Mind Your Spellings: A Study of the Current Trend of Anglicization of Names on Facebook

Abstract

In recent times the networking site Facebook.com has become an integral part of societal communication medium at large and undergraduate students‟ lives in particular. As with any other social network, the success of Facebook is tied to the amount of contribution any one member's social contacts have produced, an outcome that is dependent on the eventual participation of a large portion of the user base. Thus, Anglicization of names, if it generates the desired effect that is, catches the fancy of other users leading to the addition of more friends, will be a welcome development. This paper observes the trend of Anglicization of names on one of the most patronised Social Networking Site (SNS) i.e. the Facebook. Using a questionnaire administered to a crop of 200 undergraduate students drawn from both private and public universities, an attempt is made to situate its frequency, acceptability and rationale in Bandura‟s Social Relations Theory. The analysis of data revealed the rationale for Anglicisation of names ranges from ease of pronunciation, gaining acceptance and attractiveness with other Facebook users, attracting more friends to the feeling of being „cool‟, „trendy‟ and westernised which it gives the users. Also, Anglicisation of names on Facebook aligns with Bandura‟s Social Relation Theory as a motivated habit generated by imitation due to excessive exposure to its frequency of occurrence and the acceptance it receives.

Keywords: Anglicization, Social Learning Theory, Names, Facebook

Ife PsychologIA, 20(2), September 2012