One of my favorite library finds of last year was Creative Acts for Curious People—a Stanford d.school publication that compiled dozens of icebreakers, group activities, and creative exercises.
The icebreakers were more than the typical single question variety. My favorite one in the book is “Story of Your Name.”
Find someone in the room you don’t know well and pair up.
Exchange the stories of your names.
You can interpret this prompt in many ways, which is why it works so well and delivers such a wide range of interesting stories. It could be how you came by your name, why you changed your name, that funny time you were confused with another person of the same name, the meaning of your last name in the mother tongue of your grandparents, and so on.
I had the chance to do this one with a group the other day and, boy, is it great.
What was meant to take 15 minutes stretched to well over an hour, learning about names, parental intent, the lived experience of having a gender-neutral name, decisions about nicknames, and more than I can detail here.
What I liked about this icebreaker is that people can’t really brag about their names. Bragging is the inevitable downside of some icebreakers about hobbies or vacations and such. For the most part, a name is something that we are given and live with, not something we choose.
Taylor Coe 