Month: June 2018

Philips Lighting has changed its name to Signify

What’s the significance of Signify? In this name review, Alex Kelley of Catchword digs into this name change for Philips.

Here’s a sample:

Signify is retaining the Philips brand for their products, like Philips Hue. You may have heard of this colorful, smart-home enabled lights platform, which is perhaps the greatest innovation in home ambience control since the dimmer switch.

The company has well over a hundred years of name equity, the products are retaining the Philips name, and, aside from GE, Philips is the most recognizable brand in bulbs … so why make the change?

Click through to read the rest!

 

 

Call for Papers: 2019 ANS Conference Special Panel on Names and Tourism

The ANS is inviting abstract submissions for a panel on Names and Tourism for the 2019 annual conference, to be held in New York in conjunction with the Linguistic Society of America. The purpose of the panel is to highlight research in and the study of names in relation to tourism discourses. More specifically, naming practices in tourism are relevant as they suggest distinction, originality, authenticity or even romance for a number of reasons. The range of issues at stake is quite broad as it may include linguistic, literary, historical and archeological references to local traditions as well as the strategies adopted to rebrand places to make them more appealing to potential visitors.

All names enthusiasts are invited to submit an abstract for a 20-minute presentation. Abstract proposals should focus on one or more of the following areas of interest:

  • archaeological sites and tourism
  • film/documentary-induced tourism
  • history, collective memory and tourism discourses
  • literature-induced tourism
  • tangible/ intangible heritage tourism

To submit a proposal, simply send a 250-word abstract proposal and a 100- word professional biography to Luisa Caiazzo [luisa.caiazzo@unibas.it] by the 15th of July 2018. For organizational purposes, please be sure to include the phrase “ANS 2019 Panel” in the subject line of your email.

All proposals will be subjected to blind review. Official notification of proposal acceptances will be sent on or before September 30, 2018. All authors whose papers have been accepted must be current members of the ANS and are expected to register with both the ANS and the Linguistic Society of America. Please feel free to contact Luisa Caiazzo should you have any questions or concerns.

A downloadable version of the call for papers can be found here.

We look forward to receiving your submission!

How Brands Are Built: Linguistic Analysis

On Monday’s episode of How Brands Are Built, Laurel Sutton (ANS Information Officer) of Sutton Strategy talks linguistic checks—you know, that crucial step in the naming process that keeps you from accidentally offending a whole country with a name that’s slang for “masturbation”. Listen in to learn:

 What linguistic analysis is and why it’s important
 What it means to do a “global” linguistic check
 Why linguistic checks are still advisable even for US-only brands
 The difference between translation and transliteration
 What “FIGS” stands for

You can follow this link to listen and read a transcript, or click below!

Why Startups Are Obsessed With Human Names

Over the past few years, a crowd of new companies has emerged across tech, finance and health—all sporting a first-name brand. “Oscar,” “Alfred,” “Lola” —they have the look and feel of a friend, a colleague, maybe even your cat. And that’s the point: Make a connection with consumers that even Dale Carnegie would appreciate.

The strategy seems to be working. Research shows that the more simple and human-sounding the name, the greater the company’s success. Brands with short, easy to pronounce names were viewed more positively by investors, a 2012 study published in the Journal of Financial Economics found. By reducing name length by just one word, companies can see a boost of 2.53 percent to their book-to-market ratio—a formula used to find the market value of a company—or $3.75 million for a medium-size firm, according to the study.

Check out this article at Bloomberg.com about the trend in personal names in startups!

About Names: From Roman origins, a name that still hits the Mark

Mark Hamill at Star Wars: The Last Jedi Japan Premiere Red Carpet

Dr. Cleveland Evans writes about names for the Omaha World-Herald. In his June 5th column, he looks at the history of the name Mark.

Mark is the English form of Marcus, a common given name for ancient Roman men. It’s derived from Mars, Roman god of war. The most famous Roman Marcus is Marcus Antonius, called Mark Antony in English. A friend of Julius Caesar, he vied for power after Caesar’s death. His love affair and alliance with Cleopatra, leading to defeat and suicide in 33 B.C., have been portrayed in countless books and films.

In the 19th century, many Biblical names went out of style in America. The 1850 United States census included 7,623 Marks. In Britain, 17,193 were found in 1851, when the two countries had similar populations. In 1880, when Social Security’s yearly baby name lists began, Mark ranked 160th. By then, the most famous American Mark was Samuel Clemens (1835-1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain. Creator of beloved characters Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, Twain was one of the best known public figures of his day.

 Famous Marks born during the name’s heyday include investor and “Shark Tank” star Cuban (born 1958), Olympic swimmer Spitz (1950) and Luke Skywalker actor Hamill (1951).

Want to know more? Read on to find out more about Marks in history!

Call for Papers (Third Extended Call): ANS 2019, New York City, NY, January 3-6, 2019

The ANS is inviting abstract submissions for the 2019 annual conference to be held in conjunction with the Linguistic Society of America.  Abstracts in any area of onomastic research are welcome. The deadline for receipt of abstracts is July 31, 2018.  To submit a proposal, simply complete the 2019 Author Information Form.

Please email this completed form to Dr. Dorothy Dodge Robbins using the following address: drobbins@latech.edu. For organizational purposes, please be sure to include the phrase “ANS 2019” in the subject line of your email. Presenters who may need additional time to secure international payments and travel visas to the United States are urged to submit their proposal as soon as possible.

All proposals will be subjected to blind review. Official notification of proposal acceptances will be sent on or before September 30, 2018. All authors whose papers have been accepted must be current members of the ANS and need to register with both the ANS and the Linguistic Society of America. Please feel free to contact Dr. Dorothy Dodge Robbins should you have any questions or concerns.

A downloadable PDF of the Call for Papers can be found here.

We look forward to receiving your submission!

Book Announcement: The Political Life of Urban Streetscapes: Naming, Politics, and Place

The Political Life of Urban Streetscapes: Naming, Politics, and Place
Edited by Reuben Rose-Redwood, Derek Alderman, Maoz Azaryahu
2018 Routledge
334 pages | 18 B/W Illus.

Streetscapes are part of the taken-for-granted spaces of everyday urban life, yet they are also contested arenas in which struggles over identity, memory, and place shape the social production of urban space. This book examines the role that street naming has played in the political life of urban streetscapes in both historical and contemporary cities. The renaming of streets and remaking of urban commemorative landscapes have long been key strategies that different political regimes have employed to legitimize spatial assertions of sovereign authority, ideological hegemony, and symbolic power. Over the past few decades, a rich body of critical scholarship has explored the politics of urban toponymy, and the present collection brings together the works of geographers, anthropologists, historians, linguists, planners, and political scientists to examine the power of street naming as an urban place-making practice. Covering a wide range of case studies from cities in Europe, North America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia, the contributions to this volume illustrate how the naming of streets has been instrumental to the reshaping of urban spatial imaginaries and the cultural politics of place.