The Means of Naming. A Social and Cultural History of Personal Naming in Western Europe.(Review)

In The Means of Naming. A Social and Cultural History of Personal Naming in Western Europe (London: UCL P., 1998; pp. xiii+402. Pb. 13.95 [pounds sterling]), Stephen Wilson sets himself the ambitious task of providing an anthropological account of the history of naming systems in Britain, France and Italy from the Roman period onward. Because he believes that modern British naming is strongly influenced by customs in the USA, he also devotes a section to American naming since the foundation of the colonies. The book is a pioneering work that has demanded of its author an enormous amount of labour in synthesizing the conclusions of existing regional studies and in producing new …