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Abstract: Recent French legislative reforms have established a system of name transmission that is less rigid than in the past. But this new system, beneath its more liberal appearances, is not less controlled by the law. The devolution of the name remains an affair of the law: it is the law that determines which name can be transmitted. Finally, the main value of these new laws was to introduce into the legislation some formerly unknown spaces of liberty. These new spaces demonstrate that, from the perspective of the current legislator, the name has in part surpassed its function as civil police to additionally become an aspect of the private and family life of its owner. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Recent legal provisions, in force since January 2005, allow parents to declare a family name for their first child by choosing it among their own names. The term “Family name” has since replaced that of “patronymic” and a new registered form has been created, “the double name” associating both the father''s and the mother''s family name. This reform, being as important as complex and which began in 2002 and was implemented in 2005, particularly affects the method of transmission of the child''s name and offers research new openings which will enable us to explore the representations of family in society today. This new institution, in that it favors the transmission of the name following the process of attribution, carries with it, until childbirth, an extra burden of personal commitment. It also highlights the permeability of the unconscious psychic issues and points out the singularity of the notion of transmission, which takes its color through a movement of appropriation singular to each individual within his or her history. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper discusses name-avoidance by Cameroonians, and some of the socio-pragmatic impacts it creates. Focus is on five items that are often used in place of personal names—manyi (mother of twins), tanyi (father of twins), moyo (in-law, especially male), mbanya (co-wife in a polygamous marriage), and mbombo (namesake). The paper identifies some of the contexts in, and the purposes for, which these terms are used. Cameroon, like many other postcolonial contexts, is acutely different from certain English-based Western cultures in which using someone''s personal name may be part of a positive politeness strategy and not disrespect or impoliteness as it is the case in the Cameroonian and some other African cultures. To call certain people by their personal names in these cultures is not only disrespectful but also a sign that they have no honor to merit the respect that goes with not calling their names. The terms studied here are also often used strategically on people who are not, for instance, mothers/fathers of twins or who may just well be strangers or first time acquaintances. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]