Abstract
Subjects with gender-ambiguous names or nicknames (i.e., names that can belong to either males or females) were compared on Bem's androgyny scale to subjects having common or uncommon first names or nicknames to determine if name ambiguity was related to sex-role identification. The results showed that for our sample of college undergraduates (N=489), both males (N=246) and females (N=243) with ambiguous nicknames (e.g., Pat, Tony, Marty) were more often classified as androgynous on the Bem inventory than were subjects with uncommon, common, or no nicknames. Ambiguous first names were unrelated to the androgyny scale. Name and nickname ambiguity were not related to liking of name, self-concept, family tradition, social class differences, or grade point average.
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Rickel, A.U., Anderson, L.R. Name ambiguity and androgyny. Sex Roles 7, 1057–1066 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00288506
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00288506