Voprosy Onomastiki (Problems of Onomastics) publishes Vol. 16 (2019), Issue 3

The editorial board of the journal Voprosy Onomastiki (Problems of Onomastics) is pleased to inform you of the publication of Vol. 16 (2019), Issue 3. The issue is available on the journal’s website.

 

Articles

Litvina, A., Uspenskij, F. Veneration of Baptismal Saints in Russia in the 16th–17th Centuries

Borovik, Iu. V. Personal Names of Newborns in the Old Believer Communities of Ekaterinburg in the Early 20th Century

Plotnikova, A. A. Notes on the Regional Features of Personal Naming among the Old Believers of Latgale

Mullonen, I. I. Motivation vs Remotivation as a Source of Ethnocultural Information (Based on Place Names of Karelia)

Voronina, L. V., Melnikova, Ju. N., Skokova, T. N. Word-Formation Patterns in German Toponymy: A Dynamic Perspective

Podberezkina, L. Z. The Onomasticon of “Stolbists”

Garanin, A. A., Garanina, R. M. The Use of Eponyms in Modern Medical Terminology

Podyukov, I. A. Onomastic Representation of the Otherworld in Russian Popular Language and Culture

Madieva, G., Suprun, V., Boribaeva, G. The Scientific, Folk, and Armchair Etymology of City Names (Based on the Names of the Cities in the Republic of Kazakhstan)

Golomidova, M. V. Use of Product-Naming Techniques for Creating Official City Toponyms: Analysis of Perspectives

Kachalkova, Yu., Ruth, M. “Ideological” Urban Place Names and the Renaming of City Streets

Sudakov, G. V. Settlement Names: Problems of Conventional Usage (with Reference to Oikonyms of the Vologda Region)

Notes

Breeze, A. Doubts on Irish Iubhar ‘Yew Tree’ and Eburacum or York

Sousa, X. Geonomastics on the Web: Visualizing Surname Distributions in a Regional Space

In memoriam

Dmitrieva, T. N. Gábor J. Székely and his Contribution to the Study of Language and Toponymy of the Mansi and Other North-Ural Peoples

A Bibliography of Works by Gábor B. Székely

Academic curriculum

Bekasova, E. N., Yakimov, P. A. 4th All-Russian Conference in Memory of Boris Moiseev

Voters will decide in a referendum on whether the island should compete as “Taiwan” rather than “Chinese Taipei”

A group of pro-independence advocates have claimed that Taiwan’s athletes would not be barred from international competition if a proposed name change for the island’s sporting teams went ahead, challenging a warning from the International Olympic Committee on the issue.

Voters will decide in a referendum this weekend on whether the island should compete as “Taiwan” rather than “Chinese Taipei” in all international sporting events, including the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

 

 

Taiwan has competed as Chinese Taipei since 1981, when Beijing – which sees the self-ruled island as a breakaway province to be reunited with the mainland – succeeded in making the IOC alter the island’s official “Republic of China” team name.

Since May 4, the IOC has warned the island three times that it risked losing its IOC membership and its athletes would not be allowed to attend international games if it pushed for the name change.

NASA Names Most Distant Object Ever Explored ‘Arrokoth,’ the Powhatan Word for Sky

Last January, NASA’s New Horizons probe flew past an icy space rock designated nearly four billion miles beyond Pluto. The rock, dubbed 2014 MU69, is the most distant cosmic body ever surveyed by a human spacecraft. At the time, the team nicknamed the object Ultima Thule after a mythical northern land beyond the borders of the known world. But the name didn’t stick due to its usage in Nazi ideology.

This week, NASA announced that the official name for 2014 MU69 will be Arrokoth, which is the word for “sky” in the Powhatan and Algonquian languages. The name was bestowed with the consent of tribal elders and representatives. “The name ‘Arrokoth’ reflects the inspiration of looking to the skies and wondering about the stars and worlds beyond our own,” planetary scientist Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator, says in a statement.

Navigating New York with the “City of Women” Map

Enjoy a chat with map co-creator Joshua Jelly-Schapiro about the process of creating “City of Women” and how maps help us see places in new ways.

The “City of Women” map, co-created by Rebecca Solnit and Joshua Jelly Schapiro, is based off of the iconic Vignelli subway map and names each station for a woman who left a mark in the “City that never sleeps.” Rebecca Solnit is the author of many books including Savage Dreams, Storming the Gates of Paradise, and the best-selling atlases Infinite City and Unfathomable City. Schapiro is a geographer and writer whose work often focuses on place, race, and how human difference is thought about and acted on in the world. He is the author of Island People: The Caribbean and the World (Knopf, 2016) and the co-editor, also with Rebecca Solnit, of Nonstop Metropolis: A New York City Atlas (California, 2016) which the City of Women map is a part of.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Place Names is online

The Dictionary has been realized by John Everett-Heath and comprises over 11,000 entries.

This dictionary explores the history, meanings, and origin of place names around the world. It covers continents, countries, regions, islands, bays, capes, cities, towns, deserts, lakes, mountains, and rivers, giving the name in the local language as well as key historical facts associated with many place names.

The fifth edition includes two recent county name changes: that of Swaziland to Eswatini and the final resolution of the long-running dispute about the name of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, which has become Northern Macedonia.

In addition to the entries themselves, the dictionary includes a glossary of foreign word elements which appear in place-names and their meaning, as well as a list of personalities and leaders who have influenced the naming of places around the world.

What is this “Name Day” Tradition in Spain?

Have you ever had a Spaniard inform you that today is special because “es el día de mi santo” (which literally means “it’s my saint’s day”)? While this is a foreign concept to most of us who grew up in the US, Spain and many other European countries have a long tradition of observing the Christian calendar of saints.

In Spain, families tend to choose names for their children that come from the Bible or are otherwise connected with history. Thus, they have a special day dedicated to each of these names and this day is almost like a secondary birthday for everyone with this name. Historically, many Spaniards would name their child after the saint whose day the child was born on but today that tradition is not so popular and it more common to have a saint’s day that does not fall on your birthday.

Read more here

Dave? Brigit? Why banking apps and startups suddenly all have human first names

When you need some money to make it to your next paycheck, you can always call on Dave. If you need budgeting help, reach out to Brigit. And for a personal loan to get you out of credit card debt, try Marcus.

That’s not to presume the names and financial situations of the people in your life: Dave, Brigit, and Marcus are all money-related apps and services that have human first names. Personable products aimed at your wallet are a definite mini-trend. There’s also Frank (student loans), Alice (automated pre-tax spending), Clyde (insurance), Oscar (also insurance), and Albert (savings, investment, and overdraft protection).

What’s behind all these names? ANS Vice President Laurel Sutton spoke to journalist  Meredith Haggerty at Vox to provide some insight. Here’s a sample of the article:

Laurel Sutton, a senior strategist and linguist at the naming agency Catchword, agrees. “They’re trying to take [the brand] away from a faceless institution,” Sutton told Vox. “That kind of branding seems very much on point for millennials or post-millennials.”

…

While chatbot names are even more complicated — humanoid enough to be friendly, singular enough that you’re not constantly triggering your Samsung “John” device — they’ve primed consumers to expect the products they work with intimately, the ones they trust with sensitive information, to feel like a buddy.

One thing Sutton notes about these names is the gender breakdown, the smattering of what she calls, “everyman white guy names.” Not all of these financial brand names follow this rule, but they certainly seem more masculine than the chatbot space with its A and I endings. “The patriarchy will tell you that you want a guy to help you with your money and you want a woman to do stuff for you,” Sutton says.

Want to find out more? Head over to Vox to read the whole article!

Invitation to Apply for the ANS Emerging Scholar Award 2019

ANS Logo final 1 img onlyThe Emerging Scholar award recognizes the outstanding scholarship of a names researcher in the early stages of their academic or professional career. To be eligible for this award, applicants must meet the following criteria:

  1. Be an entry-level professional, an untenured academic, or a student;
  2. Have had their single authored abstract accepted for presentation at the ANS annual conference; and
  3. Be a member of the ANS.

To be considered for this award, applicants must submit the full text of their paper by midnight (E.S.T.) the 5th of December 2019 to both ANS President Dr. Dorothy Dodge Robbins (drobbins@latech.edu) and this year’s ESA Chair, Dr. Jan Tent (jan.tent@mq.edu.au). Submissions must be sent as an email attachment in either a .doc or .docx format. For ease of processing, please be sure to include the keyword “ESA2019” in the subject line of your email.

The submission may not exceed 2,500 words (including the references, notes, and keywords but excluding any charts, graphs, or tables).

All submissions must include the following text elements in the order listed below:

  • 100-word abstract
  • 5 key words
  • Introduction
  • Methodology
  • Discussion
  • Conclusion
  • Notes (not to exceed 5 in number nor contain more than a total of 100 words)
  • List of references

In addition to these basic organizational guidelines, authors are asked to use the formatting rules listed in the official style sheet of NAMES, the journal of the American Name Society. Submissions will not only be judged upon the quality of the writing and the scientific merit of the study presented, but also on their adherence to these formatting regulations.

Papers previously published are not eligible for consideration. However, papers based on unpublished theses or dissertations are eligible. The Emerging Scholar Award Selection Committee will judge all submissions for their methodological soundness, innovation, and potential contribution to the field of onomastic research. The awardee will not only receive a cash prize, but will also be mentored by a senior onomastics scholar who will assist the awardee in preparing their paper for submission and possible publication in the ANS journal, NAMES: A Journal of Onomastics. Past recipients of the Emerging Scholar award are eligible to re-apply for this award for an entirely new piece of scholarship which examines a different area of onomastic research. However, preference may be given to applicants who have not yet received the award. In addition, the Selection Committee reserves the right to refrain from giving this award in those years in which no submission is deemed to have met the above-mentioned requirements.