The Sociolinguistics of Urban Personal Names in Jordan and Naming Differences between Urban and Bedouin Communities

Abstract

This study is a sociolinguistic analysis of feminine personal names over three generations (grandmothers, mothers, and daughters) in an urban community in Jordan. It aims at pointing out the sociolinguistics of the names and differences in naming over time. Based on the findings of a previous work by the researchers, this study also aims at revealing the differences, if any, in naming conventions between Bedouin tribes and urban communities. For this reason, the researchers carried out an in-depth analysis of 300 students’ names in Amman, the capital alongside their mothers and grandmothers’ names. Findings indicated that though the majority of the urban names among the three categories differed in form and sound, their implications were roughly similar. While transparent discrepancies across the two communities are reported at the level of the elderly age (grandmothers) and middle-aged (mothers) categories, striking similarities were noticed at the level of the children’s categories (daughters).