A Cognitive Socio-linguistic Study of Choosing Names for Children in (1985-2015); A Case Study: Kalatarzan Region of Sanandaj, Kurdistan

The purpose of this study was to investigate the naming trends during recent three decades in Kalatarzan of Sanandaj, Iran. Name is a cultural and social phenomenon rooted in the beliefs of the individuals within the community. Thus, the process of children's naming can represent the process of social and cultural changes in the social system. Due to multidimensional aspect of naming, the present research was carried out adopting a cognitive-sociolinguistic approach because neither social nor cognitive linguistics can tackle exploring various aspects of naming. The research method is descriptive-analytical. In order to complete the task, 8325 boys and girls names were collected. The names were analyzed in terms of gender, differences in Sorani and Hewrami varieties of Kurdish, as well as the extent to which nature-inspired names have been used. The result demonstrated that national identity group had the highest frequency (2628 names), followed by ethnic names (2440 names) and religious ones (2353 names) as second and third names with highest frequency. The result of the study indicated that names with national and religious identity had a decreasing trend and names with ethnic and international identity had increased.