SOCIOBIOLOGY AND THE NAMING OF ADOPTED AND NATURAL CHILDREN

A study of ninety-six adoptive families and one hundred and four nonadoptive families revealed that adopted children were significantly more likely to be named after a parent or relative than natural children were. When natural children were namesakes of relatives, they were more likely to be named after a patrilineal than a matrilineal relative, and boys were more likely to be namesaked than girls; neither was true of adopted children. The results are discussed in light of evolutionary theory, with naming seen as a form of parental input inversely related to the certainty of kinship between parent and child.