Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 5, 2025

How to Obtain Reliable Visual Event-related Potentials in Newborns
Published on: October 24, 2019
"What's in a name?" Identification of newborn infants at birth using their given names
Sonya Besagar1, Patrick Louie A Robles2, Chanel Rojas3
1Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA.
Objective:
To determine the proportion of pregnant women who selected names for their babies to be born and were willing to disclose them for use in hospital systems, thereby potentially reducing infant identification errors.
Study Design:
Survey of pregnant women admitted to postpartum or antepartum units at a large academic hospital. Descriptive analyses were conducted to determine the proportion who had chosen names prior to delivery. Chi-square tests and calculated odds ratios assessed the association with demographic and pregnancy factors.
Results:
Of postpartum participants, 79.0% had names for their newborns at birth. This proportion was significantly lower in self-identified non-Hispanic, white, and married women. Of antepartum participants, 65.7% had selected a name at the time of survey.
Conclusion:
Most participants had names chosen for use at birth. This finding was consistent across demographic and pregnancy characteristics, supporting the feasibility of using given names for newborns in hospital systems at birth.
Related Concept Videos
The Nativist Approach
Imprinting
Drug Nomenclature
Piaget's Stage 1 of Cognitive Development
Exploration...
Development of Immunocompetence
The initial cells that migrate from the fetal thymus settle within the skin and epithelial tissues lining the mouth, digestive tract, and in females, the uterus and vagina. These cells, including skin-based dendritic cells, serve as antigen-presenting cells, playing a key role in T cell activation.
Subsequent T...
Language Development
The critical period for language acquisition suggests that the ability to acquire language is at its peak early in life. As people age, this proficiency decreases. Language development begins very...

