Sociological Investigation of Factors Influencing the Choice of Baby Names in Ardabil Province

Choosing a name is the first social experience of a human baby, which is done in the institution of the family and based on the set of social and cultural values. So, the current research, which can reflect the cultural atmosphere of Ardabil society, has been studied by a survey method among a sample of 384 people. The analysis of the names based on linguistic origin and identity trend showed that most of the names have Persian roots and are neutral in terms of identity. Families have spent considerable time choosing names and this choice is mostly based on the agreement of the parents. The choice of baby names is highly dependent on gender and to some factors such as cultural capital, watching TV and, to a lesser extent, on parents' education. The fading of differences in different social contexts in the space of name selection and the existence of a kind of convergence in the selection of gender-centered neutral names in a nuclear family structure implies that the cultural atmosphere of the society has been transformed and complicated in order to reduce the effectiveness of the previous determining variables