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Member News
Call for Papers: 2027 Annual Meeting of the ANS, February 20, 2027 (Online, via Zoom)
Call for Papers
The 2027 Annual Meeting of the
American Name Society
ONLINE (via Zoom)
20 February 2027
The American Name Society is now inviting proposals for papers for its next annual conference. The one-day event will be held virtually via Zoom, allowing for the attendance of onomastics scholars from around theworld. The 2027 ANS conference will not be held in conjunction with the Linguistics Society of America conference.
Abstracts in any area of onomastic research are welcome: personal names, place names, business and institutional names, names theory, names in literature, among others.
Proposals require these elements:
- Title of proposed paper
- 250-word abstract
- Shorter 100-word abstract suitable for inclusion in conference program
- 50-word biography suitable for inclusion in conference program
To submit a proposal, complete the 2027 Author Information Form found here:
Email completed forms to the ANS at: abstracts@americannamesociety.org
For organizational purposes, place “ANS2027” in the subject of your email.
The DEADLINE for receipt of abstracts is October 31, 2026.
All proposals will be subjected to blind review. Notification of proposal acceptances will be sent by November 15, 2026. Authors whose papers have been accepted must be current members of ANS and must register for the annual meeting. Please contact us at info@americannamesociety.org if you have any questions or concerns.
We look forward to receiving your submission!
Repost: Call for Papers: Academics on Fire: Controversies over (Re)Naming Educational Institutions (ANS Panel @ LSA 2027, San Francisco, 6-9 January 2027)
Call for Papers
Academics on Fire: Controversies over
(Re)Naming Educational Institutions
an organized session at the 2027 annual meeting of the
Linguistic Society of America
San Francisco, California
6-9 January 2027
The American Name Society is now inviting proposals for an organized session at the 2027 annual meeting of the Linguistic Society of America. Throughout the world, names have been strategically used by decision-makers to communicate important messages to members and visitors about the unique history, culture, and values of their educational institutions. From the names of buildings, campuses, memorials, and halls, academic programs, and scholarships, to social or service-based organizations such as fraternities, sororities, and honor societies, these institutional names are ubiquitous markers of everyday campus life. However, these institutional names are more than simple signposts. They are part of the academic curricula that may surreptitiously inculcate the norms of the educational institution and the surrounding social environment. It is precisely for this reason that retention or abolition of these names can become the catalyst for heated public debate. As recent years have demonstrated, controversies over the official values and political orientations of many educational sites have ignited blistering debates over long-standing institutional names. The purpose of this Session is to invite papers which specifically examine the role which naming and renaming can play in these fights over institutional identities in educational settings. Suggested topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Uncovering the history institutional namesakes and discussion of the contemporary fall-out over the (dis)continued use of their names for educational institutions
- Discussing the (dis)advantages of eponyms as institutional brand names
- Examining strategies used by educational institutions to decide whether to retain or change controversial institutional names
- Comparing the demographic profiles of persons or corporations whose names have and have not been chosen to label an educational institution
- Contrasting the assortment of institutional names used by different educational bodies
- Identifying diachronic or synchronic variation in the institutional names selected or rejected across or within various educational bodies
There are no restrictions regarding the time period, methodological approach, theoretical framework, language, country, or level of educational institution examined. Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed method investigation are all equally welcome. However, the analysis presented must be clearly focused on names and naming. Any use of artificial intelligence (AI) should be disclosed at the end of the proposal.
Proposals require these elements:
- Name and affiliation of presenter(s)
- Title of proposed paper
- Up to 250-word abstract
Proposals should be submitted to the American Name Society via email at: abstracts@americannamesociety.org. For organizational purposes, place “LSA2027” in the subject of your email.
The DEADLINE for receipt of abstracts is August 31, 2026.
All proposals will be subjected to blind review. Notification of proposal acceptances will be sent by September 15, 2026. Following acceptance, authors must be current members of the ANS and register for the Linguistic Society of America annual meeting. Please contact us at the above email address if you have any questions or concerns.
Scheduling of the symposium by the LSA will be announced in October 2026. Pre-registration for the meeting will open in late September 2026.
We look forward to receiving your submission!
Call for Papers: Academics on Fire: Controversies over (Re)Naming Educational Institutions (ANS Panel @ LSA 2027, San Francisco, 6-9 January 2027)
Call for Papers
Academics on Fire: Controversies over
(Re)Naming Educational Institutions
an organized session at the 2027 annual meeting of the
Linguistic Society of America
San Francisco, California
6-9 January 2027
The American Name Society is now inviting proposals for an organized session at the 2027 annual meeting of the Linguistic Society of America. Throughout the world, names have been strategically used by decision-makers to communicate important messages to members and visitors about the unique history, culture, and values of their educational institutions. From the names of buildings, campuses, memorials, and halls, academic programs, and scholarships, to social or service-based organizations such as fraternities, sororities, and honor societies, these institutional names are ubiquitous markers of everyday campus life. However, these institutional names are more than simple signposts. They are part of the academic curricula that may surreptitiously inculcate the norms of the educational institution and the surrounding social environment. It is precisely for this reason that retention or abolition of these names can become the catalyst for heated public debate. As recent years have demonstrated, controversies over the official values and political orientations of many educational sites have ignited blistering debates over long-standing institutional names. The purpose of this Session is to invite papers which specifically examine the role which naming and renaming can play in these fights over institutional identities in educational settings. Suggested topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Uncovering the history institutional namesakes and discussion of the contemporary fall-out over the (dis)continued use of their names for educational institutions
- Discussing the (dis)advantages of eponyms as institutional brand names
- Examining strategies used by educational institutions to decide whether to retain or change controversial institutional names
- Comparing the demographic profiles of persons or corporations whose names have and have not been chosen to label an educational institution
- Contrasting the assortment of institutional names used by different educational bodies
- Identifying diachronic or synchronic variation in the institutional names selected or rejected across or within various educational bodies
There are no restrictions regarding the time period, methodological approach, theoretical framework, language, country, or level of educational institution examined. Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed method investigation are all equally welcome. However, the analysis presented must be clearly focused on names and naming. Any use of artificial intelligence (AI) should be disclosed at the end of the proposal.
Proposals require these elements:
- Name and affiliation of presenter(s)
- Title of proposed paper
- Up to 250-word abstract
Proposals should be submitted to the American Name Society via email at: abstracts@americannamesociety.org. For organizational purposes, place “LSA2027” in the subject of your email.
The DEADLINE for receipt of abstracts is August 31, 2026.
All proposals will be subjected to blind review. Notification of proposal acceptances will be sent by September 15, 2026. Following acceptance, authors must be current members of the ANS and register for the Linguistic Society of America annual meeting. Please contact us at the above email address if you have any questions or concerns.
Scheduling of the symposium by the LSA will be announced in October 2026. Pre-registration for the meeting will open in late September 2026.
We look forward to receiving your submission!
American Name Society Annual Meeting 2026 Tomorrow! (Virtual, February 21, 2026)
ANS 2026 will be held virtually tomorrow, February 21, 2026. Registration is now open here. There is a new conference fee structure that is discounted based on annual income. Read more about the conference fee structure here.
Event Details
The American Name Society Annual Meeting for 2026 will be held online on February 21, 2026 using the Zoom platform.
It is accessible via Mac or PC. The meeting will require a passcode, which will be sent via email to all registrants and presenters by February 20th.
We have been working hard to set up a schedule that will work globally, and this means that some presenters will be scheduled at times outside of normal working hours.
The agenda for the meeting includes presentations by onomastic scholars from around the world, along with our annual Business Meeting and a report on the state of our journal, NAMES. All are welcome to the conference — you do not need to be a member to attend!
The Book of Abstracts is available for download here.
We hope to see you there!
Event URL:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/american-name-society-annual-meeting-2026-tickets-1980904507707
American Name Society Annual Meeting 2026 Registration and Schedule (Via Zoom, February 21, 2026)
The 2026 ANS Annual Conference will be held online, via Zoom, on 21 February 2026. Registration is now open here. There is a new conference fee structure that is discounted based on annual income. Read more about the conference fee structure here.
Event Details
The American Name Society Annual Meeting for 2026 will be held online on February 21, 2026 using the Zoom platform.
It is accessible via Mac or PC. The meeting will require a passcode, which will be sent via email to all registrants and presenters by February 20th.
We have been working hard to set up a schedule that will work globally, and this means that some presenters will be scheduled at times outside of normal working hours.
The agenda for the meeting includes presentations by onomastic scholars from around the world, along with our annual Business Meeting and a report on the state of our journal, NAMES. All are welcome to the conference — you do not need to be a member to attend!
The Book of Abstracts will be available here before the conference.
Click here to see the preliminary schedule of presentations and meetings
We hope to see you there!
Event URL:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/american-name-society-annual-meeting-2026-tickets-1980904507707
Call for Papers: Names That Reveal; Names That Conceal: Onomastic Sleight of Hand in Global Literature (MLA 2027)
The American Name Society
Call for Papers
for the ANS virtual panel at the
Modern Language Association (MLA) Convention #mla27
7-10 January 2027, Los Angeles, California
Names That Reveal; Names That Conceal
Onomastic Sleight of Hand in Global Literature
Espionage novels and allegories often use names to conceal motives or plot twists or to reveal character or caricature. How have authors, poets, playwrights, screenwriters, lyricists and other wordsmiths used names of characters, places, corporations, institutions, movements, etc., to effect onomastic sleight of hand? And why? In this panel, we will consider names that reveal and names that conceal people groups (anthroponyms), characters (charactonyms), places (toponyms), theonyms (divine beings), events, and more in the real world and/or in imagined worlds from any era, from any place, as recorded or found in any media. Useful resources include, the archives of NAMES: A Journal of Onomastics (https://ans-names.pitt.edu/ans/issue/archive), the ANS list of terminology (https://ans-names.pitt.edu/ans/keywords), Dorothy Dodge Robbins’ edited collection Literary Onomastics (2023), Star Medzerian Vanguri’s edited collection Rhetorics of Names and Naming (2016), and the Oxford Handbook of Names and Naming(2018).
Proposal Submission Process:
- Email Dr. Anne W. Anderson (awanderson.editing@gmail.com) as follows:
- Email Subject Line: Use “MLA 2027 proposal” in the subject line of the email.
- Email Body: In the email body include the title and first line of the abstract, the full name(s) of the author(s), their affiliation(s), and their email address(es).
- Proposal: Attach a PDF file that includes the proposal title, an abstract of up to 350-500 words, and a list of works cited. Do NOT include author identification in the PDF.
- DEADLINE: Proposals must be received by 11:59 pm EST on Monday, 16 March 2026. Authors will be notified about the results of the blind review on or by 27 March 2026.
- Contributors selected for the thematic panel must be members of both MLA and ANS in order to present their papers; both memberships must be obtained by 7 April 2026.
- Questions? Please contact Dr. Anne W. Anderson (awanderson.editing@gmail.com).
Call for Papers: ANS 2026
Call for Papers
The 2026 Annual Meeting of the
American Name Society
ONLINE (via Zoom)
21 February 2026
The American Name Society is now inviting proposals for papers for its next annual conference. The one-day event will be held virtually via Zoom, allowing for the attendance of onomastics scholars from around the world. The 2026 ANS conference will not be held in conjunction with the Linguistics Society of America conference.
Abstracts in any area of onomastic research are welcome: personal names, place names, business and institutional names, names theory, names in literature, among others.
Proposals require these elements:
- Title of proposed paper
- 250-word abstract
- Shorter 100-word abstract suitable for inclusion in conference program
- 50-word biography suitable for inclusion in conference program
To submit a proposal, complete the 2026 Author Information Form found here:
Email completed forms to the ANS at: abstracts@americannamesociety.org
For organizational purposes, place “ANS2026” in the subject of your email.
The DEADLINE for receipt of abstracts is September 30, 2025.
All proposals will be subjected to blind review. Notification of proposal acceptances will be sent by October 31, 2025. Authors whose papers have been accepted must be current members of ANS and must register for the annual meeting. Please contact us at info@americannamesociety.org if you have any questions or concerns.
We look forward to receiving your submission!
Summer 2025 ANS Bulletin Now Available!
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Announcement: Best Article of the Year 2024 in Names: A Journal of Onomastics
Siyue Li (Zhejiang University, CHINA)
Le Cheng (Zhejiang University, CHINA)
Chunyu Kit (City University of Hong Kong, HONG KONG)
Each calendar year, the members of the NAMES Editorial Board review the articles that appeared in the previous volume to determine the winners of the Best Article of the Year. All article publications are judged across the following three criteria: (1) creativity and originality; (2) potential scholarly contribution to onomastics; and (3) writing style and organization.
The article that was selected as the top publication for 2024 was contributed by a scientific team of three researchers: Siyue Li (Zhejiang University, CHINA), Chunyu Kit (City University of Hong Kong, HONG KONG), and Le Cheng (Zhejiang University, CHINA). Their article is entitled “Unveiling the Landscape of Onomastics from 1972 to 2022: A Bibliometric Analysis” appears in NAMES vol 72, no 3. As the title implies, the investigation provides an intriguing diachronic look at the publication trends in onomastic research over the past 6 decades. This innovative and insightful piece investigation can be read for free.
Interested readers are also invited to visit the NAMES website where all publications featured in NAMES are available to the general public.