By General Artists Corporation (management)/photographer: “Bruno of Hollywood” – eBay itemphoto frontphoto back, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18229272
A recent NPR article explores the rise, and fall, of the name Bobby in America. From an explosion in popularity in the post-war period, particularly among music stars, the name suddenly dropped out of popularity by the 1970s.
You can read the full article here.
Call for Papers
The 2026 Annual Meeting of the
American Name Society
ONLINE (via Zoom)
The American Name Society is now inviting proposals for papers for its next annual conference. The one-day event will be held virtually via Zoom, allowing for the attendance of onomastics scholars from around the world. The 2026 ANS conference will not be held in conjunction with the Linguistics Society of America conference.
Abstracts in any area of onomastic research are welcome: personal names, place names, business and institutional names, names theory, names in literature, among others.
Proposals require these elements:
To submit a proposal, complete the 2026 Author Information Form found here:
Email completed forms to the ANS at: abstracts@americannamesociety.org
For organizational purposes, place “ANS2026” in the subject of your email.
All proposals will be subjected to blind review. Notification of proposal acceptances will be sent by October 31, 2025. Authors whose papers have been accepted must be current members of ANS and must register for the annual meeting. Please contact us at info@americannamesociety.org if you have any questions or concerns.
We look forward to receiving your submission!
Dr. Cleveland Evans writes about names for the Omaha World-Herald. In his July 27th column, he discusses the name “Frank”.
Between the 11th and 14th centuries, Frank was common as a boys’ name in England. Like many medieval names, it then largely disappeared.
Frank came back as a nickname for Francis, English form of Italian Francesco, “a Frenchman,” when the fame of St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) spread his name across Europe.
It’s hard to tell exactly when Frank started being used separately from Francis again, but this started by 1800. Jane Austen’s 1815 novel “Emma,” featuring handsome genial wealthy Frank Churchill, helped spread the name.
The 1850 United States census, first listing all free residents by name, found 17,228 male Franks, along with 71,733 Francises and 37,257 Franklins. English surname Franklin (“freeman”) became an American given name in honor of founding father Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790).
A decade later the 1860 census found 88,681 Francises, 57,854 Franklins and 106,459 Franks. Some Franks were officially Francis or Franklin, though it’s difficult to know how many. Still, the over six-fold increase in Franks shows the name was skyrocketing in use.
In 1880, when Social Security’s yearly baby name lists begin, 2.738% of boys were named Frank, ranking it sixth. That was Frank’s peak. The percentage of boys named Frank has declined almost every year since — but it’s done so extremely slowly. Frank was among the top ten names until 1923, the top fifty until 1971 and the top hundred until 1989.
Want to learn more? Read on to learn more about the name “Frank”!
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The American Name Society (ANS) is now issuing its first call for abstracts for an upcoming Special issue of the Society’s journal, NAMES: A Journal of Onomastics.
One of the most fascinating areas of interdisciplinary research involving onomastics, criminology, and the law is forensic onomastics. The current call for paper proposals for original pieces of research for an upcoming Special Issue of NAMES devoted to this branch of onomastic investigation. Possible topics of interest include but are not limited to the following:
Proposals for research examining any name type, during any period of time, 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 invited. Investigations may also employ qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods. Data relevant to either criminal or civil law may be examined. 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 fact-based contribution to both forensic linguistics and onomastics. All Interested authors are asked to submit their formal proposals using the following guidelines.
Proposal Submission Process
For further information about this call, please feel free to contact Professor I. M. Nick (nameseditor@gmail.com).
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Trump plans to reinstate the names of Confederate generals for army bases, according to a recent NYT article,
‘In a statement, the Army said it would “take immediate action” to restore the old names of the bases originally honoring Confederates, but the base names would instead honor other American soldiers with similar names and initials.’
A recent Washington Post article explores the declining adoption of the spouse’s surname after marriage: ‘Americans in their 20s are about half as likely to adopt their spouses’ names as were their octogenarian grandparents’.
There is some variation by political leaning: ‘registered Democrats are more than twice as likely as registered Republicans to be in couples that kept their names after marriage’
A recent USA Today article has highlighted a new governmental policy mandating that transgender employees of both the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health employ the name that appears on their birth certificate.
Dr. Cleveland Evans writes about names for the Omaha World-Herald. In his May 4th column, he discusses the name “Luke”.
Since 1979 fans of “Star Wars” have celebrated May 4, punning “May the fourth” with catch phrase “May the Force be with you.” Though it’s now usually called “Star Wars Day,” earlier it was often “Luke Skywalker Day” after the young hero (played by Mark Hamill) who battles the evil empire in a galaxy far, far away.
Luke’s the English form of Greek Loukas, meaning “man from Lucania.” Lucania was a region in-between the “toe” and “boot” of the Italian peninsula. “Lucania” derives from an ancient Oscan word for “light” or “sunrise”, being east of the original Oscan homeland.
Saint Luke, a physician who traveled with the Apostle Paul, wrote both the New Testament’s Gospel of Luke and Acts of the Apostles. 28 churches in medieval England were dedicated to him, and in 1379 the name Luke ranked 34th for Englishmen.
The 1850 United States census found 4,552 Lukes, while the 1851 British census found 7,639, when the two countries had similar total populations. Some American Protestants may have avoided Luke because it was well-used by Catholic immigrants. 16.6% of 1850’s Lukes were Irish-born.
When Social Security’s yearly baby name lists start in 1880, Luke ranked 252nd. Its use slowly fell, bottoming out at 597th in 1942.
Want to learn more? Read on to learn more about the name “Luke”!
Dr. Cleveland Evans writes about names for the Omaha World-Herald. In his May 18th column, he discusses the top baby names of 2024.
Sophia, Liam, and Noah continued their reign as top baby names in 2024, while the Hawaiian derived “Ailany” had one of the biggest and most mysterious booms ever.
On May 9, the Social Security Administration released the United States’ top baby names of 2024.
On SSA’s lists, Liam and Olivia have been No. 1 since 2019.
SSA counts every spelling separately. I add together spellings pronounced the same, creating lists I think show popularity more accurately.
When alternative spellings like Jaxon were added, Jackson was first on my list from 2013 through 2020. Jackson’s now swiftly declining, ranking only fifth in 2024. Liam, Noah, and Oliver are the top three on both my “combined spellings” list and Social Security’s single spelling version.
Liam rose 6.7% and Noah 7.4% last year, despite the total number of births only increasing 0.3%.
Noah’s an international star. Latest figures show it’s No. 1 in Australia, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Norway, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland, and both French and English speaking Canada. Noah is also among the top ten in Austria, Denmark, England, France, Ireland, Lithuania, Puerto Rico and the Philippines. One wonders if young parents are unconsciously preparing sons to deal with climate change caused floods.
The latter seven of my 2024 boys top ten were Mateo, Jackson, Luca, Lucas, Elijah, Theodore and James. Theodore rose 8.5% to replace Aiden. Aiden, No. 1 between 2006 and 2012, dropped to 13th.
Want to learn more? Read on to learn more about the top baby names of 2024!
