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A Substitute Name System in the Scottish Highlands 1
Author(s) -
DORIAN NANCY C.
Publication year - 1970
Publication title -
american anthropologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1548-1433
pISSN - 0002-7294
DOI - 10.1525/aa.1970.72.2.02a00050
Subject(s) - offensive , entertainment , sociolinguistics , celtic languages , value (mathematics) , population , linguistics , history , genealogy , toponymy , proper noun , sociology , law , demography , political science , archaeology , philosophy , computer science , mathematics , machine learning , operations research
The high incidence of identical names among Gaelic speakers in East Sutherland leads to the use of “by‐names” almost to the exclusion of official names. Several varieties of by‐names are highly offensive. Appropriate use of the offensive varieties demands an intimate knowledge of the communities' social structure available only to their members; by‐name misuse is consequently a source of social tension between Gaelic speakers and English speakers in the area. Nonetheless the practice of by‐naming has spread to the English‐speaking population, where the entertainment value of by‐names takes precedence over their utilitarian value in distinguishing individuals bearing the same name. [Scotland; Gaelic, Celtic, names, sociolinguistics.]