Trends and Causes of Cultural Modernization

Abstract

The empirical basis of our research forms a systematic content analysis of the birth register of a state registry office from 1894 to 1994. We interpret the development of first names as an indicator which measures trends of cultural change: we analyse (1) whether there are secularization processes (measurement: the amount of first names of Christian origin); (2) whether the importance of family relationship is decreasing (measurement: number of children who are named after their parents); (3) whether social class is losing its importance (measurement: homogeneity of names in social classes); (4) whether there are processes of individualization (measurement: heterogeneity of names); and (5) whether there are processes of globalization of culture (measurement: number of names from other cultures). In addition, we formulate possible explanations of these trends and test them empirically.