Professor Pascaline Faure (Pierre and Marie Curie School of Medicine, Sorbonne University, Paris, France) had an interview with Tom Whipple of the Times (London) about her forthcoming article in Names entitled “Natesto®. What Else? New Trends in Drug Naming”. In this article, Professor Faure discusses recent trends in drug names – some of which “sounded like espresso coffee machines, such as Ingrezza, Tagrisso, Natesto, Afrezza and Portrazza.”
At the Nameberry blog, Claire Bristow writes about Christmas babies, thankful names for miracle babies, and inspiration from high society. Here are some highlights:
In England, Santa visited a hospital – to give birth. It made the news when a mother called Santa had a baby girl called Rebeka on Christmas day, but it’s not an uncommon name in the mother’s home country of Latvia: it was in the top 100 until 2010.
Mindy Kaling has revealed her daughter Katherine’s middle name, Swati – the name of Mindy’s late mother.
Parents in England have named their daughter Abbey Raye Loxley: Abbey after a doctor named Abey who helped with their fertility treatment, Raye as in a ray of sunshine, and Loxley after a clinic they used.
Head over to Nameberry to find out more!
Source: Courtesy Fenty Beauty
Fenty Beauty is following up its holiday makeup launch with classic lipsticks. Each hue is based on a different mood, and the names are just as bold as the shades.
Fenty Beauty’s matte lipsticks are called Mattemoiselle. The Mattemoiselle lipsticks comes in 14 different shades that have equally as quirky names. According to the press release, each shade was named with a different mood in mind. Some of them are obvious — like the “moody brown” PMS or the bright orange Up 2 No Good hue. Others are a little more creative, like Ma’Damn and the deep green Midnight Wasabi.
“Lipstick is all about having fun and expressing your mood at any given moment,” Rihanna says in the press release. “This collection makes it easier than ever because there’s a color for everyone.” Click through to this article at the Bustle to find out more!
From the 4th to the 6th of June 2018, researchers working within the area of post-colonial studies are encouraged to attend a special conference in Zurich, Switzerland. The interdisciplinary conference, “Postcolonial Language Studies: Changes and Challenges”, will encompass the fields of anthropological linguistics, historical linguistics, language documentation, and sociolinguistics. Researchers who are interested in presenting a formal paper are encouraged to submit a 300-word abstract (excl. references) to iacpl@es.uzh.ch by January 28, 2018.
In a Korean Starbucks, the baristas’ nametags nearly all bear, in bold, chalky, Roman capital letters, names like SALLY or RYAN or ANGIE. It turns out to have come down from corporate: “Starbucks staff are required to have nicknames,” writes the Korea Times‘ Kim Young-jin. “The reason, company officials say, is to create a culture in which all ‘partners’ are equal.”
In this Korea Blog post by Colin Marshall at the LA Review of Books, he looks at the phenomenon of Koreans using “English” names in Seoul – who does it? And why? And what makes a name “English”?
An exhausted Rohingya woman arrives with her children at Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh after fleeing Myanmar in September 2017. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Dr. Cleveland Evans writes about names for the Omaha World-Herald. In his January 16th column, he looks at the ANS 2017 Name of the Year.
At its meeting in Salt Lake City earlier this month, the American Name Society voted Rohingya as the 2017 Name of the Year.
More than 650,000 members of the Islamic group Rohingya fled Myanmar in 2017, creating a massive refugee problem in Bangladesh. The Myanmar army has targeted the Rohingya for persecution and massacres.
The American Name Society vote comes in protest of attempts to suppress the Rohingya name and deny them status as people deserving equal treatment and protection from persecution. Each year, the ANS chooses Names of the Year for places, fictional names, personal names and miscellaneous and/or trade names before choosing an overall Name of the Year.
Want to know more? Read on to find out more about the Names of the Year!
The top baby names of and pop culture rank among the most popular sources for dog names, according to Rover.com’s fifth annual report of the year’s most popular dog names.
Rover’s data revealed that now more than ever, Americans turn to popular culture for dog name inspiration. In 2017, 8 percent of all dog names were clearly pop culture-influenced. From “Stranger Things” to “Star Wars,” pet owners are naming their dogs after their favorite icons. Also, for the third year in a row, the top baby names of the year are among the most popular dog names. The humanization of dogs has been trending upward every year, with human-inspired names making up a whopping 44 percent of all dog names in 2017—up 57 percent from 2016.
Click through to this article at Pet Products News to find out the most popular dog names!
One of the top brands of sanitary napkins in India is “Whisper”, a name that comes from the shame and secrecy associated with buying such a product. Owned by Procter & Gamble, the sanitary napkin is called “Always” in the US, UK, Canada, France, Germany and Africa. In India and other Asian countries, however, the brand is called “Whisper”.
Now, a petition on Change.org started by Shreya Gupta of Bengaluru is asking Whisper to change its name. In a video that goes with the petition, two young women talk about the power of a name and how ‘Whisper’ contributes to creating a negative idea about menstruation. The women say that despite all of Whisper’s efforts to break the taboo around menstruation through their progressive advertising, the brand name sends out a subliminal message – that you have to be secretive about your period and whisper about it.
Read this article at The News Minute to find out more about the petition and to watch the video!
Do you know where the surnames Wright, Fletcher, Cooper, and Smith come from? They all started as the names of occupations! Many surnames come from a person’s job, although you won’t find many coopers (someone who makes or repairs wooden casks or tubs) around these days. Check out this article at Merriam-Webster that explains the origins of these names and more – including, of course, Webster!
Star map painting by Senior Wardaman Elder Bill Yidumduma Harney, featuring the Milky Way, the Moon, and ancestor spirits.
The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has recognized 86 new star names from Chinese, Coptic, Hindu, Mayan, Polynesian, South African and Aboriginal Australian cultures. This represents a significant step forward by the IAU in recognizing the importance of traditional language and Indigenous starlore. Among the 86 new star names are four stars with Australian Aboriginal names—Larawag, Wurren, Ginan and Unurgunite. Aboriginal Australian cultures stretch back at least 65,000 years, representing the most ancient star names on the list.
The names include three from the Wardaman people of the Northern Territory and one from the Boorong people of western Victoria. The Wardaman star names are Larawag, Wurren and Ginan in the Western constellations Scorpius, Phoenix and Crux (the Southern Cross). The Boorong star name is Unurgunite in Canis Majoris (the Great Dog).
Want to learn more? Click through to this informative article at The Conversation.
