| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 89.2

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 89.2 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

A Matter of Taste: How Names, Fashions, and Culture Change. By Stanley Lieberson. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000. xvi, 334 pp. $29.95, ISBN 0-300-08385-8.)

A Matter of Taste is primarily concerned with the changing popularity of first names. According to Stanley Lieberson, names change for two reasons: either as a result of external social factors, for example, the popularity of the name Roosevelt among African Americans during the New Deal, or from various complex internal factors. An example of internal factors at work comes from the world of women's fashions and what Lieberson labels the "ratchet effect." Hemlines, for example, move up by a certain amount each year until they reach an end point and then they move back down; that is, they move in a steady way instead of oscillating. Lieberson explains that the direction of the change must be steady so that confusion will not result. Another example of this has to do with presidents and their facial hair. None of the first 15 presidents had facial hair, but, starting with Abraham Lincoln, 10 of the next 12 presidents had a beard or a mustache or both. Since William Howard Taft, no American president has had facial hair. 1

Names change in fashion and popularity, according to Lieberson, because the reasons for the name's popularity in the first place may have lessened or disappeared. Similarly, names that evoked traditional imagery for girls have declined in popularity as women's roles have changed. . . .

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