From Sligo, Pennsylvania to Limerick, Kentucky, the topography of the United States is filled with onomastic markers of its rich Irish heritage. Interested in learning more about Irish place names in the US? IrishCentral.com offers readers a fascinating look at this important part of American onomastic history.
Month: March 2016
Test your knowledge of Eponyms
Want to test your knowledge of eponyms? Which of the following words were NOT based on the names of real-life people?
- pompadour
- dynamo
- sandwich
- mesmerize
- gerrymander
- trumpet
Ready? The answers are 2 and 6.
Product Name and Labeling at the Annual Federal Food Regulatory Conference, Washington, DC, May 23-24 2016
From the 23rd to the 24th of May, 2016, the 28th Annual Federal Food Regulatory Conference will be taking place in Washington, D.C.. Among the many topics to be explored this year is product naming and labeling.
Onomastics for Genealogy, Names, Naming Patterns, & More Webinar, June 15, 2017
The Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain has announced its 2016-2017 schedule of educational webinars. In addition to providing e-instruction on conducting archival research, the Society will be offering a special webinar entitled “Onomastics for Genealogy, Names, Naming Patterns, & More” on the 15th of June, 2017.
About Names: Porn Star Names
Raking in ca 14 billion dollars per year, the US porn industry is very big business. With all that cash around, it’s no wonder that the industry continues to attract would-be stars. To help these onscreen hopefuls, the internet is filled with specialized name generators.
Although some may scoff, as porn legend Annie Sprinkle revealed in an interview with Alternet, landing the perfect porn name is critical: “My name helped me to totally change who I was […] and become who I wanted to be.”
Despite these unusual psychological and economic demands, Stanford Linguistics Professor Arnold Zwicky contends that most porn names are actually quite regular. For example, his examination of over two thousand porn star names revealed that the most common first name for erotic actors was… Mark.
About Names: A wizard, a clown, a president, and other famous Ronalds
Dr. Cleveland Evans writes about names for the Omaha World-Herald. This week’s column explores Ronald.
Workshop on Multiword Expressions, Berlin, Germany, August 11, 2016
On August 11, 2016, the 12th annual Workshop on Multiword Expressions (MEW2016) will be held in Berlin, Germany. The event is being endorsed by the Special Interest Group on the Lexicon of the Association for Computation Linguistics. For this workshop, the term Multiword Expression refers to a wide range of linguistic constructions (e.g.… Read More
International Workshop on Language Technologies and Applications, Gdansk, Poland, September 11-14, 2016
The 1st International Workshop on Language Technologies and Applications (LTA’16) will be held from the 11th to the 14th of September 2016 in Gdansk, Poland. Paper proposals dealing with new technologies and intelligent systems for language processing are welcome. The deadline for abstract submission is April 18, 2016.
Tasmania’s Aboriginal heritage recognized with more dual place names announced
In an effort to pay homage to Tasmania’s rich Aboriginal heritage, the Nomenclature Board of Tasmania has progressively introduced a dual English/Indigenous naming system for landmarks of great cultural significance. As Will Hodgeman, New Zealand’s Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, explained in an interview with ABC news, “The names are applied in the reconstructed palawa kani language following extensive research by the Aboriginal community language revival program.” Three examples of dual toponyms are
- Mount William/wukalina
- Great Lake/yingina
- Sundown Point/laraturunawn.
The Zealand government continues to replace offensive place names.
For many years now, the New Zealand government has made a concerted effort to replace long-outdated, highly offensive place names. Thanks to this effort, toponyms such as “Nigger Hill” and “Niggerhead” were changed into “Kanuka Hills” and “Tawhai Hill,” respectively. More on this government’s movement to replace place names featuring the N-word and other epithets can be found through Creative Spirits.