Naming Differences in Divided Germany

Abstract

Eastern bloc versus Western bloc -shaped people's lives and eventually their name choices as well. The results of this complex relationship are addressed here with the following questions: to what extent can different naming patterns and name preferences be observed in the two parts of divided Germany, regardless of their common language and cultural heritage? Can differences in taste be identified, and how did these differences develop over time? These questions are answered here using the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP). The SOEP offers the rare opportunity of examining patterns of occurrence of first names among a representative sample of 56,000 individuals born since 1900. Moreover, this study includes a wide range of variables revealing the social and economic backgrounds of the "name givers": the parents.

The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) in the Nineties: An Example of Incremental Innovations in an Ongoing Longitudinal Study

“…17 As pleased as the SOEP group was with its success in solving the problem of "coverage of the population of the GDR," the SOEP group was still dissatisfied with the immigration issue, which was repeatedly addressed within the framework of this Advisory Board meeting. According to the minutes, the Chairman of the Advisory Board, Hartmut Esser, considered maintaining the representativeness of the 16 Recent publications based on subsample C are e. g. Nicola Fuchs-Schündeln (2008), Easterlin and Plagnol (1998), and Huschka et al (2009). 17 The fact that this high response rate was achieved was certainly due to the enormous motivation of the interviewer pool and also because the private households resident there were not yet "over-researched and tired of being interviewed" as a result of market research and other survey institutes.…”

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“…However, pronounced political and social differences emerged between East and West Germany, particularly from 1949 to 1989. In 1949 two German States were founded: the FRG and the GDR (Huschka, Gerhards and Wagner, 2009). Political and societal differences between East and West Germany became particularly prominent from the early 1960s with the erection of the Berlin Wall.…”

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“…• "Naming Differences in Divided Germany" by Denis Huschka, Jürgen Gerhards, and Gert G. Wagner (2009) In addition to the above award-winning articles, the following noteworthy articles are available for free download:…”