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ANS Annual Meeting 2025 Schedule

The American Name Society Annual Meeting for 2025 will be held online using the Zoom platform. It is accessible via Mac or PC. The meeting will require a passcode, which will be sent via email to all registrants and presenters by 21 February 2025.

We have been working hard to set up a schedule that will work globally, and this means that some presenters will be scheduled at times outside of normal working hours. The schedule below is subject to change depending on speaker availability.

Keep apprised of any changes to the annual meeting schedule here on our website.

Register for the conference here!

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Saturday, February 22, 2025

ALL TIMES ARE UTC -8:00, PACIFIC STANDARD TIME

Conference Opening Address

5:15 AM Brandon Simonson (Boston University, MA, USA), Welcome and Opening Remarks

First Session

5:30 AM Nihan Ketrez (Istanbul Bilgi University, Turkey), Anthropomorphism in puppy and kitten names in Holly Webb’s children’s books and their translations

6:00 AM Anna Tsepkova (Novosibirsk State Pedagogical University, Russia): A Cross-cultural Analysis of Terms Applied to Unconventional Anthroponyms in American and Russian Onomastic Practices [Withdrawn]

6:30 AM Veronika Robustova (Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia): Proper Names As Means of Cultural and Historic Information Transfer

Second Session

7:00 AM Ayokunmi Ojebode (University of Nottingham, UK), Abimbola Alao (Independent Scholar, UK), and Victoria Tischler (University of Surrey, UK): Cross-cultural Names and Identities as Dementia Behaviours in Abimbola Alao’s ‘My Name is Beatrice’ and Trevor Smith’s ‘An Evening with Dementia’

7:30 AM Maria Kopf (Universität Hamburg, Germany): Name Changes and Name Co-existence in Deaf Signing Communities in Germany

8:00 AM Thomas Ditye (Sigmund Freud University, Austria): The fear of saying personal names

8:30 AM I.M. Nick (Germanic Society for Forensic Linguistics, Germany): Names: A Journal of Onomastics Editor’s Report

9:00 AM Break

9:30 AM ANS Committees Meeting

Third Session

10:00 AM Lennart Chevallier (Kiel University, Germany) and Sören Wichmann (Kiel University, Germany): Mapping place names

10:30 AM Jarmo Jantunen (University of Jyväskylä, Finland), Tehri Ainiala University of Helsinki, Finland), Salla Jokela (Tampere University, Finland), and Jenny Tarvainen (University of Jyväskylä, Finland): Mapping Digital Discourses of the Capital Region of Finland: Combining Onomastics, CADS, and GIS

11:00 AM Russell Fielding (Coastal Carolina University, SC, USA): “A Change of Name during Sickness”: Surveying the Widespread Practice of Renaming in Response to Physical Illness

Fourth Session

11:30 AM Anuoluwapọ Adéwùnmí ADÉTỌ̀MÍWÁ (University of Lagos, Nigeria): Anthroponymy and cultural identity: the significance of akan and yorùbá personal names

12:00 PM Hanna Virranpää (University of Helsinki, Finland): Place names used by the first-generation Finnish Americans: examining migration letters

12:30 PM Mary Ann Walter (University of the Virgin Islands, USA): Femininity and Phonetics in Drag Names

1:00 PM Michael Akinpelu (University of Regina, SK, Canada), Dr. Hasiyatu Abubakari (University of Ghana Accra, Ghana), and Dr. Michel Nguessan (Governors State University, IL, USA): A Comparative Study of Divine Names Across African Languages and Cultures

1:30 PM ANS Annual Business Meeting

Fifth Session

2:30 PM Kenneth Price (Texas A&M University, TX, USA): Promoting Onomastics in Travel Writing: Multimodal Travel Toponymies 

3:00 PM U-ri Go (Kangwon National University, Korea) and Jong-mi Kim (Kangwon National University, Korea): From Masculine to Feminine Naming Evolution: A Comparative Phonological Analysis of 18 Regions across Four Continents (1880-2023)

3:30 PM Cari Didion (Governors State University, IL, USA): Names and Brand Identity of Ethnic Businesses in Greater Chicago

Sixth Session

4:00 PM David Wade (Wade Research Foundation, USA): Name Peptides @ The University

4:30 PM Alexander Kilpatrick (Nagoya University of Commerce and Business, Japan): Machine Learning vs. Linear Regression: A Case Study on Gender Sound Symbolism in Japanese Given Names

5:00 PM Jinawat Kaenmuang (Chulalongkorn University, Thailand): Flavorful labels and elegant expressions: The role of culinary elements and rhetorical devices in Thai food shops’ nomenclature

5:30 PM Sarah Bunin Benor (Hebrew Union College, CA, USA): Shaina, Bamba, and Ruth Betta Finsberg: Trends in American Jews’ Naming of Pets

Closing

 

“Ozempic” is the ANS Name of the Year for 2024

filed under Featured, Name News, Name of the Year

“Ozempic” was chosen as the winner of the Name of the Year for 2024 by the American Name Society at its annual Name of the Year discussion and vote on January 9, 2025. This pharmaceutical brand name was selected for its significant linguistic features and spin-offs like “Ozempic face”, “Ozempic Olympics”, “oat-zempic”, “faux-zempic”.… Read More

Conference Panel: “Names and World-building in Fantasy & Science Fictional Universes” at LSA 2025, Philadelphia, PA (10 January 2025)

The ANS will host a panel at the LSA 2025 conference, which will be held 9 to 12 January 2025 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 

Names and World-building in Fantasy & Science Fictional Universes

an organized session at the 2025 annual meeting of the

Linguistic Society of America

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

9-12 January 2025

The American Name Society (ANS) is pleased to announce a panel that will be convened at the 2025 annual meeting of the Linguistic Society of America (LSA), which will take place on 9-12 January 2025 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As a long-time sister society of the LSA, the ANS frequently held its annual meeting in conjunction with the annual meeting of the LSA. This panel will celebrate the relationship between the two organizations with three papers on the theme of names and world-building.

The panel is titled “Names and World-building in Fantasy & Science Fictional Universes,” and it features three papers on names and the fantasy genre of literature and Role Playing Games. The panel will be held on 10 January 2025 from 3:30 pm to 5:00 pm in Franklin Hall 1 of the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown. The papers in this session are:

Richard Janda (IU – Bloomington), “Tolkien’s vs. Rowling’s Names: Historical vs. Modern Reality; Elvish vs. Humorous Inventions”

Brandon Simonson (Boston University), “The Linguistic Function of Religious Names in the Creative World of Dungeons & Dragons”

Jean-Louis Vaxelaire (Université de Namur) and Marine Verriest (Université de Namur), “Theirastra and Gérard: Onomastic differences between two tabletop role-playing games (RPG)”

Registration for the 2025 LSA annual meeting is now open:

https://web.cvent.com/event/40d9411e-b965-4659-b9c3-63046eeed3d4/

For more information about the Linguistic Society of America, click here:

https://www.lsadc.org/

The Call for Papers described the session as such:

This session explores names and naming conventions in popular culture, especially personal names and place names that appear in works of literature, music, film, and games. Names convey meaning, but they also serve greater purposes of world-building in popular culture and its reception. Whether the names are of competing houses in A Game of Thrones, the lawless outer rim worlds in the Star Wars universe, or the vault-dwelling protagonists in the Fallout series, each name adds substance and meaning to the world for which it was created. Papers in this session organized by the American Name Society (a long-time sister society of the LSA) address the complex intersection between names and the worlds that they inhabit.

Download a PDF copy of the Call for Papers by clicking here.

For more information about the LSA 2025 conference, visit the LSA conference page here.

Conference Panel: “Names and World-building in Fantasy & Science Fictional Universes” at LSA 2025, Philadelphia, PA (10 January 2025)

The ANS will host a panel at the LSA 2025 conference, which will be held 9 to 12 January 2025 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 

Names and World-building in Fantasy & Science Fictional Universes

an organized session at the 2025 annual meeting of the

Linguistic Society of America

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

9-12 January 2025

The American Name Society (ANS) is pleased to announce a panel that will be convened at the 2025 annual meeting of the Linguistic Society of America (LSA), which will take place on 9-12 January 2025 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As a long-time sister society of the LSA, the ANS frequently held its annual meeting in conjunction with the annual meeting of the LSA. This panel will celebrate the relationship between the two organizations with three papers on the theme of names and world-building.

The panel is titled “Names and World-building in Fantasy & Science Fictional Universes,” and it features three papers on names and the fantasy genre of literature and Role Playing Games. The panel will be held on 10 January 2025 from 3:30 pm to 5:00 pm in Franklin Hall 1 of the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown. The papers in this session are:

Richard Janda (IU – Bloomington), “Tolkien’s vs. Rowling’s Names: Historical vs. Modern Reality; Elvish vs. Humorous Inventions”

Brandon Simonson (Boston University), “The Linguistic Function of Religious Names in the Creative World of Dungeons & Dragons”

Jean-Louis Vaxelaire (Université de Namur) and Marine Verriest (Université de Namur), “Theirastra and Gérard: Onomastic differences between two tabletop role-playing games (RPG)”

Registration for the 2025 LSA annual meeting is now open:

https://web.cvent.com/event/40d9411e-b965-4659-b9c3-63046eeed3d4/

For more information about the Linguistic Society of America, click here:

https://www.lsadc.org/

The Call for Papers described the session as such:

This session explores names and naming conventions in popular culture, especially personal names and place names that appear in works of literature, music, film, and games. Names convey meaning, but they also serve greater purposes of world-building in popular culture and its reception. Whether the names are of competing houses in A Game of Thrones, the lawless outer rim worlds in the Star Wars universe, or the vault-dwelling protagonists in the Fallout series, each name adds substance and meaning to the world for which it was created. Papers in this session organized by the American Name Society (a long-time sister society of the LSA) address the complex intersection between names and the worlds that they inhabit.

Download a PDF copy of the Call for Papers by clicking here.

For more information about the LSA 2025 conference, visit the LSA conference page here.

Registration Opens: ANS Name of the Year Discussion and Vote (Virtual, 9 January 2025)

ANS Name of the Year Discussion and Vote

Thursday, January 9, 2025 on Zoom, 12 – 2pm PST

REGISTRATION is now open! Click here to register for the discussion and vote.

Join us for our annual Name of the Year discussion! We will be nominating, discussing, and voting on eligible names in the following categories:

  • Personal Names: Names of groups or individuals, including nicknames, given names, surnames, or a combination of these.
  • Place Names: Names or nicknames of any real geographical locations (e.g., rivers, lakes, mountains, streets, buildings, regions, countries, etc.).
  • Brand Names: Names of commercial products, companies, organizations, and businesses (both for-profit and non-profit). This category includes personal names used as brands for commerce.
  • Artistic/Literary Names: Names of fictional persons, places, or institutions, in any written, oral, or visual medium (e.g., titles of art or musical works, books, plays, tv programs, movies, games, etc.).
  • E-Names: Names of online platforms, websites, and movements, as well as hashtags, usernames, etc.
  • Miscellaneous Names: Names that do not fit in any of the above five categories.

The discussion will be conducted by Laurel Sutton, ANS President and Name of the Year Coordinator.

If you have not done so already, you can nominate names via this form

Advance nominations must be received no later than December 31st, 2024, at midnight Pacific.

Tickets to this event are free!

The URL to our Zoom room will be sent to everyone who registers for this event.

Please review previous Name of the Year reports, to better understand the type of names that will be accepted:

Name of the Year Report 2023 (PDF)

Name of the Year Report 2022 (PDF)

Name of the Year Report 2021 (PDF)

American Name Society Bulletin, Summer 2024, Now available!

 

Click here to download the Summer 2024 ANS Bulletin.

In this issue, you will find:

  • American Name Society Seeking New ANS Officers for 2025
  • NAMES: A Journal of Onomastics Editorial Board Reviewers Needed!
  • NAMES New AI Policy
  • Book Titles and Reviewers Wanted!
  • Legacy Tribes to Deceased ANS Members
    • John Alger (1930-2019)
    • Edwin Lawson (1923-2021)
    • Wolfgang Ahrens (1940-2022)
    • Thomas Gasque (1937-2023)

Read more in the Summer 2024 ANS Bulletin!

Seeking New ANS Officers for 2025

Ever thought about getting more involved with the American Name Society?  Here is your opportunity!  The American Name Society is currently looking for a few good people who are interested in joining the Executive Council. Starting in 2025, 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.

 

Vice President (2025-2027)

The person elected to this position is primarily responsible for co-organizing the ANS annual conference in close cooperation with the ANS President. As conference co-chair, the person in this position will issue an official call for papers, organize a team of reviewers, design the program of paper presentations, and coordinate with the Linguistic Society of America and the other linguistic affiliates or “Sister Societies”: the American Dialect Society (ADS), the Society of Pidgin and Creole Linguistics (SPCL), the Society for the Study of Indigenous Languages of the America (SSILA), The Association for Linguistic Evidence (TALE), and the North American Association for the History of Language Sciences (NAAHoLS). In addition to these duties, the VP also serves as a voting member of the Executive Council and, as such, is actively involved in the legislative process of the ANS. The person selected for this office has the option of running for the office of ANS President, at the end of his/her term. Candidates for this position are expected to have superior organizational, time-management, and communication skills.

 

Allied Conference Coordinator (2025-2027)

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 (2025-2028)

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.

 

Seeking New ANS Officers for 2025

Ever thought about getting more involved with the American Name Society?  Here is your opportunity!  The American Name Society is currently looking for a few good people who are interested in joining the Executive Council. Starting in 2025, 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.

 

Vice President (2025-2027)

The person elected to this position is primarily responsible for co-organizing the ANS annual conference in close cooperation with the ANS President. As conference co-chair, the person in this position will issue an official call for papers, organize a team of reviewers, design the program of paper presentations, and coordinate with the Linguistic Society of America and the other linguistic affiliates or “Sister Societies”: the American Dialect Society (ADS), the Society of Pidgin and Creole Linguistics (SPCL), the Society for the Study of Indigenous Languages of the America (SSILA), The Association for Linguistic Evidence (TALE), and the North American Association for the History of Language Sciences (NAAHoLS). In addition to these duties, the VP also serves as a voting member of the Executive Council and, as such, is actively involved in the legislative process of the ANS. The person selected for this office has the option of running for the office of ANS President, at the end of his/her term. Candidates for this position are expected to have superior organizational, time-management, and communication skills.

 

Allied Conference Coordinator (2025-2027)

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 (2025-2028)

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.

 

Publication Announcement — Names: A Journal of Onomastics 72, no. 2 (2024) is now available!

The latest issue of Names: A Journal of Onomastics is now available online! Click here to read the latest in onomastics scholarship in volume 72, number 2 of Names. A table of contents appears below.

Names is published as an open access journal available to all via the Journal’s home at the University of Pittsburgh. All journal content, including the content found in previous volumes, is available for free online as downloadable PDF files.

 

 

Table of Contents

Articles

Gender and the Urban Linguistic Landscape: Polish Street Naming Practices by Krzysztof Górny and Ada Górna

What’s in a Name: An Exploratory Study of Similarities and Differences Between Twins and Single-born Siblingsby Emma Otta, Gustavo Crivello Cesar, Eloísa de Souza Fernandes, Renata Defelipe, Keven Leandro dos Santos, Vinicius Frayze David, and Nancy L. Segal

The Negative Effect of Ambiguous First Names in Online Mate Selection: Evidence from a Survey Experiment in Japanby Kazuya Ogawa, Hiroki Takikawa

Young Chinese Women’s Reasons for Changing their Given Names: An Online Investigation by Yi Liu

 

Note

A Note on the UK Local BMD: A Full Name Onomastic Resource by Stephen J. Bush


Book Reviews

The Nameplate, by Marcel Rosa-Salas and Isabel Attyah Flower, by Mary Ann Walter

Names and Naming in Beowulf by Philip A. Shaw, reviewed by T.K. Alphey

 

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