The Social Security administration recently released the most popular baby names of 2015. Hillary and Donald aren’t fairing well.
Name News
Bank freezes online payment over dog’s terrorist-sounding name
A San Francisco man referred to his dog “Dash” in an online payment memo to his dog walker. Chase Bank canceled this payment because “Dash” is similar to “Daesh”, the Arabic name for the terrorist organization also known as the Islamic State.
The Outcomes of the Yale University Name Deliberations
Yale University recently named two new residential colleges. Alongside this deliberation, the university also reexamined the name of the existing Calhoun College and the title of “master” in the residential colleges. After much conversation, the university reached decisions on all of these names.
Baby Naming Services
Not all expecting parents are excited to name their child. For those who don’t want to decide alone, there are services to help out. CBS News recently asked Babynames.com founder and ANS Membership Officer Jennifer Moss more about name consultants.
Penguin chick named after David Bowie
We name our animals in so many different ways. The Cincinnati Zoo named a newly hatched penguin chick after the late David Bowie.
Boaty McBoatface sires Horsey McHorseface
A two-year-old gelding destined to race in Australia has been saddled with the name ‘Horsey McHorseface’. The name is a reference to ‘Boaty McBoatface’, the leading choice in a public poll to name a British research vessel.
Boaty McBoatface: What You Get When You Let the Internet Decide
A British government agency let the internet name their $287 million polar research ship, and of course, the internet chose Boaty McBoatface over more dignified options.
Petition launched to name one of the new elements added to the periodic table “octarine”
The four new elements, discovered by scientists in Japan, Russia and America, are the first to be added to the table since 2011. They will be officially named by the teams that discovered them in the months to come. However, chemist Dr Kat Day has put in an early bid for element 117 to be named “octarine” after Terry Pratchett’s novel The Colour of Magic. In his novel, Pratchett writes that octarine is “the King Colour, of which all the lesser colours are merely partial and wishy-washy reflections. It was octarine, the colour of magic. It was alive and glowing and vibrant and it was the undisputed pigment of the imagination, because wherever it appeared it was a sign that mere matter was a servant of the powers of the magical mind. It was enchantment itself. But Rincewind always thought it looked a sort of greenish-purple.”
Top dog and cat names in Ireland
A veterinarian’s survey lists the top ten names for dogs and cats in Ireland. The Irish seem way more likely to give “people names” to dogs than to cats!
Mother banned from naming daughter Cyanide by court
What can be a name? One mother was recently banned from naming her baby daughter Cyanide, meant as a reference to Adolf Hitler.
