Name News

Bay Area city to name street after Barack Obama

The Milpitas City Council has approved to change the name of Dixon Landing Road to Barack Obama Boulevard. The council voted 3-2 in favor of moving forward with the name change. The length of the renamed stretch has yet to be determined.

This is the first city in Santa Clara County to have a Barack Obama Blvd. It could take up to a year to get the name change done.  Council members Bob Nunez and Anthony Phan suggested the name change.

“A lot of staff work. Research and fiscal analysis. Then staff will bring back everything to us for a vote and that’s the main event,” said Phan. The reaction in the community and on social media has been divided.

Demonstrations against francization of Breton toponyms

In Telgruc-sur-Mer (Finistère), more than six hundred people gathered on the beach of Trez-Bellec to protest against the francization of place names in Brittany.

“We dehumanize the territory. “This is how Armel an Hejer, a Breton artist and coordinator of Kevre Breizh, summed up the presence of several hundred demonstrators on the beach. In Telgruc-sur-Mer, the elected officials named 32 new streets solely in French. In the communes, the elected municipal officials, who are responsible for naming the places, explain that they must number and name the roads and dwellings, in particular to facilitate the work of La Poste and the emergency services.

Yosemite settles trademark dispute — other historical names to return

The historical names of several sites at Yosemite National Park, including the iconic Ahwahnee Hotel and Curry Village, are being restored thanks to a legal settlement in a long-running, much-watched trademark battle.

In a $12 million deal announced in July 2019, Yosemite’s former concessionaire, Delaware North, agreed to relinquish its claimed ownership of the park names and other intellectual property, which it says it acquired during nearly 25 years of running restaurants, motels and other services at Yosemite. The trademark claims, which park officials never agreed with, still prompted the park service in 2016 to rename the landmarks as well as alter slogans on T-shirts, ball caps and other souvenir merchandise.

How Language Keeps Evolving for the Devil’s Lettuce

Kush. Bud. Herb. Who knows what to call marijuana these days?

Born of the need for secrecy, slang has long dominated pot culture. But as entrepreneurs seek to capitalize on new laws legalizing recreational and medical marijuana, they too are grappling with what to call it. Heading to the dispensary to buy a few nugs or dabs? Marketers seeking to exploit the $10 billion market would prefer that you just called it cannabis. Shirley Halperin, an author of 2007’s “Pot Culture: The A-Z Guide to Stoner Language and Life,” has seen the shift in recent years. Keep reding here.

About Names: After French saint’s visions, Bernadette saw a rise in popularity

Actor Bernadette Peters

Dr. Cleveland Evans writes about names for the Omaha World-Herald. In his August 16th column, he looks at the history of the name Bernadette.

The most famous Bernadette is St. Bernadette Soubirous (1844-1879), a miller’s daughter whose 1858 visions of a woman calling herself “The Immaculate Conception” were declared valid by the Roman Catholic church in 1862. The grotto near Lourdes in southern France where the visions occurred is one of the world’s most popular pilgrimage sites. Bernadette’s parents named her after medieval French monk St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153). After she became a novice of the Sisters of Charity, Bernadette spent hours copying texts related to St. Bernard.

When Social Security’s yearly name lists started in 1880, eight Bernadettes were born, ranking it 634th. The name rose as Lourdes became known to devout Roman Catholics. Newborn Bernadettes almost doubled in 1934 after Pope Pius XI canonized St. Bernadette on Dec. 8, 1933. Hollywood had a bigger impact. “The Song of Bernadette,” starring Jennifer Jones as the saint, premiered on Dec. 21, 1943. Jones got a Best Actress Oscar for the role. In 1942, 373 Bernadettes were born, and 1,321 arrived in 1946, when it ranked 188th, its highest ever.

Want to know more? Read on to find out more about Bernadettes in history!

Goodbye, San Francisco. Hello, Brandopolis!

When the three-block-long park atop San Francisco’s transit center reopened, you’re again able to stand among green trees and shrubs and contemplate the changing city around us. Which from here looks a lot like — Brandopolis.

After all, this buoyantly landscaped aerie bears the official name of Salesforce Park, which in turn is the rooftop of Salesforce Transit Center. The glassy buildings around it are adorned with corporate logos for Deloitte, BlackRock, Trulia and Slack. One block to the west, Blue Shield of California Theater recently debuted at the corner of Howard and Third streets, six blocks north of Oracle Park, which itself is eight blocks north of soon-to-open Thrive City. More details here.

Ever wonder where generic drugs get their names?

Memorable brand names are usually developed by marketing teams, but who comes up with the scientific-sounding, often difficult to pronounce names for generic prescription drugs? According to the Los Angeles Times, generic drug names are curated by the United States Adopted Names (USAN) program, a department within the American Medical Association composed of two women, Stephanie Shubat and Gail Karet, both scientists.

The pair’s naming process is as follows: They develop names for each of the nearly 200 annual drug applications, then their recommendations go to the five-member USAN Council, which meets twice a year, according to the Times. The names Shubat and Karet come up with are based on classifications of drugs and chemical relationships — the “stems” of drug names that treat similar symptoms typically sound the same or resemble each other, the LA Times explains.

About Names: Despite its dubious roots, Myrna’s popularity grew thanks to star power

Actor Myrna Loy

Dr. Cleveland Evans writes about names for the Omaha World-Herald. In his August 2nd column, he looks at the history of the name Myrna.

There’s no place named Myrna in the United States. Williams was probably passing through Merna, Nebraska, when he saw the sign. Merna was founded as “Muddy Flats” in 1876 by Samuel Dunning, its first postmaster. In 1883, he moved 30 miles northwest to found Dunning, Nebraska. His friend William Brotherton, taking over the postmaster job, renamed Muddy Flats “Merna” after Dunning’s 7-year-old daughter.

David Williams may have deliberately altered the spelling to “Myrna,” or simply misremembered it. Both Myrna and Merna are thought to be Americanized respellings of Irish Gaelic Muirne, “festive.” In Irish legend, Muirne was the daughter of a Druid and mother of the great Irish hero Finn Mac Cool. The father of the earliest born Myrna in the United States census, Thomas Fox of Saunders County, Nebraska, was born in Ireland. Myrna Fox (1865-1929) is called “Murnie” on her 1882 marriage license to Perry Hadsall, and on her Idaho tombstone, reinforcing the idea that Myrna is a form of Muirne. Still, it’s a bit mysterious why over 2,000 American families, most in the Midwest without Irish ancestry, named daughters Myrna or Merna by 1910.

Want to know more? Read on to find out more about Myrnas in history!

Apostrophe S or not? Possessives and store names

Is it Nordstrom or Nordstrom’s? Kroger or Kroger’s? Sbarro or Sbarro’s? This fun article at MPR’s Marketplace quotes ANS Vice President Laurel Sutton about the confusion over possessives. What’s official, and what do people just assume? Here’s a sample:

Our minds tell some of us that it definitely needs the extra letter. That “s” — so brief, so unobtrusive, so natural sounding — sneaks easily into our lexicon. But oftentimes it’s unnecessary. (None of the aforementioned names are possessive.)  Adding to the confusion, sometimes companies don’t even follow their own naming conventions. It’s called “TGI Fridays,” but the company has also used the spelling “T.G.I. FRiDAY’s” in its logos and Nordstrom storefronts have displayed “Nordstrom’s” in the past.

Bonus: take the quiz at the end of the article to find out how many you know!