Who am I? (Personal name as a tool for self-identification of Russianspeaking bilingual children)

Abstract

This article presents the results of a sociolinguistic electronic survey conducted in 2017–2019 in Finland. The purpose was to reveal the attitude of children towards their names in bilingual and polylingual families living in Finland. The questionnaire was answered by 19 children (4 interviews was taken additionally) aged from 10 to 16 years old (born between 2002–2010). The research methods were: the method of sociolinguistic questionnaire, focused interviews, the method of verification, the case study method. As a result, socio-psychological motives determining the orientation of variants of children’s names both at the culture of their parents (family) and the Finnish society. The novelty of the pilot study is an analysis of bilingual children’s reflections on their personal name as a significant part in self-identification processes.