Looking for a name for your new feline family member? How about “Sir Nigel Meowmittens of Oscelot Court”, “Sophistikitty”, or “Cornelius McPudness Vandercat”? All of these fanciful feline names are taken from the list of real-life monikers featured on Nationwide’s year-end list of Wacky Pet Names.

Just days before the Winter Holidays, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C. declared that the first Amendment “forbids government regulators to deny registration [of trademark ] because they find the speech is likely to offend others”. This ruling came in response to a petition by an Asian-American rock band that had previously tried, unsuccessfully, to register the name “The Slants”.

For many Washingtonians who have been following the debate over the city’s controversial name of the local football team, this recent ruling has sent off a tidal wave of emotions, ranging from relief to rage. On the 9th of January 2016, the Executive Director of the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), Jacqueline Pata, spoke to the American Name Society on the use of racist and derogatory names by US American sports franchises.

Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, has made a quite a name for himself this year. His commentary has offended, injured, shocked, and insulted many groups. In a letter written to the governor, New York State Senator Daniel Squadron is reported to have stated that given the candidate’s behavior, the Donald J. Trump State Park, should be officially renamed. Squadron is not alone in his opinion. Right before the Winter Holidays, a petition started by Brooklyn resident Andrew Cheung had garnered thousands of supporters.

The International Union of Applied Chemistry recently recognized four new elements and now these elements need names. Boingboing reports on the petition to name one of these new elements in honor of Terry Pratchett. Support the Change.org petition to the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which has naming rights for element 117.

On the 16th December, Japan’s Supreme Court announced its verdict on the constitutionality of the law banning spouses from carrying separate last names: The court ruled that the band is indeed constitutional. However, as the current Chief Justice Itsurō Terada, cautioned, this issue will also need to be deliberated by the National Diet. Hence, the debate over this controversial naming prohibition will in all likelihood continue for some time to come.

Find additional information in Japanese here.

Based on statistics kept by rover.com, a company specializing in matching dog owners with dog care providers, the following are the top 10 dog names of 2015:

Male dogs:

1. Max
2. Charlie
3. Buddy
4. Cooper
5. Jack

Female dogs:

• Bella
• Lucy
• Daisy
• Molly
• Lola

Notice that several of these names are also popular among human babies. The distinction between human names and dog names is blurring.

Just in time for the new Star Wars film, the US American English Dictionary, Merriam Webster has released an article about the film series’ influence on the English lexicon. Among the many words that the fantasy film has introduced into common parlance are several character names (characteronyms) such as Jedi and Wookie. However, as the Dictionary-makers explain, the popularity and familiarity of these names is not enough to warrant their immediate inclusion in the official word lists. After all, character names frequently go as quickly as they come.

In the meantime, less conservative lexicological repositories have already added many Star Wars characters to their collection. For example, the (in)famous e-lexicon, the Urban Dictionary, already contains many entries derived from the Star Wars enterprise…although in many cases, the original onomastic referents have undergone pretty significant shifts.

Although the official countdown marking the end of 2015 has not yet begun, names scholars have already made predictions about what will be the most popular baby names for 2016.

According to a November 2015 issues of the magazine “Good Housekeeping”, the following names will make the top ten US list in the new year:

• Hezekiah
• Kale
• Gertrude
• Eurydice
• Iker

By comparison, based on statistics kept by the Baby Center UK, the November 5th issue of The Huffington Post has placed its bets on a completely different set of personal names:

Girls

• Marni
• Eden
• Astrid
• Nora
• Emi

Boys

• Devon
• Otto
• Aspen
• Atticus
• Hector

Official name popularity statistics will be released in the new year.

For the first time in its history, the Oxford Dictionaries have chosen a modern day pictograph, or emoji, for the Word of the Year. After analyzing the statistical data provided by the mobile technology company, Swiftkey, the Oxford University Press determined that one emoji in particular had an astounding frequency of usage. Making up 20% of all emoji-use in the UK and 17% in the USA, the little round smiley with the tiny blue tear-drops has become one of the one most beloved emoticons. That means that nearly one in four readers of this post have used this little figure in at least one of their e-communications. Officially, this emoticon is called “Face with Tears of Joy”. Curious what the proper names are for the other emojis in the smiley family? Test your onomastic emoji knowledge.