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In this article, I argue that the emerging field of the sociology of naming should recognize the fundamental importance of bodies in the range of social practices through which individuals come to have, and to be identified by, names. I introduce the concept of 'embodied named identity' to describe the outcome of identificatory practices of naming fundamentally orientated around and rooted in the body. I argue that the concept addresses the neglect of the body within the sociology of names and the neglect of naming within both the sociology of identity and in the sociology of the body. In my elaboration of the value of the concept of embodied named identity for enhancing sociological understanding, I focus on evidence on naming practices in relation to sexed and gendered bodies, racialized and ethnic bodies, bodies, nicknames and characterisation, 'nameless' bodies and 'body-less' names. Pilcher'. Family members, friends, colleagues and acquaintances, and people in organizations and institutions, know and/or identify me, or administratively process me, as 'Jane Pilcher'. My name is used, by myself and others, routinely and repeatedly in my everyday life -in conversations and in written communications in a multitude of contexts.2 My name appears on numerous cultural artefacts that record and authenticate identity in the UK, including my birth certificate, my workplace ID card, my passport and my utility bills.As my own case suggests, the names we have are at the nucleus of our individual identity and of our family affiliation, as well as our social and civil-legal identities (Finch 2008). Yet, despite the fundamental, ubiquitous and ongoing importance of names in everyday life, the sociology of names remains in its infancy. The most significant body of existing sociological work is comprised of studies of names in terms of displaying or constituting family affiliation or identification (for example, in the UK, Almack, 2005;Davies, 2011;Edwards and Caballero, 2008;Finch, 2008;Thwaites, 2013;Wilson, 2009). As Finch (2008 points out, a more fully developed sociology of naming is potentially wide in scope: it is not my intention to detail it here. Rather, my aim in this article is to contribute to the emerging field of the sociology of naming by focusing on a hitherto neglected aspect: the relationship between names, identity and the body. Names, identity and the body: a neglected relationshipThe relationship between names, identities and the body has largely been taken-for-granted by sociologists. For example, early discussions of naming by Althusser (1971) and by Elias (1991) recognised the relationship between naming and identity, but overlooked the body.Althusser briefly discussed surnames in the context of the 'familial ideological configuration ' (1971: 176); he also noted how names are one of the 'practical rituals' of everyday life which routinely allow us to recognise ourselves and others as unique individual subjects (1971: 173). In turn, Elias briefly mentioned names in his essay on 'I-We' ident...

Names, as proper nouns, are clearly important for the identification of individuals in everyday life. In the present article, I argue that forenames and surnames need also to be recognized as “doing” words, important in the categorization of sex at birth and in the ongoing management of gender conduct appropriate to sex category. Using evidence on personal naming practices in the United States and United Kingdom, I examine what happens at crisis points of sexed and gendered naming in the life course (for example, at the birth of babies, at marriage, and during gender-identity transitions). I show how forenames and surnames help in the embodied doing of gender and, likewise, that bodies are key to gendered practices of forenaming and surnaming: we have “gendered embodied named identities.” Whether normative and compliant, pragmatic, or creative and resistant, forenaming and surnaming practices are revealed as core to the production and reproduction of binary sex categories and to gendered identities, difference, hierarchies, and inequalities.

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In this article data are presented on children's appraisal of clothing retailers and brands, and how this interacts with their identity and social contexts. In exploration of some of the meanings and processes surrounding children's consumption of branded or labelled clothing, two case studies of child consumers are profiled: one who actively consumed designer-label clothing, and another for whom it held limited significance. It is argued that children aged 12 and under knowingly and skilfully use their consumer knowledge in the reflexive presentation of their selves, or their own 'me', but that these practices are structured by their place in the social and generational order.

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Consumption practices of children in contemporary Western societies are implicated in the reconstruction of childhood, according to both popular debate and to those academic perspectives stressing the individualisation of identities within the life course of late modern consumer societies. Yet, little is known about the meanings children themselves give to their own consumption. Drawing from an ethnographic study of children aged 6–11 years and their families, the paper presents girls’ constructions of fashion in relation to their own bodies and to those of others. It is shown that although girls may both desire and actually ‘dress up’ in fashionable clothing, they present a range of contingent and contradictory meanings for doing so. For some girls, ‘dressing up’ in certain clothes may be a way of ‘ageing up’ toward feminine adulthood, albeit in restricted contexts and after negotiations between themselves and their parents as to what can be worn and where. Nonetheless, girls in the study also showed anxieties and disapproval of ‘showing the body’ through ‘revealing’ clothing. The article concludes by considering the implication of these findings for debates about gendered childhoods, and intergenerational relations in late modern consumer society.