In Australia, a popular news feature has become the annual list of the most popular names given to household pets. Recently, however, government officials and naming enthusiasts down under have given a new twist to this onomastic perennial: a list of the most popular dog names given by breed. For example, while the most commonly given name for Labrador retrievers is “Molly”, for Rottweilers and Chihuahua, the most popular names so far for 2016 are “Missy” and “Toby”.

Once upon a time, a miniature feline predator prowled Australia’s underbrush on the search for unsuspecting birds, frogs, insects, and lizards. For several decades, this razor-toothed, pre-historic marsupial lion has been the subject of intense study among the paleontologists of Australia’s Riversleigh World Heritage Fossil Site (WHFS). However, this year, the extinct mini hunter has also caught the attention of animal name lovers. In honor of Sir David Attenborough’s tireless support of the WHFS, the species has been officially named Microleo Attenboroughi.

What about the regular Americans – those not related to the Republican presidential nominee – with the surname Trump? Learn what this election season has been like for them.

The election is impacting in names in many ways. In one instance, Trump Hotels is launching a new brand of hotels under a new name, Scion.

… That time a freight train went off the tracks into a tavern called DeRailed.

Journalist Perry Garfinkel recently interviewed ANS Information Officer Lisa Spira (Ethnic Technologies) for Vocations, a New York Times feature in which he asks people about their jobs. Read Lisa’s interview about her interest in onomastics and work at Ethnic Technologies.

The Russian Language Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences has just announced that volume 13, Issue 1 of the academic journal, “Problems of Onomastics” (aka Voprosy onomastiki) has just been released. Covering a broad cross-section of onomastic topics, this latest volume contains English-language articles on anthroponyms of Arabic origin in Bashkir ‘Shejere’, commercial names and naming, and naming trends in contemporary Turkey.

Jeff Bezos, the Founder, Chair, and CEO of amazon.com, has announced the name of his latest venture. “The New Glenn” is a rocket-powered vehicle being designed to launch satellites and people into the great unknown from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The rocket was named after John Glenn, the first US American to orbit the big blue planet. If all goes according to plan, the first launch will take place before 2020.

In January 1993, the former European country Czechoslovakia was divided in two separate nations. One is called “Slovakia.” What is the name of the other nation? The answer to that question will depend on who you ask. While some people prefer the name “The Czech Republic,” others prefer “Czechland,” “Bohemia,” or the snappy short version, “Czech.” Recently, government officials have tossed yet another onomastic contender into the ring: “Czechia.” Follow this toponymic debate.

For sci-fy gamers who dream of naming what no one has named before, “No Man’s Sky”, an online space exploration game that was released this August, offers the opportunity to discover and name a seemingly endless supply of virtual planets. Just how many planets are up for grabs? Eighteen quintillion. For those name enthusiasts who also love numbers that would be, more specifically, 18,446,744,073,709,551,616. Ironically, the highly anticipated release of the space exploration had to be delayed several times thanks to an unanticipated legal brawl over who owns the right to the product name “Sky”.