Does that name tell you anything - Reginald Kenneth Dwight? Only specialists will answer affirmatively to such a question. Meanwhile, millions of people around the world know him: the famous British singer Elton John, whose work is well known to Russians
Biographers note that his business especially went uphill precisely after he changed his name at the age of 25, becoming Elton John. However, it is wrong to say that it alone predetermined his brilliant career. Nevertheless, those who believe in the mysterious power of the name over fate, believe: if it did not predetermine, then in any case contributed to it. In life, this happens in a wide variety of situations. Wanting to change their destiny, people abandon their previous name - for example, taking a creative pseudonym, tonsure or church dignity. When a woman gets married, she takes her husband's surname. Or, much less often, the husband chooses his wife's surname. True, sometimes funny things happen. I had a classmate by the name of the Grave Digger. He said that when he gets married, he will take his wife's surname. He married Kascheeva …
The mysterious, inexplicable influence of the name on the fate of a person was noted even in ancient times. At some times, a number of peoples even had a ban on pronouncing a name. This was the case in ancient Egypt, where it was forbidden to mention the pharaohs, and the Japanese were not allowed to name the emperor.
At the beginning of the last century, a small brochure with the intriguing title “The Power of Names. About the influence of the name on the fate of a person. " Its author, bibliographer and writer Sergei Mintslov wrote: "Among the vague riddles that the human mind stumbles upon is the relationship between a moral image and a name." The author did not try to find an explanation, to solve this mystery, but he collected a lot of facts about Russia, taking for research a circle of famous personalities - writers, actors, composers, military men.
Having systematized the accumulated material, Mintslov noted that famous people most often bear the names Nikolai, Alexander, Ivan, Mikhail, Fedor, Lev … At the same time, there are many male names that are very common (such as, for example, Andrei, Stepan, Boris, Yakov, Ippolit, Kuzma, Nikita, Leonid, Maxim, Mark, Roman, Matvey), who are much less likely to help their "masters" to stand in a row of outstanding persons. According to his calculations, the Sergei hardly nominated great people from their midst, but they are more often than others the fathers of such. And in this connection he names Pushkin, Griboyedov, Turgenev, Dargomyzhsky. As for Dmitriev and Vasiliev, there are more doctors and talkers among them. And the Vladimirs are very ambitious and have an exaggerated opinion about their importance. In addition, they are often vindictive and vindictive.
Some people may be upset or offended by his findings. Let's say the author writes: Pauls are mediocre and are promoted only as actors. There are no writers or composers among them. Equally grim is his resume for the name Boris. “Who knows happy Boris? This name
is a symbol of misfortune, hard life and often madness."
Continuing the analysis, Mintslov states that “Praskovya is kind, stupid, quick-tempered. But it differs in fertility. " According to the classification built by the Mints-lovs, Nadezhda is a passive name. There are very few happy hopes. And he concludes: “The name of a person defines his character in advance. Moreover, it depends on the name what position he will take in society, in life - prominent or shadowy. " Perhaps everyone will find examples in their everyday life that refute the postulates of the St. Petersburg scientist. However, he, as if foreseeing this, explained: he is not talking about an absolute one hundred percent binding of a name to the fate of an individual, but about a serious trend revealed on the basis of a large amount of statistical data.
Serious work in this area belongs to the pen of the priest and talented scientist Pavel Florensky, whose name, by the way, refutes the absolute classification of Mintslov. His "Names" is a detailed analysis of how in different eras society treated names. It turns out that it had similar ideas about the magical connection of name, character and fate.
To illustrate, Florensky gives an example from the history of Ancient Rome. In the patrician family, the Claudians bore all sorts of names and nicknames. But the name Lucius was dropped. At the tribal council, it was decided that it was this bad name that was to blame for the fact that two Lucius from the Claudian clan became one a robber, the other a murderer. Turning to Russia, Florensky notes
that in the popular mind the names are divided into groups. “If a priest gives a baptized person the name of a saint, this promises him a happy life. And if the name of the martyr - and life will go to one continuous torment … By name and life, and not a name by life … "All human experience in this regard, he brings into a short and capacious formula:" The name is the subtlest flesh through which the spiritual essence is declared ".
The meaning of the name, as a kind of characteristic of a person, has always been taken into account by writers when choosing names for their characters. Balzac said: "The name should suit the hero, like a gum to a tooth, like a nail to a finger." Victor Hugo, after reading the play by Beaumarchais "The Marriage of Figaro", was delighted with the name Suzanne, which one of the heroines wears. He even burst into a fiery tirade on this occasion: “Suzanne - I like it. See how well that name decays. It has three modifications: Suzanne, Suzette, Suzon. Suzanne is a beauty with a swan neck and bare arms, with the features of a subrette and at the same time a mistress. Delightful creation! Suzette is a pretty minx, a bride in a white headscarf. and naivety full of intelligence and curiosity. Suzon is a kind child. Beautiful cocky face, beautiful naked breasts. She is not afraid of old peoplenot afraid of men, not even afraid of youths."
And, in conclusion, Victor Hugo writes: “Susanna has one lover. Suzette has two lovers. And Suzon has two, or maybe three. In short, Suzanne is three women. When Beaumarchais the poet wants to summon one of these three women depicted in his creation, he uses one of these three names. And depending on whether he summons Suzanne, Suzette or Suzon, a beautiful girl transforms in front of the audience and appears under the color that the poet wants to give. That's what a well-chosen name means!"
And here is an example of names chosen unsuccessfully. Jack London has a story about this: a certain woman calls her sons by the name of her deceased beloved brother Samuel, and all four of them, one by one, are carried away by death.
Many modern scientists agree with the opinion that there is a certain interaction between a person's name and his personality traits. American psychiatrists conducted a study that confirmed that people with funny and strange names are four times more likely than others to be prone to mental complexes.
A person with a name that causes ridicule has been in a state of a kind of defense since childhood, and this forms certain traits of his character. Teachers at school sometimes give underestimated marks to students with some names, and overestimates with others. Girls with attractive names are poorly promoted in the business world, but they can achieve serious success in show business …
Many hypotheses have appeared on this score. According to the Russian scientist Pyotr Zgonnikov, the name is a bundle of social information about its bearer. Knowing only the name, you get an idea of the origin, nationality, possible religion, temperament of the subject. This, in turn, determines approximately the same attitude towards the carriers of this name. And if so, this cannot but form similar character traits in people of the same name.
The sociality of the name was more pronounced in the past, when the names were given according to the calendar, and behind each was the history of the life of the saint with very specific forms of behavior, character traits, and attitude to the surrounding reality.
The same Zgonnikov put forward another hypothesis. He asked the respondents to answer the question with what color they associate different names. It turned out that the majority of Tatyana evokes the idea of red and colors close to it. The name Elena is usually associated with blue and flowers close to it. Meanwhile, it is known from psychology that the color red awakens in a person a feeling of anxiety, danger, and suffering. Blue, on the other hand, evokes a sense of calm and peace. This, according to Zgon-Nikov, is confirmed by everyday observations. Often Tatyanas are domineering, stubborn, sometimes unrestrained natures, they try to resemble men in some way and appropriate their functions. Elena, on the contrary, is the personification of softness and tenderness.
Zgonnikov believes that Tatyana, evoking a feeling of unconscious anxiety with her name, is forced from childhood to feel a wary-negative attitude of those around her, to be constantly in dumb protection, which develops the corresponding type of disposition. Elena, on the other hand, having received a name from her parents that causes people to have an unconscious reaction of calm, grow and form in an environment of a more favorable psychological climate.
The so-called emotional theory, which considers the name as an emotional irritant, is also in circulation. Some names sound soft, affectionate, evoking in those around them a feeling of pleasant, sublime. Others, on the contrary, give rise to unpleasant emotions, forcing them to cringe internally, to get cold. Psychologists call this "the music of names."
Close to emotional and sound theory. The authoritative Russian psychologist Boris Hagir adheres to it. He writes that a name is a set of sounds of different pitch and timbre. Different names mean different sets of sounds, different sound stimuli for the brain. And different stimuli excite different brain structures.
After examining the behavior of more than 20,000 name carriers, Hagir revealed surprising patterns. It turned out, for example, that Sergei, as a rule, are docile, honest, direct people. Nicholas tend to be late, come into conflict with the law. Dmitriy and Igori are more successful in business than Maxims. And the scientist also revealed that if the name contains growling and hissing consonants, which are used mainly in anger, then specific behavioral stereotypes are formed in the human psyche. No matter how you bow down the name Gregory, the growling "r" will not disappear. Hence, they say, Gregories are usually persistent, stubborn, rebellious. But in such names as Lena and Misha, for example, weasel was originally laid.
You can apply in any way to any of the above theories, but the fact remains that there is an undoubted connection between a person's name and his mental characteristics. It follows from this that the choice by parents of a name for their newborn is a reason for serious thought. Especially for fans of pretentious names, then traumatizing their owners. If at one time such “inventors” used Barricades and Electrification, now some football fans have managed to endow their offspring with the name of Guus Hiddink. Imagine how Gus Ivanovich will sound … It would have been better to give the child two names, as it was in Russia in pre-Petrine times. And in Catholic countries even today children are given two or three names. The dissonant is discarded over time. But it's easier to approach this issue responsibly from the very beginning …
Andrey BUROV
"Secret Power" No. 19 2009