Intensive Naming: Concerted Cultivation and Flexible Ethnicity among U.S. Middle-Class Mexican-Origin Parents

Abstract Selecting a name for a child represents an important symbolic and cultural decision. As social labels, names serve as identity markers that influence how their bearers are perceived and treated. Sociologists are increasingly taking advantage of the study of names, with most adopting a quantitative approach and analyzing names as outcomes. Less is known about the social meanings surrounding names and motivations behind naming decisions, the examination of which can provide insight into parental aspirations, the reproduction of class, and strategies for ethnoracial integration. Drawing on 72 in-depth interviews with Mexican-origin respondents, I show how middle-class parents leverage first names to meet their goals of creating middle-class, multicultural children. I find respondents practice intensive naming, a strategic pre-birth form of parenting, where parents carefully assess naming options with the goal of maximizing their children’s opportunities vis-à-vis ethnoracial integration and class distinction. Specifically, I show how parents chose names that are ethnically flexible and signal middle-class status to facilitate their successful integration into various ethnoracial contexts. These findings illustrate the unique challenges parents of color face in their intensive parenting efforts and how names are used as cultural tools to position the next generation in desirable class and ethnoracial terms.