Journal article
Expected names or named expectations: an examination of names and their associations with standard American and Spanish-accented English
Journal of multilingual and multicultural development, Vol.47(3), pp.1443-1458
04/2026
DOI: 10.1080/01434632.2024.2420853
Abstract
Notwithstanding a body of research examining the way names are associated with the perception and treatment of individuals across social contexts, scant attention has been paid to the study of names in language attitudes research. This study explores American English listeners’ evaluative reactions to standard American and Spanish-accented English when exposed to a name indexing ethnic affiliation (White or Latinx). Participants listened to recordings and rated them along the dimensions of status and solidarity, and perceived accentedness. Additionally, listeners’ expectations about name–accent pairings were measured, and responses about how they reasoned these expectations were also collected and analysed thematically. The results showed that, overall, standard American English was more positively evaluated for status, but not solidarity, than Spanish-accented English. Relatedly, although names were not associated with solidarity or accentedness, there was an effect in which speakers paired with Latinx names were attributed higher status when compared to a control group (audio only). Furthermore, name–accent pairings were a reliable predictor of the valence of listeners’ expectations, which the thematic analysis revealed were underpinned by ideologies of nativeness, raciolinguistic ideologies and ideologies of goodness-of-fit. These findings underscore the importance of exploring other non-verbal cues such as names to better understand listeners’ language attitudes.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Expected names or named expectations: an examination of names and their associations with standard American and Spanish-accented English
- Creators
- Jorge E. Ramos - Georgetown UniversitySara I. Roca-Ramirez - Georgetown UniversityGabriella Reyes - Georgetown University
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Journal of multilingual and multicultural development, Vol.47(3), pp.1443-1458
- DOI
- 10.1080/01434632.2024.2420853
- ISSN
- 0143-4632
- eISSN
- 1747-7557
- Publisher
- Taylor & Francis
- Language
- English
- Electronic publication date
- 10/29/2024
- Date published
- 04/2026
- Academic Unit
- Spanish and Portuguese
- Record Identifier
- 9984962534202771
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