One of the most fascinating areas of interdisciplinary research involving onomastics,  criminology, and the law is forensic onomastics. The current call for book chapter proposals is for an upcoming publication in the Bloomsbury book series, “Names and Naming in the Social Sciences and Humanities”.   Possible topics of interest include but are not limited to the following:

• Names of crimes, criminals, victims, and/or law enforcement agencies
• Crimes involving the illegal use of names (e.g. identity theft, trademark infringement, verbal threats involving malicious name-calling; the use of names to identify potential crime victims)
• The names of laws and policies at any level of governance.
• Laws and policies governing the use or alteration of names
• Strategies for the translation or transliteration of names in forensic contexts
• Clandestine names used by criminals to describe themselves, their products, their organizations, their activities, and/or their targets
• The ways in which the media uses names to report on crimes or criminals
• Official strategies and/or policies used by law enforcement to analyze, process, or store onomastic data relevant in criminal investigations
• Legal cases fought over names (e.g., the right to use a product name; lawsuits over potentially pejorative names)
• The ways in which names may be used during the commission of a crime (e.g., name-calling in threat communications or cases of defamation; the use of harmful names to demean or control victims; the use of names in cases of identity theft)
• The literary use of names in (true)  crime fiction.

Proposals examining any name type are welcome.  Although all proposals must be written in English, the papers proposed may involve any language(s), spoken, written, or signed.  Both diachronic and synchronic approaches are welcome. Investigations may employ qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods.  However, the analysis proposed must be clearly on focused on the onomastic data.  Proposals will be judged upon their thematic fit as well as their  potential to make a substantive contribution to both forensic linguistics and onomastics.  All Interested authors are asked to submit their formal proposals using the following guidelines.

Proposal Submission Process

• Abstract proposals (max. 500 words, excluding the title and references) should be sent as a word doc email attachment to the Editor-in-Chief of NAMES: A Journal of Onomastics, Professor I. M. Nick (nameseditor@gmail.com)
• For organizational purposes, proposals must include “FORENSICS” in the subject line of the email
• All proposals must include an abstract, title, and a preliminary list of references;
• The full name(s) of the author(s) and their affiliation(s) must appear in the body of the email. These details should NOT appear in the attached proposal.
• In the case of multi-authored submissions, one person must be clearly designated as the primary contact.
• The DEADLINE for proposal submissions is October 15, 2026. All proposals will be submitted to a double-blind review process. Authors will be notified about acceptance on or by November 15, 2026
• Final chapters (max 7,000 words, excluding abstracts, graphics, and references) will be due March 15, 2027

For further information about this call, please feel free to contact Professor I. M. Nick (nameseditor@gmail.com). We look forward to receiving your proposals!