{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"In search of names","description":"Alright, friends\u2014we\u2019ve come to the end of the 2025 run of Many Minds! Our final episode of the year is an audio essay by yours truly. This is a classic format for the show, one that we only do every so often. Today\u2019s essay is about names. It\u2019s about the question of whether animals have something like names for each other. And it\u2019s also about a deeper question: What even is a name? How do humans use names? How does the historical and ethnographic record kind of complicate our everyday understanding of what names are. I had a lot of fun putting this together, and I do hope you enjoy it.  Now, the holiday season is a time when people might be shopping around for new podcasts to listen to. That makes it a great time to recommend us to your friends and family and colleagues. You can think of it as an especially thoughtful gift, one that\u2019s absolutely free, and that keeps on giving throughout the year.  Speaking of gifts, as an addendum to this episode you\u2019ll find a little stocking stuffer after the credits. It\u2019s a reading of a poem that figures prominently in today\u2019s essay.  Without further ado, here is my essay\u2014\u2018In search of names.\u2019 Enjoy!   A text version of this essay is available here.   Notes 2:00 \u2013 The text of \u2018The Naming of Cats' by T.S. Eliot is here. See also the full collection, Old Possum\u2019s Book of Practical Cats. The lines about cats\u2019 taste preferences and cats having different kinds of minds comes from another poem in the collection, \u2018The Ad-Dressing of Cats.\u2019 3:00 \u2013 The 2019 study finding that cats know their names, and the 2022 study showing that cats know the names of their friends. 4:00 \u2013 For an overview of research on dolphin \u201csignature whistles,\u201d see here. 5:00 \u2013 For the 2024 study reporting name-like rumbles in elephants, see here.  6:00 \u2013 For the 2024 study reporting vocal labels for individuals in marmosets, see here. A critical response to the study is here; the authors\u2019 response to the criticism is here. 12:00 \u2013 For overviews of cross-cultural variation in names and naming practices, see here, here, here, and here. Richard Alford\u2019s 1988 study, published in book form, is here.  13:30 \u2013 The study reporting name signs in Kata Kolok is here. 15:00 \u2013 For research on expectations based on the sounds of people\u2019s names, see here and here. 16:00 \u2013 For recent work on the \u201cface-name matching effect,\u201d see here. For the study on \u201cnominative determinism\u201d in the medical profession, see here. (Note that, while this latter study does report empirical data, its rigor is questionable. And, yet, at least one other study has reported similar findings.) 17:30 \u2013 For the example of over-used names in Scotland, see here.  19:30 \u2013 For discussion of names in New Guinea, see here. For examples of research on \u201cteknonymy,\u201d see  here and here. For discussion of Penan \u201cnecronyms,\u201d see here.  20:30 \u2013 For an overview of name taboos, see here. For more on \u201calexinomia,\u201d see here. 22:30 \u2013 For an example of recent work on \u201cname uniqueness,\u201d see here.   23:00 \u2013 William Safire\u2019s column on dog names is here. The study of gravestones in the world\u2019s oldest pet cemetery is here.     Many Minds is a project of the Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute, which is made possible by a generous grant from the John Templeton Foundation to Indiana University. The show is hosted and produced by Kensy Cooperrider, with help from Assistant Producer Urte Laukaityte and with creative support from DISI Directors Erica Cartmill and Jacob Foster. Our artwork is by Ben Oldroyd. Subscribe to Many Minds on Apple, Stitcher, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Google Play, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also now subscribe to the Many Minds newsletter here! We welcome your comments, questions, and suggestions. Feel free to email us at: manymindspodcast@gmail.com. For updates about the show, visit our website or follow us on Bluesky (@manymindspod.bsky.social). ","author_name":"Many Minds","author_url":"https:\/\/disi.org\/manyminds\/","html":"