After reading the New York Times Interview with ANS Information Officer Lisa Spira, Talk the Talk decided to talk about names.
Talk the Talk is a weekly linguistics podcast from the community radio station RTR, in Perth, Australia. Listen to Episode 266 to learn some great stories about names and their etymologies.… Read More
With Cuba in the news this week, it might be interesting to take a look at the unique naming trends of Cuba’s “Generation Y.”
According to the names website, www.babycenter.com, 2015 saw some very interesting changes in the most popular list for Hispanic baby names in the US. While the names Valeria, Zoe, and Melanie failed to make it to the list of ten most popular girls names, the names Samantha and Emily just managed to reach a top spot. Among the boys names, Mateo and Sebastián were able to maintain their popularity and Daniel and Alexander pushed forward to take sports six and seven. Here is the entire listing with more interesting facts.
The Islamic world not only has a rich culture, filled with fine arts, music, and literature. It also has a rich history of beautiful personal names. Here are a few websites where you can learn more about personal names from the Muslim world, their fascinating history, and their meanings:
Absalom (Hebrew), Pacifica (Spanish), Calum (Celtic), and Selima (Arabic), Baris (Turkish), Zalman (Yiddish), Amani (Swahili), and Inga (Norse). What do all of these names have in common? They are all names associated with peace and love, which is something the world needs more of these days. Read more names for peace on Nameberry.com.
It has happened to all of us at least once; and to more than a few of us, several times: forgetting someone’s name. It is a universally embarrassing, all too common, experience. In this BBC article, journalist Tom Stafford takes a closer look at this phenomenon and helps to explain the science behind forgetting and remembering people’s names.
“The Punisher”, “Harry”, “The Real Eagle of Davao”. These are all names for one and the same person: President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines. Read more about the feisty politician who’s been known to use more than a few colorful nicknames himself.
On the 22nd of June, 2017, a special workshop examining the morphological issues of modern Greek lexicography will be held in Nicosia, Cyprus. The one-day event will be a part of the 11th Mediterranean Morphology Meeting that will be taking place from the 22nd to the 25th of June 2017 in Nicosia. All interested lexicographers are invited to send in abstracts, no longer than 400 words, to mmm11cy@gmail.com. The deadline for submission is 1 February 2017.
Leaders rise and leaders fall. Communities that try to keep up with these vicissitudes may soon find themselves in a real political and financial bind, when it comes to the names that adorn their streets, alleys, rivers, highways, and byways. What is a legislature to do? Should it keep the toponymic reminders of leaders gone-by as valuable sociohistorical signposts of days-gone-by? Or should it try to go with the times and periodically replace public toponyms, particularly those once inspired by leaders who have since fallen into disrepute. In this UK Guardian article, reporter, Nick Van Mead, explores this question and how it has been answered in several major US and European cities.
The American Name Society requests nominations for the “Names of the Year for 2016”. The names selected will be ones that best illustrates, through their creation and/or use during the past 12 months, important trends in the culture of the United States and Canada.
Nominations are called for in the four following categories:
Personal Names: Names or nicknames of individual real people, animals, or hurricanes.
Place Names: Names or nicknames of any real geographical location, including all natural features, political subdivisions, streets, and buildings. Names of national or ethnic groups would be included here.
Trade Names: Names of real commercial products, as well as names of both for-profit and non-profit companies and organizations, including businesses, universities, and political parties.
Fictional/Literary Names: Names of fictional persons, places, or institutions, in any written, oral, or visual medium, as well as titles of art works, books, plays, television programs, or movies.
Winners will be chosen in each category, and then a final vote will determine the overall Name of the Year for 2016. Anyone may nominate a name. All members of the American Name Society attending the annual meeting will select the winner from among the nominees at the annual ANS meeting in Austin, Texas on January 6, 2017. The winner will be announced that evening at a joint celebration with the American Dialect Society.
Advance nominations must be received before January 3, 2017. Nominations will also be accepted from the floor at the annual meeting. Please send your nominations, along with a brief rationale, to Dr. Cleveland K. Evans at cevans[@]bellevue.edu.
