Join us for a panel on structure and creativity in naming practices at the 2026 Annual Meeting of the American Name Society. Papers in this panel include:
“On the linguistic structure of paint color names: Kale green, slow green or green sprout?” by Elsi Kaiser, University of Souther California, USA
Relative to basic-level color terms (e.g. green, yellow), color names (e.g. Kale Green, Friendly Yellow) have received less linguistic attention. We present an analysis of 6000+ paint names from six paint companies. We looked at names with color terms in first/second position (e.g. Blue Sky, Sky Blue) and identified four main types. We posit that novel noun+color compounds (e.g. Summer White) and human-trait attribution (e.g. Friendly Yellow, Agreeable Gray) are frequent because they yield eye-catching names while allowing some color identifiability. We also analyze part-of-speech (Acorn, Intuitive, Ponder), metaphorical uses (Patience vs. Snow), and morphology (Greige (gray+beige), Grayish).
“Breed, Language, and Word Formation in the Names of Thoroughbreds in Turkey” by F. Nihan Ketrez, Istanbul Bilgi University, Turkey
This study investigates the naming practices of Arabian and English thoroughbreds in Turkey. Names were analyzed by language (Turkish, foreign, or mixed), length, and morpho(syntactic) structure: simplex, derived, compound, phrase, or sentence. Results show that Arabian horses are more likely to bear Turkish names, which are also shorter on average, while English thoroughbreds more often carry foreign names. Across both languages, compounding is the most frequent word-formation strategy, and overall proportions of naming strategies are similar. These findings highlight how horse breed correlates with language choice and name length, contributing to crosslinguistic research on animal naming practices.
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