Naming your child

[Brittany]

in chapter 6 it talks about parents naming their babies and how it can effect thier lives if they are or arent given the "right" name. personally, i think that the name a child is given does not predict how thier life will turn out. the factors that affect their life is more likely the enviornment they are raised in and the way that they are raised in general. i think it is merely coincidence that the boy named winner is unsuccessful in life and getting into trouble while the man named loser does everthing right turned out to be very succesful. this would be considered a prime example of nature vs. nurture.

[Jake]

I have to agree with you, Brittany. I feel like the name you are given has no bearing on what your life will be. If you are named Uneeq, then you're probably not being raised in an environment that will give you much success, even if your name was Sarah or Ashley. If you have a parent that gives you a specific name, whether it is "white" or "black", "rich" or "poor", it all comes down to the environment that we are raised in and the parents that we have. That, in part with our genetics, are what cause us to be who we are, not the attachment of a specific name.

[Kallie]

Although Winner failed and Loser succeeded, I personally feel as though their names had an ironic effect on them. Couldn't it be possible that someone given the name Winner could feel immense and unbearable pressure to succeed? Or maybe Winner felt as though his name granted him success and, therefore, he didn't have to earn it. In effect, Winner falls through the cracks and accumulates a criminal record. On the other hand, someone born with the name Loser may feel as though he has something to prove to the world. Loser didn't want to live up to his name, so he did everything possible to succeed in life. In this sense, Winner and Loser's names had an effect on who they became. Yet, this is just a theory that I do not believe applies to everyone. In general, I would agree that names have no dictation over our personality. Our names are what we make of them. Like the authors suggest on page 192, motivation is an indicator of success, not one's name. If someone is motivated to succeed, he probably will regardless of his name. However, I am curious to know what my name supposedly says about me.

[Sarah]

Before reading Kallie's post, I was saying aloud how it is stupid that anyone could think that someone’s name has anything to do with his or her success in life. Looking at Kallie’s outlook on Loser and Winner makes so much sense. Now also think about the "what if" side of this. What if your name had everything to do with what you were? This sounds a little ridiculous but it made me think of an episode on Disney Channel of Wizards of Wavery Place (yes I still watch the Disney Channel every once in a while lol). In this episode parents named their children what they wanted them to grow up to be. Therefore, there was a tutor named Tutor a cook named Cook and so on. These children had pressure to be what their parents named them, but there was the odd doctor named Butcher and even a dog walker named President. Although this is obviously not real life I think it had something to do with growing up to be what you wanted to be and not what others might think of you to be. Even though some people did grow up to be what others thought.

[Sarah]

Kallie it probably says that you’re smart and pretty and awesome and... oh, wait you are all that! :P haha

[Yenifer]

I can see that in the situation your child has most of the factor of what your child has to offer in the future, but I still believe that it can also help with all you do. There can be a wealthy child being handed everything and not succeeding. I think it is about drive, what does the word success mean in this case. You can have success in school, in money, if that is what you are raised to see as what is important in life, but there are the children were these are good but other things are more important to pursue. I don't think a name really has anything to do with success it is within anyone to push themselves. After a while it is just being lazy.

[Tyler]

I think the name a child is given, like the book says, resembles the environment the child is born into, and although there are exceptions to every point you're name reflects where you've come from, generally. And every name, like many things in our society, carries a stereotype of where it belongs. I think that why we here from people, "He doesn't look like a bob" or whatever the name might be. I don't think that its the fact that the baby doesn't look like the name as much as people don't expect that name within that family.