Name News

5 Finalists Announced for Crayola’s New Blue Crayon Color

From almost 90,000 submissions, Crayola selected the following finalists for the new blue hue: Dreams Come Blue, Bluetiful, Blue Moon Bliss, Reach for the Stars and Star Spangled Blue.

From now until Thursday, Aug. 31, people in the United States and Canada can vote on these five names at Crayola.com/NewColor. The champion will be announced in early September, and the freshly christened crayon is expected to first show up in boxes later this year or early 2018. The new color is replacing Dandelion, the color that Crayola retired earlier this year. Unveiled to the public in May, the replacement is based on a based on a pigment discovered in 2009 by a chemistry team at Oregon State University, believed to be the first new blue pigment discovered in 200 years. Crayola apparently didn’t want to stick with the pigment’s name of YInMn Blue, after its chemical makeup of yttrium, indium, and manganese oxides. Cast your vote now!

About Names: July 4 2017 is the 241st birthday of the United States of America. But the name America dates back 510 years

America Ferrera

Dr. Cleveland Evans writes about names for the Omaha World-Herald. In his July 4th column, he looks at the history of the name America. 

America was named after Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci (1454-1512.) He was born in Florence and named after his paternal grandfather. The Normans brought a French form of the name to England, where it became Amery or Emery. In Latin, Amerigo became Americus.

Américo is the Spanish form. América has been used as a woman’s name throughout Latin America — fittingly, since South America was given its name.

Hispanic immigration brought America back into the top 1,000 U.S. names in 1998. For unknown reasons it later boomed with Latino parents, peaking at No. 410 in 2002, when 704 children were given the name America.

It’s tempting to link that surge with actress America Ferrera. Born to immigrants from Honduras in Los Angeles in 1984, she was named after her mother, América Griselda Ayes. Read more about the history of the name America here!

Group suggests adding tag to resurrected extinct animal names

A group of German scientists has suggested that the formal names of extinct animals should be given a special linguistic tag to indicate their origins. The purpose of the tagging is to provide an onomastic distinction between extinct species and species that have been resurrected from the DNA of their long-gone ancestors.

In a Policy Forum piece in the journal Science, the group suggests adding the tag “recr” to scientific names given to resurrected creatures to make sure they are not confused with the original. Want to learn more about this project? Click here.

About Names: Nicole popularized by films, France, Fitzgerald

Yvette Nicole Brown by Gage Skidmore

Dr. Cleveland Evans writes about names for the Omaha World-Herald. In his June 20 column, he looks at the history of the name Nicole.  Nicole Kidman, who played those characters in “Batman Forever,” “Moulin Rouge!” and “Lion,” turns 50 today. Kidman is an Oscar winner; in 2002, she won for best actress in a leading role, playing British writer Virginia Woolf in “The Hours.”

Her given name is a French feminine form of Nicholas, Greek “nikê”, “victory” and “laos,” “people.” The name’s biggest surge in popularity came in 1969. A 134 percent rise landed it in 47th place when the soap opera “The Edge of Night” introduced vivacious fan favorite Nicole Travis (played by Maeve McGuire).

Nicole, with its similarity to fashionable French sisters Michelle, Danielle and Stephanie, marched upward until peaking in 1983. That year, 1.25 percent of girls born that year were named Nicole, ranking it seventh. Read on to find out more about Nicoles in history!

 

Will Margaret Court Arena in Melbourne be renamed?

This summer, Australians were unexpectedly hit by an onomastic storm. The controversy began when Margaret Court, former Australian winner of the Tennis Grand Slam and current 74-year-old founder of the Victory Life Church in Perth, released a series of criticisms against same-sex marriage. In reaction to this commentary, civil rights activists and sports legends joined forces to call for the removal Court’s name on a professional court arena in Melbourne. Although Australia’s Prime Minister first refused to entertain calls to rename the court, pressure from the international sports community has continued to mount. Martina Navratilova has written an open letter calling for the name change.

Horsey McHorseface is a winner!

Horsey McHorseface, who until recently had only drawn attention for his standout moniker rather than his performances, came from behind in the final furlong to race clear and claim a first win in only his fourth start, at the Arthur Thompson Memorial Maiden Plate at Cessnock Racecourse in New South Wales, Australia.

The three-year-old gelding, trained by Bjorn Baker, got his name after a public poll in Britain chose Boaty McBoatface as the most popular name for a $300 million polar research ship.

Saint Mary’s University releases Sign Language Atlantic Provinces Place Names Map

Thanks to the ingenuity and doggedness of Environmental Science Professor, Dr. Linda Campbell (St. Mary’s University), the deaf and signing communities across the eastern seaboard of Canada have a revolutionary resource: an Atlantic Provinces Sign Language Place Names map. The interactive tool presents readers with a traditional map and accompanying videos featuring professional signers who present the indicated placenames in both American Sign Language and Maritime Sign Language. The resource is not only useful for the Deaf/signing community – it is also a fascinating instructive device for all those obsessed with discovering new and beautiful languages. Interested in learning how to sign Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island? Just click here to access the tool.

Roxcy Bolton, Feminist Crusader for Equality, Including in Naming Hurricanes, Dies at 90

Roxcy Bolton in 1972 with Robert H. Simpson, then the director of the National Hurricane Center. She helped persuade national weather forecasters not to name tropical storms after only women. Credit: Associated Press

Roxcy Bolton, a pioneering and tempestuous Florida feminist who was credited with founding the nation’s first rape treatment center and who helped persuade national weather forecasters not to name tropical storms after only women, died on May 17 in Coral Gables, Fla. She was 90.

Her crusade to include men’s names when meteorologists differentiated hurricanes placed her at the eye of an international storm.

Women, Ms. Bolton said at the time, “deeply resent being arbitrarily associated with disaster.” A generation after Ms. Bolton began her campaign, the weathermen finally capitulated. The second hurricane of 1979 was named Bob. When the 2017 season officially begins June 1, Bret, Don, Franklin, Harvey and José will be among the names immortalized.