During the readings and in our class on Wednesday, we discussed the danger of family members and friends referring to a girl as a princess and how such behavior can foster narcissistic tendencies and other nasty side effects in said girl. However, this caused me to wonder how much these behaviors would be escalated in a girl who was branded "princess" for life?
Many individuals value the meanings that names have especially when it comes to naming their children. Some even choose to name said children based more on the name's meaning rather than a liking for the name itself. This can often benefit the child when their name has a "good meaning". A boy named Alexander may consider the meaning of "Defender of the People" as an empowering title while a girl named Andrea may consider the meaning of "Manly" as embarrassing or even insulting.
Now, how would a little girl be affected if the meaning of her name was "Princess". This would literally leave said girl branded as a princess and, unless she changed her name, she would remain a princess, at least in this sense, for the rest of her life.
Though this is a bit of a stretch, it would be interesting to discover whether or not such a permanent label of "princess" would have any adverse effects on the child. Could being labeled a princess from the day a person was born plunge said person into princess culture the moment they are out of the womb?
*All name meanings were provided by babynames.com*
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