Read social psychologists for group badges, historians for files, and novelists for how it feels.
Skip anyone who sells a name as a completed self.
People
- Henri Tajfel 1919–1982 · Poland / UK — Social identity
Showed how quickly labels create in-groups — the mechanism behind name-based sorting.
- Erving Goffman 1922–1982 · Canada / U.S. — Presentation of self
Names are part of the front people manage in everyday interaction.
- Claudia Goldin b. 1946 · United States — Women’s surnames
Measured how family-name choices track labour-market identity.
- Jane Pilcher b. 1964 · United Kingdom — Names and gender
Sociological work on how names accomplish gender identity.
- Jhumpa Lahiri b. 1967 · UK / U.S. — Literary witness
The Namesake remains a precise portrait of stacked migrant identities.
- Sendhil Mullainathan b. 1973 · India / U.S. — Assigned identity
The résumé study is about identity others impose from a name.
Identity is a process. A name is one of its tools.