's life.

Religious Knowledge Systems

In regard to RKS's labels and classification decide the power of a name by other people's perception based on their knowledge of their beliefs. For example if someone ha a biblical name like David or Ezekiel they may be perceived as a good person and having qualities like their biblical counter part. Nominative determinism plays a big role in our subconscious perception regarding Religious Knowledge Systems. We can gain knowledge about a persons beliefs just by their name. For example, the name Jezebel is classified as a biblical name and means "the one who is not noble" a firm christian believer might use that against a woman because of the name her parents gave her. Her name determines a path for herself to take and for other to take. People who aren't Jezebel may try to exclude themselves from her company because of her name. Religious Knowledge Systems help us to find meaning of names, which can decide what people label/classify us as. the names have power because they have a background in a Religious Knowledge System.

Intuition (2 min)

Intuition plays a big role in the power of a name. Referring back to my original RLS, about the doctors and their specialties, people tend to gravitate towards things that remind them of themselves. Its called implicit egotism: humans have an unconscious preference for things, people, numbers, food etc that they associate with themselves. In an article titled "Implicit Egotism: What you need to know" they discuss how people are drawn to similar birthdays as theirs, when I learned about this I was taken aback. Both of my parents are born on the third of months starting with the letter J. I feel that the knowledge of this subconsciously drew them together or at least had some effect upon them. In a YouTube video I watched Psychologist Carl Jeong cited Sigmund Freud as his compelling case of Nominative Determinism. Sigmund Freud studied pleasure and his last name means joy. Our Intuition subconsciously tells us how to make decisions based on out knowledge of the world impacting us. Our names can skew us to different paths in out life that will effects us in all different aspects.

CKQ (30s)

This phenomenon lead me to ask the question, "In regard to History, Intuition, and Language, to what extent do labels and classification decide the power of a name? Im interested in discussing this because I find it to be incredibly interesting.

RLS (2-3 min)

When I read the term Nominative Determinism, my first question was "what even is that" so I googled it. Nominative Determinism is the theory that there is a special link or gravitation to something based on your name.But I wanted to go more in depth on the term this is when I came across a study published by the Limb medical family in 2017. In their study titled Nominative Determinism in Hospital Medicine they found that a medical professional is more likely to choose a specialty or career in accordance with their name. In their study they sorted names on the medical register into hospital specialties and looked for corresponding names like the last name Rash, a dermatologist and Couch, a psychiatrist. They concluded that the frequency of names relevant to medicine and specialties was much greater than expected by chance. This was compelling so of course I had to read more and more about it. Other sources found that this isn't just in the medical world. On the popular UK TV show, Have I Got News For You?, they play a game where people send in their names and occupation and participants have to guess the persons occupation based on their name. For example there was a plumber with the last name Pipe and a tailor with the last name Iron.