On the 9th of January, 2015, the Linguistic Society of America passed a landmark resolution calling for the immediate cessation of the all Native American names, nicknames, logos, and mascots in sport. The resolution is to respect and support the right of individual tribal nations to decide how to protect and celebrate their respective tribal heritages, including their right to control how their names will be used in public spaces.… Read More
Why You Shouldn’t Freak Out About Babies Named for Instagram Filters
Parents have started naming babies after Instagram filters, but we shouldn’t be concerned about the future of baby names. In an interview with Time, Dr. Cleveland Evans explains the nature of this new onomastic trend.
First Names and Family Names in the Context of the Law on Personal Names and Onomastics, Budapest, Hungary, December 10, 2015
On the 10th of December, 2015, an interdisciplinary workshop entitled “First Names and Family Names in the Context of the Law on Personal Names and Onomastics” will be held in Budapest, Hungary. The workshop is organized by the Department of Civil Law, Faculty of Law, Eötvös Loránd University.
Topics to be discussed include:
- the right to name and the Court of Justice of the European Union
- children’s right to their names
- current regulations and trends in first name choices in Hungary
- legal and linguistic issues involved in name changes in modern-day Hungary
- valid rules of entering names in Hungarian official registers
Talks will be given by academic scholars of Law and Linguistics as well as ministerial executives and public administrators. The language of the workshop is Hungarian and the conference program in available in Hungarian..
A piece of architectural and onomastic history in Budapest, Hungary
In Budapest, Hungary in the 1830s, in the square known today as Magyar jakobinusok tere, there once stood a two-story residential building with an elaborate tympanum decorated with a imposing statue of God creating the world. Inspired by this architectural detail, the German-speaking citizens of Budapest named the building Schöpfungshaus (‘Creation House’) and the street in front of it “Schöpfungs Gasse” (‘Creation Avenue’).… Read More
At Princeton, Woodrow Wilson, a Heralded Alum, Is Recast as an Intolerant One
Woodrow Wilson is perhaps best known as the 28th President of the United States. However, at Princeton University, the name of the Nobel Peace Prize winning politician from the Southern state of Virginia has begun to take on an additional association: racial discrimination.
The university’s Black Justice League has publicized the history of Wilson’s unwavering private and public support for racial segregation in the United States. According to leaders of the Princeton activists, this legacy of intolerance is not only an affront to minority students and staff, it also calls into question the appropriateness of university institutions continuing to carry the former President’s surname. Critics of the recent calls for on-campus name-changes are quick to remind, however, that the prestige which the university currently enjoys is due in no small measure to Wilson’s past leadership as one of the university’s early presidents.
According to an article appearing recently in the New York Times, the final decision over whether the names of certain campus mainstays such as the renowned “Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs” will undergo an onomastic make-over is in the hands of the University’s Board of Trustees. Although deleting the name Wilson will not right the wrongs done during the Wilsonian period, the discussion may well help current generations to appreciate the importance of protecting the civil rights which so many gave their lives to secure.
Research showing female-named storms seen as less threatening ‘worth considering’
ABS news Australia recently reported that meteorologists down under are re-considering the tradition of bestowing storms male and female names. According to Alan Sharp who manages the tropical cyclone warning services for Australia, questions have been raised in response to American researchers’ findings that storms bearing female names may be taken less seriously than storms carrying male names. Whether or not the decades of results gathered by American investigators working within Gender Studies, Psychology, and Statistics actually apply to Australia has not yet been demonstrated.
Based on work published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, this assertion is to be taken quite seriously. As reported in an article from the Washington Post, some research indicates that simply “changing a severe hurricane’s name from Charley […] to Eloise[…] could nearly triple its death toll.” These findings are important for risk management.
How to Make Your Last Name Plural This Christmas Season
Many Americans struggle with the nuances of prescriptive grammar in relation to their names. If you want to follow the prescribed rules, here is a recap of how to pluralize your family name for your holiday cards.… Read More
Conference called “Seafaring: An Early Medieval Conference on the Islands of the North Atlantic”, Denver, Colorado, November 3-5, 2016
The Department of English of the University of Denver will be hosting a special conference called “Seafaring: An Early Medieval Conference on the Islands of the North Atlantic” from the 3rd to the 5th of November, 2016. Abstracts for the conference for sessions, seminars, workshops/forums are now being accepted.
Scientists whose work deals with naming and the cross-cultural and/or multi-linguistic relationships among people of the North Atlantic are encouraged to submit an abstract. The Medieval Association of Place and Space (MAPS) can provide more information on that event and on other events of potential interest to researchers working on cartography, geography, and onomastics.
Association of American Geographers Conference, San Francisco, California, March 29- April 2, 2016
Registration is now open for the 2016 conference of the Association of American Geographers (AAG) to be held in San Francisco, California from March 29th to April 2nd 2016. The meeting will be held in the Hilton San Francisco Union Square and will feature over 5,000 presentations, posters, workshops, and field trips. Poster abstract submissions are due by the February 18th, 2016.
French Geographer Dr. Matthieu Giroud among the victims of the Paris terrorist attacks
One important branch of onomastics involves the investigation of the intersection between language and topography. To that end, many onomasticians are also geographers.
The American Name Society is sad to share the tragic news, recently confirmed by the Association of the American Geographers (AAG): On the 13th of November, 2015, French geographer, Dr. Matthieu Giroud, an Associate Professor at the Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée, was murdered in the terrorist attacks in Paris, France. Dr. Giroud’s area of specialization was immigration and inter-ethnic relations. Dr. Giroud leaves behind his 3 year old son and his wife, who is pregnant with their second child.
The American Name Society expresses condolences to both the Giroud family and all the other mourners who’ve lost loved ones during terrorist attacks this year.