Language, Names, and Preconceptions

John Sherck had an entry today where he refers to age-related perceptions. In another part of the same entry, he refers to "hot girls", meaning, of course, "sexy girls". Though this phrase had no relation to the subject of age and perceptions in his post, the two topics were immediately related for me.

I've never referred to sexy women as being "hot". I'm guessing this is partially because the word wasn't used much in this fashion when I was a teen, except, perhaps, for the expression "hot to trot", and even that wasn't used all that often. Secondly, and more to the point, I avoid this term because I have negative associations with the word "hot" -- sweating on a sweltering summer day, etc. Whenever I hear of a "hot woman", I think of a stinky woman with sweat rolling off her nose and I want to give her an air conditioner -- I don't associate it with sexiness at all!

This is very similar to how the word "gay" changed meanings over the course of the 20th century. I'm sure that when my parents sang the phrase, "Don we now our gay apparel" in the Christmas carol, "Deck the Halls", they didn't laugh or feel embarrassed about it in the slightest, as "gay" only met "festive" and "happy" back when they were kids.

On a slightly different note, I've always had certain preconceived notions when I hear certain first names. None of this is terribly rational, but yet the associations happen.

When I hear the name "Rebecca" or "Becky", I always think of a fundamentalist farm girl. I know a Becky who is neither of these things, but she agrees with me and understands the assumption perfectly

I've never met a "Ray" that I've ever liked; every one I've ever known has had an Archie Bunker personality. Nearly every "Bob" I've ever met has been an inept bumbler. And though I had a extremely competent Bob as a supervisor on the PD, I can't get the notion out of my head. Its the "What About Bob" syndrome, I'm guessing.

If I meet a woman whose name has a "cute" spelling, such as "Cindee" for "Cindy", "Wendee" or "Wendi" for "Wendy", I automatically think "bubblebrained airhead".

"Josh" and "Noah" sound babyish to me, and I can't imagine a grown man with those names. "Martha" and "Ruth" sound like old lady names. But I'm guessing, I'd rather have a name I'd have to grown into than be saddled with one I'd grown out of. Can you imagine taking a sixty-five year old "Candee" seriously?

Classic names, such as "John", "James", "Paul", "William", "Joseph", "Mary", "Jane", "Anna", etc, all sound solid and reliable to me, as well as fitting their bearers from cradle to grave.

It is relatively easy to guess the ages of people who were given names that were trendy at the time of their births. "Linda" was a popular name in the late 40s and early 50s, so you'll meet a lot of women in their mid to late fifties with that name. My high school class had 18 "Deborahs", 13 "Cynthias", and 10 "Karens", the trendy names of the late 50s. Because the actresses Gloria Swanson and Marie Dressler were popular in the 1920s, there were lots of little girls named Gloria and Marie in that decade, my mother and aunt being among them. This, too, will happen to the horde of "Brittanys", "Kaylas", "Madisons", etc in various stages of childhood now.

Let's hear some of your word and name preconceptions.