Names and Naming in Young Adult Literature - Scarecrow Press

Introduction: Names and
Naming in Young Adult Literature
Teenagers are vitally involved in developing their own identities as
they say good-bye to who they were as children and hello to who they
will be as adults. Their names are an important part of their identities,
which may be at the root of our observation that, both in real life and
in literature, young people are more interested in manipulating and
presenting their names than are adults.
A good example of the egocentricity of youth in relation to their
own names is what an Associated Press reporter found when he went
to Ernest Hemingway’s old high school and looked through the
1916–1917 yearbook. He found that Hemingway had experimented
with eight different pen names: Ernest Hemingway, Ernest Miller Hemingway,
Ernest MacNamara Hemingway, Ernest Monhahan Hemingway,
Ernest Hemingway. (with a period), Ernest Michealowitch Hemingway,
B. S., and just E. H. 1 Not all teenagers are as motivated as was
Hemingway to become a famous writer, but all teenagers give considerable
thought to what they want to do with their lives, not just in relation
to earning a living, but also to personal and spiritual aspects of
their lives and how they want other people to relate to them.
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