The ANS’ own Cleve Evans, a recognized expert in baby names, is featured in an online article called “How Do Baby Names Become Popular?” in Romper magazine.

He explains that naming trends in the U.S. are driven by the desire of most parents to choose a name that’s “different, but not too different.” Parents achieve this, consciously or not, by slightly shifting the sounds of names that were popular a decade ago. The impact, while subtle, is absolutely visible in the yearly baby name round-up.

Read on to get the rest of the story!

The BBC is facing an angry reaction in Afghanistan after it changed the name of one of its local language Facebook pages to BBC Dari, one of the official names of the Afghan version of Persian or Farsi but one rejected by many local Persian speakers. Many Persian speakers say the name Dari has been imposed historically by the traditionally dominant Pashto ethnic group, as an implicit denial of Afghanistan’s place in the wider Persian-speaking world.

The head of the BBC’s Afghan service, Meena Baktash defended the use of the term Dari, noting that it was the official name of the language in Afghanistan. She said the change was intended to link the Facebook page to the BBC Dari radio service, which was launched in 2003 and which, together with the BBC Pashto service, occupies an important place in the crowded local media landscape.

Click through to read more of Al Jazeera’s coverage of this politically charged onomastic issue.

Bath Spa University offers the only UK MA program to integrate the study of both Crime Fiction and Gothic, and is now accepting applicants for 2018/19. Led by the International Crime Fiction Association’s director, Dr. Fiona Peters (Reader in Crime Fiction), this special program will introduce graduate students to the advanced study of two popular genres that have entertained and informed culture from the nineteenth century to the present day. The program is not only interdisciplinary, but also international, and will present students with an imaginative choice of texts from Britain, Europe ,and the Americas. For more details and a link to the online application, visit their home page at Bath Spa University.

On the 22nd of July 2011, the peaceful Norway experienced one of the deadliest attacks on its soil since the Second World War. Within a 24-hour period, the lives of 77 Norwegians were lost at the hands of the right-wing white supremacist Anders Behring Breivik. This autumn, it was formally announced that Breivik had officially been granted the right to change his name to Fjotolf Hansen. It is also under this new name that the mass murder is registered as the owner of a Geofarm, which the killer had used as a front for the purchase of the fertilizer he used to construct his homemade bombs. The defense lawyer who announced the name change refused to disclose the reason or reasons for his client’s change of nomenclature.

Many pieces of US legislation are given clever names to increase their appeal. An excellent example is the 2001 “Act to deter and punish terrorist acts in the United States and around the world, to enhance law enforcement investigatory tools, and for other purposes” that is better known today by the acronym USA PATRIOT ACT. Almost two decades later, the suggested name of another legislative act has made the news. In an effort to draw positive attention to an upcoming financial act, the current president suggested the name: “The Cut-Cut-Cut Act”. Instead of inspiring broad support, the suggested name spawned widespread ridicule. As a result, lawmakers have lobbied to scrap the onomastic proposal and name the act instead after its sponsor-in-chief.