So, Are We Gonna Talk About The Name Memes?

Anna Freud (truly her father's daughter) defined Regression as a defense mechanism wherein a person reverts to an earlier stage of development in response to stressful situations. Usually this means adopting childlike behaviors in order to feel safe. You know, such as pointing to something with our name on it and saying, "Me!"

Inspiring the same thrill of browsing a keychain display at a tourist attraction on a family vacation, browsing a new breed of Instagram meme page dedicated to first names has added itself to our screen time habits seemingly overnight - taking over our Insta Stories, DMs, and tag notifications. But why?

Lending itself to the nature of truly old school internet Cat Memes, the trend seems to have started with cute animals. The first of these memes I came across being widely shared originated from @whatdogyouare, which has earned over 124,000 followers since its first post on July 9th. The accounts @what_frog_you_are and @what_cow_you_are, boasting 219K and 111K followers respectively, were also launched on July 9th. Soon after they began gaining popularity, Spongebob and Simpsons versions have emerged, along with accounts dedicated to pairing your name with random photos of celebrities - everyone from Guy Fieri to Rihanna to Timothée Chalamet. There's even @whatfoodyouare.

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A post shared by @what.timmy.tim.are.you on Jul 16, 2020 at 10:14am PDT

With their wholesome nature (too earnest to be classified as shitposts) and their use of block letter fonts straight out of Word Art, our attraction to such simplicity certainly feels like a regression, a longing to go back to the primitive days of the World Wide Web, before it was a well of never-ending bad news. Indeed, these memes are shared between Insta stories about police brutality and COVID statistics, a moment of respite. 

Interestingly, amid a time of widespread unemployment and a newfound passion for mutual aid funds and donations, many of these accounts include Venmo or Cash App names in their bio, asking users to send dough for priority name requests. Some of these go directly to the meme-makers themselves (after all, we should pay people for their labor!) while others are raising money for social justice issues and orgs. The dog account, for example, is taking donations for an animal shelter, while the frog account is raising money for UNICEF to help the crisis in Yemen. A newer 'gram, pairing names with "fashion memes" is sending money to For The Gworls in support of Black trans folks. In that way, the trend seems to fit firmly in the vein of Gen Z's use of the internet - a way to combine meme culture with social change.

Whatever the meaning behind this new viral trend, and whether it indicates a collective yearning for the graphics of our youth, one thing's for sure: "Stephanie" just doesn't get enough love these days.