Initially, we have no choice in our names. Our parents, by whatever method they agreed upon, select and bestowed them on us. But as we grow up, form our own sense of whom we are, we claim names for ourselves. Sometimes that means accepting the names we were given at birth, sometimes that means modifying our given names into some sort of nickname, and sometimes it means abandoning our given name entirely for one solely of our choosing.

This process is one of the myriad ways in which we assert out autonomy and our unique identity of self. Personally I have always been sensitive to the name issue and it irritates me when people abuse others by refusing the most elemental courtesy of calling them by their preferred name. This matters in close personal spaces between friends and it matters in large public spaces such as politics.

George H.W. Bush has as his vice president Dan Quayle, but that’s not really his name. His full name is James Danforth Quayle. We can set aside his politics and any argument over his qualifications or lack thereof for the office that he held, that’s not the point of my essay. He preferred to be called ‘Dan,’ that was his name, a nickname drawn from his middle name. I remember at their convention his political opponents referring to him a ‘J. Danforth Quayle.’  Not James, but that peculiar construction endemic to elite society, the initial, middle name, surname, format, such as J. Paul Getty. It was a pretty transparent attempt to use the man’s name as a bludgeon for political purposes.

If you do this sort of thing you’re an ass.

I’m pretty set on that concept. Disagree with people, argue the facts and the assumptions that operate with politically, but belittling them through deliberate abuse of their names and you are an ass.

That’s independent of your political stance. Currently an academic becoming very popular with conservative is Jordan Peterson. One of the ways he has catapulted to rightwing celebrity status is be his refusal to call transgender persons by their preferred name or pronoun, a direct assault on their identity for political points.

Mind you, Peterson isn’t in a heated national election trying to sway millions of people into voting for him. (Though that does not excuse the example with Dan Quayle’s name.) Peterson acts this way in personal one-on-one interactions and he is smart enough to understand exactly what it is he doing but he does it anyway, a petty, political, and pointless performance.

In my book Jordan Peterson is an ass.