As parents note the likes and dislikes of their child they are commenting upon the evolving constellation of patterns which give rise to observable preferences. They, of course, link their observations to a named child. There is then, an evolving pattern ‘in the air’, in a social universe. To varying degrees the parental ‘sense’ of the evolving patterns characterizing their child will be accurate. (They may be inaccurate due to error, e.g. that old Freudian problem,  ‘projection’ or they may be inaccurate due to the rapid evolution of new patterns which quickly render old patterns moot).

As the child experiences family use of his or her name in association with their physical and experiential self, they ‘identify’ (for want of a better word at the moment) with the name. The taking on of the name marks an important point in the organization of accumulated experience. It is now ‘consciously and unconsciously constrained’. It is constrained to 1) the physical form of the child, 2) the accumulated record of the experience of the child and 3)the functional adaptive patterns which now drive  the dynamics of potential actions as the child engages the world.