Children’s names and family language policy for multilingual parents in the UK

Abstract

This paper explores the relationship between the names that multilingual parents choose for their children, and the family’s language policy (consisting of their language practices, beliefs and management). Using case studies from interviews with parents in the UK who speak a first language other than English, it discusses the factors behind the name choice, various ways parents make their children’s names “work” in multiple languages, and why some parents give their children monolingual names. Children’s names often reflect their parents’ linguistic beliefs and intentions, but they do not predict how the family’s language policy will later develop.