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Ashley Brown
Mrs. Lynn Raymond
UWRT 1102
20 January 2015
Writing Prompt #2
When studying names across the globe, there are many differences that can be found. For
instance, in the US, especially in the South, full names are often passed from father to son
throughout many generations. This allows the name to be kept alive so to speak and makes it
to where people and families are remembered for long period of time to come. As far as my
family goes, I honestly cant see a specific pattern for naming through the generations. We live
in the South now, but my family is originally from Germany, which has an entirely different
culture and way of doing things.
There are about 1,000,000 different family names in Germany. These names are given
based on geographical differences, occupations, bodily attributes, or even traits of character.
Most other cultures give names based on previous family members, or things along those lines.
That isnt the case in Germany. Two people can get married and decide to keep their own last
name, rather than one taking the others. This practice is fairly common in the culture, and makes
it harder to keep names in the family. So instead, German people simply give names based on
other things. My name was given to me based on bodily attributes and traits of character. My
mom said that I looked just like one of her friends and acted like her too, so she decided to name
me after her. This falls right into the traditions that most Germans still practice now-a-days in
naming. Although I am immersed in both of these cultures, I can definitely see the German
culture present in my life more than I can the Southern part of my culture.

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