The New Zealand Geographic Board has just announced a special World War I Place Naming Project.

The goal of the project is to highlight national toponyms connected to the First World War and to publicize the histories of the people and events which served as their namesakes. To mark the centenary of the war, the project will feature the 30 prominent WWI toponyms, and will officially inaugurate 16 others.

The general public is invited to participate in this special naming project by nominating places and spaces in New Zealand for onomastic recognition. Nominations can be sent to tww1placenames[@]linz.govt.nz

Edmund Pettus Bridge

This year marks the 50th anniversary of a series of Civil Right Demonstrations for Voting Rights. On the 7th of March, 1965, unarmed demonstrators and activists were brutally attacked by Alabama state and local law enforcement officials armed with tear-gas and billy clubs. The scene of what is known today as “Bloody Sunday” was the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

On the 3rd of June, 2015, the Alabama Senate voted to change the name of this historic landmark to Journey to Freedom Bridge.

Supporters of the onomastic legislation argued that the name change would:

• honor the memory of the Civil Rights protest marches which culminated in the legendary March on Washington and the momentous “I Have  a Dream Speech” by Martin Luther King.
• rid the landmark of the original name-sake: a U.S. Senator, Confederate General, and Grand Dragon of the KKK.

This second reason caused controversy; both Pettus-critics and Pettus-supporters argued that the name is integral to remembering the remarkable history of Southern racism and activism.

While the Alabama House of Representatives decides on the onomastic resolution, the city of Selma came together at the beginning of this month to celebrate the diamond anniversary of this (in)famous U.S. American landmark.

For additional information, see this article and this article.

Wheaton College, the alma mater of the former Speaker of the US House of Representatives, J. Dennis Hastert, recently announced that it will be removing the politician’s name from its public policy center. The announcement came in reaction to Hastert’s federal indictment in connection to his having paid over 3 million dollars to conceal his sexual misconduct during the time that he served as a highschool teacher and wrestling coach. Click here for more information, as reported by The New York Times.

Wheaton College is certainly not the first to undergo onomastic purging after news of a namesake’s criminal misconduct surfaced. Just last year, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the district board voted to remove the name of State Senator Manny M. Aragon from the library at Lowell Elementary School after the politician was sent to federal prison for conspiracy to defraud the over 4 million dollars from the state of New Mexico.

New controversy has erupted over the domain name “dot sucks”, which encourages the creation of many protest addresses.

Just a few of the most sought after names to be conjoined with the “.sucks” domain name are Apple, Google, Microsoft, CocaCola, and McDonalds. To protect their brand, many such companies have already bought up domains featuring their brand/company and .sucks.

These domain names cost almost $3,000, compared with less than $100 for typical domain names. The company Vox Populi owns “.sucks”.

For more see on this development, see this Wall Street Journal article.

The California Assembly has passed a bill banning the use of the name “Redskins” for highschool mascots.  If the bill becomes a law, all California schools would be required to expunge what many Native American activists agree is an offensive and injurious moniker by the year 2017. In June 2014, the U.S. Patent Office officially canceled the trademark name with the argument that it is “disparaging to Native Americans”.