Being named or being nameless

On the fundamental questions of proper name giving

Abstract

The existence of the category of proper names is as old as human language, and it can be considered a linguistic and anthropological universal. Names can play several important roles in the life of society, the givers, bearers and users of names. One of these functions is to create and express personal identity.Using names also expresses the naming community’s knowledge about the world, familiarity instead of strangeness, the existence of personal connections. Name giving can be an act of humanising, or expressing ownership over the human environment. Names can be given to anybody and anything who/that can be identified and differentiated as an individual, and is considered important in any way for humans. However, there are more and less typical categories of named entities. Namelessness (or anonymity) can primarily (but not exclusively) also be looked at through these considerations. The questions listed here are illustrated in the paper by a wide range of examples for using and giving (or not giving) proper names, in a way that also portrays humans as homo nominans.