Racism Debate: Berlin to Rename Street and ‘U-Bahn’ Train Station

The discussion about changing street and station names in Berlin is not new, but the new racism debate triggered by the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota seems to be speeding things up. Two renamings are imminent.

Earlier this month, inhabitants of Wissmannstrasse in Berlin’s Neukölln district received leaflets with interesting content. It included an announcement according to which “Wissmannstrasse will be renamed”. Residents are supposed to hand in suggestions for a new name. The idea of renaming the street next to Hasenheide park is old. And there is a good reason: Hermann von Wissmann, whom the street was named after and who lived from 1853 to 1905, was the “colonial administrator” of ‘German East Africa’. His job title sounds good, but what he actually did does not.

Read here

Journal “Onomástica desde América Latina” has interface in English

We are glad to announce that the Journal Onomástica desde América Latina has interface in English and is receiving articles to compose its volume 2, numbers 3 and 4, with publication scheduled, respectively, for the first and second semesters of 2021. Student´s papers are welcome, as there is a section called Works that receives articles from graduate and undergraduate students.

The”Onomástica desde América Latina” journal is a semiannual publication dedicated to the promotion and diffusion of onomastic researches in national and international scope aimed at the internationalization of the Graduate Program in Language and Literature at Unioeste as a result of a partnership between Unioeste and Unam (National Autonomous University of Mexico).

About Names: Historical Carries did not keep calm, but the name has carried on

TV personality Carrie Ann Inaba

Dr. Cleveland Evans writes about names for the Omaha World-Herald. In his September 12th column, he looks at the history of the name Carrie.

Carrie is a pet form of Caroline. That feminine form of Charles (Germanic “a man”) was introduced to England by Caroline of Ansbach (1683-1737), Queen Consort of King George II. Its use soared in 1820 when her great-grandson George IV unsuccessfully tried to divorce his wife Caroline of Brunswick (1768-1821), making her a tragic heroine to Americans.

The 1850 U.S. Census, the first listing all residents by name, includes 123,617 Carolines and 152 Carries. Carrie Chapman Catt (1859-1947) led the fight for women’s suffrage and founded the League of Women Voters in 1920, becoming as famous as Carry A. Nation. Both, however, helped give Carrie an elderly image after 1900. It fell off as a baby name, bottoming out at 241st in 1950.

Carrie began booming again in the 1960s, about a generation earlier than expected. It was seen as an alternative for Karen, and also was helped by Kerry and Kari. Kerry, an Irish place name and surname, and Kari, a Norwegian form of Katherine, have different origins than Carrie. Most Americans, though, pronounce all three the same.

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

LSA 2021 Annual Meeting to Take Place Virtually, January 7-10, 2021

The Linguistic Society of America is happy to be able to announce to you that the LSA 2021 Annual Meeting will be held virtually. The dates will be the same as previously scheduled: January 7-10, 2021. Please check the LSA website in the coming weeks for information about the meeting schedule, format, online platform, virtual exhibit hall, registration, and more.

Given the uncertainty until now about the format of the Annual Meeting, some of you may have chosen not to submit an abstract for a meeting which you did not expect you would be able to attend. The LSA are actively considering other ways to allow our members to present peer-reviewed research virtually some time during the period between the 2021 and 2022 Annual Meetings.

Please note that the ANS meeting will be held online during the weekend of January 22-25, 2021, and will NOT be held in conjunction with the LSA meeting.

About Names: Hurricanes can cause a brief rise in a name’s popularity, then a drop

Dr. Cleveland Evans writes about names for the Omaha World-Herald. In his August 29th column, he looks at the history of hurricane names.

During World War II American meteorologists commonly gave women’s names to storms they tracked. This was practical: Using names is quicker and less error-prone than the previous latitude-longitude identification method. It reduces confusion when two or more tropical storms are active — as illustrated recently with Laura and Marco.

In 1951 and 1952, the National Hurricane Center used a phonetic alphabet (Able, Baker, Charlie, etc.) to name tropical storms. In 1953, it began using lists of women’s names. In 1979, male names were added, six rotating lists were created and the task of maintaining the lists turned over to a committee of the World Meteorological Organization.

How do hurricanes affect baby names? Names of infamous hurricanes often bump upward for babies in the year they occur, and then fall back. Katrina, which had been receding, rose 13% in 2005. Since 2005, it’s nosedived as “Katrina” has become an ongoing symbol of disaster. Similar if less sharp rises and falls occurred with Camille (1969), Celia (1970), Mitch (1998), Lili (2002), Charley (2004), Ike (2008) and Sandy (2012).

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

UPDATE! Meeting on atlases and toponymy in Madrid, Spain – scheduled for 21-24 April 2021

The National Geographic Institute of Spain organizes at the occasion of its 150th anniversary in cooperation with the ICA Commission on Atlases and our Joint ICA/IGU Commission on Toponymy a meeting on atlases and toponymy in Madrid, Spain. After repeated postponing it is now definitely scheduled for 21-24 April 2021.

You are invited contributing to the success of this meeting by presenting a paper on – in principle – any toponymic topic. It would, however, be most appreciated, if the topic was close to atlases with their variety of types and purposes ranging from topographic to thematic, from popular and school atlases to scientific, from world atlases across regional and national to city atlases, from printed to electronic atlases.

Abstracts of not more than 300 words including the title of your paper, your name, affiliation, and address are due by 10 January 2021. Please, send your abstract to peter.jordan@oeaw.ac.at

Seeking New ANS Officers for 2021

Ever thought about getting more involved with the American Name Society but did not know how? Here is your opportunity! The American Name Society is currently looking for a few good people who are interested in joining the Executive Council, as well as the Editorial Board. Starting January 2021, new officers will be needed to fill the positions listed below.

To apply for one or more of these Executive Council positions, please fill out the application form on this page.

Information Officer (2021-2023)

The person elected to this position will be responsible for maintaining the ANS social media presence via our website as well as Facebook and Twitter. The main duties for this position include the following: updating the news page of the ANS website on a weekly basis; posting special alerts (e.g., conference announcements, calls for papers, ANS newsletters); responding to requests made via the Facebook and Twitter accounts; and adding books that are reviewed in NAMES to the ANS Amazon Wishlist. The person chosen for this position must not only be highly computer literate, but also an avid user of social media. Experience in using WordPress is desirable but not mandatory. Training will be provided. The new Information Officer must also have excellent writing and time-management skills as well as a high level of creativity. The Information Officer will work very closely with the ANS President and Vice President throughout the year.

Allied Conference Coordinator (2021-2023)

The person elected to this position is principally responsible for organizing the ANS session at the annual conference of the Modern Language Association. This activity involves issuing a call for papers, assembling a team of abstract reviewers, selecting three authors whose work will be presented at the MLA conference, and coordinating the presentation of the three winning abstracts with the MLA administration. In addition to these duties, as a voting member of the ANS Executive Council (EC), the Allied Conference Coordinator participates in the legislative decision-making of the Society. Although the term of service for this position is for two years, the holder of this office may be re-elected pending approval by the EC. Given the fact that this position requires close communication with the MLA, candidates who have a demonstrated expertise in literary onomastics will receive preference.

Member-at-large (2021-2023)

The person elected to this position will serve as a voting member of the Executive Council (EC) and is expected to participate actively in the legislative decision-making involved in resolutions and motions placed before the EC. In addition to these duties, members-at-large serve on various auxiliary sub-committees to, for example, help with the nomination of new officers, coordination of the annual conference, and organization of allied conferences. Officers in this position can renew their term of service twice.

Name of the Year Coordinator (2021-2024)

The person elected to this position will be primarily responsible for coordinating and running the Name of the Year discussion at the Annual ANS Meeting. This involves working in tandem with the Secretary, Information Officer, Journal Editor-in-Chief, Journal Book Review Editor, and journal publisher to solicit nominations for the names of the year, both through email and an online survey. The Name of the Year Coordinator will receive all nominations and prepare official ballots for the Business Meeting where the Names of the Year will be decided by a majority of votes; they will chair the meeting, run the election, and announce the results at the American Dialect Society Meeting for “Word of the Year”. The Name of the Year Coordinator will prepare a press release about the nominations and winners, as well as written reports on the election process and results.

Names Editorial Board

We are currently seeking new applicants to join the NAMES Editorial Board. Although onomastic specialists in all areas of onomastic research are welcome to apply, we have a particular need for scholars with expertise in the following areas: toponymy, literary onomastics, anthroponymy, corpus/computer linguistics. Interested applicants should be native or near native speakers of English, have published in onomastics, and be a member in good-standing of the ANS or an allied onomastic scholarly society (e.g. The Canadian Society for the Study of Names, the International Council of Onomastic Sciences, The Society fro Name Studies in Britain and Ireland, etc.). Familiarity with a modern language other than English is also a bonus. As a general rule, editorial board members will not be expected to review more than 2 manuscripts per month. In addition, once a year, all members of the Editorial Board participate in the selection of the Best Article of the Year. If you are interested in joining our team, please complete and return the application from found at the following link: https://nick662.typeform.com/to/P6dzaz. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Professor I. M. Nick (nameseditor@gmail.com).

How Cincinnati got its name

From 1788-1790 the first settlement in the area was called Losantiville. This name was given to the settlement by John Filson, one of the founders of Cincinnati. The name is a compilation of “L” for the Licking River, “os” from the Latin meaning “mouth”, “anti” from the Greek meaning “opposite”, and “ville” from Anglo-Saxon, meaning “city” or “town”. This comes out as “The Town Opposite the Mouth of the Licking”.

In 1790 General Arthur St. Clair, the first governor of the Northwest Territory and a member of the Society of the Cincinnati, did not like the name Losantiville and changed it to Cincinnati. The Cincinnati Society was named in honor of the Roman general Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus. He lived in the Fifth century BC. While plowing his fields one day he was told to take command of Rome’s army. Within 15 days he led the army to victory over the enemy. He then went back to his plowing. The Society of the Cincinnati was started by, and consisted of, Continental Army officers of the American Revolution.

Dr. Karen Pennesi on the Baby Names Podcast, with Jennifer Moss

On the Baby Names Podcast, ANS Member Jennifer Moss interviews Dr. Karen Pennesi!

This is the first of a two-part episode on Changing your Name. Mallory and Jennifer discuss why a person might want to change their name-first or last-and how to do so. They talk with Dr. Karen Pennesi, linguistic anthropologist at the University of Ontario, on name changing pertaining to immigration and cultural assimilation.

Check out Universal Design for Belonging: Living and Working with Diverse Personal Names by Dr. Karen Pennesi.