Call for Papers: ANS 2022, Online, 21-23 January 2022

The American Name Society is now inviting proposals for papers for its next annual conference. After serious deliberation of an official proposal made on the 5th of May 2021, the Executive Council of the American Name Society unanimously voted to hold the 2022 Annual Conference online. All presentation sessions will be held online during the three days of the conference. This means that our conference will NOT be held in conjunction with the LSA meeting, which is still slated to be held in person, January 2022 in Washington, DC.

Abstracts in any area of onomastic research are welcome. The DEADLINE for receipt of abstracts is July 31, 2021. To submit a proposal, simply complete the 2022 Author Information Sheet (AIS) found here:

https://wp.me/a6e07Q-29o

Please email this completed form to ANS Vice President Luisa Caiazzo using the following address: <luisa.caiazzo@unibas.it>. For organizational purposes, please be sure to include the phrase “ANS 2022” 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, 2021. All authors whose papers have been accepted must be current members of the ANS. Please feel free to contact ANS Vice President, Luisa Caiazzo, <luisa.caiazzo@unibas.it>, 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!

Call for Interviewees on the Baby Names Podcast – Careers in Names!

We’re seeking name experts to be interviewed on this season of The Baby Names Podcast. We’ve already featured many ANS scholars on the show and always get an amazing response. The podcast is hosted by longtime ANS member Jennifer Moss.

The Baby Names Podcast receives over 10,000 listeners PER DAY and it’s growing fast. We promote it through our site and social media and are happy to link to your social accounts and/or research.

Do you have a Career in Names? If so, we want to feature it on The Baby Names Podcast. If onomastics is a major part of your job, we want to include it on our episode in Careers in Names. Just drop us a line explaining what you do, how you started in the field, and if you’re comfortable with a recorded interview. If not, that’s okay – we can still include your story!

Email Jennifer Moss, jennifer@babynames.com, to submit yourself!

In Memoriam: Edwin D. Lawson (1923-2021)

Long time ANS member and Past President Edwin D. Lawson of Fredonia, died peacefully July 3, 2021, at the age of 97.

Ed was born in Chicago, Ill., on Dec. 23, 1923, to Anna and Abraham Levin. When Ed was seven the family moved to Boston where he was raised.

After graduating from high school in 1942, Ed matriculated to the University of Illinois, but after one semester he was called up for active duty in the U.S. Army Air Force to fight in World War II. As a tail gunner on a B-29 bomber he completed 38 missions in the Pacific and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal with Three Oak Leaf Clusters, and the Purple Heart.

After the war, Ed returned to the University of Illinois, where he earned a bachelors, masters, and Ph.D. in psychology. He taught at several universities, and in 1967, he joined the faculty of the State University of New York, Fredonia, where he served until his retirement in 1989.

Ed married Irene Kentner in 1949. They were united in marriage for 69 years and raised three sons together.

In addition to teaching and research, Ed published over 160 books and articles over the course of his career. He had a sabbatical year in Jerusalem, Israel in 1973-74, and was awarded a Fulbright lectureship to Yarmouk University in Jordan in 1981. In addition to his professional activities, Ed was active in the American Name Society and the 500th Bomb Group Memorial Association.

Read his full obituary in The Dunkirk Observer, and share condolences on the Larson-Timko Funeral Home page.

Call for Papers: ANS 2022, Online, 21-23 January 2022

https://wp.me/a6e07Q-29o

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

We look forward to receiving your submission!

Call for Papers: ANS 2022, Online, 21-23 January 2022

Abstracts in any area of onomastic research are welcome. The DEADLINE for receipt of abstracts is July 31, 2021. To submit a proposal, simply complete the 2022 Author Information Sheet (AIS) found here:

https://wp.me/a6e07Q-29o

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

We look forward to receiving your submission!

“The Ethics of Renaming”: Re-Branding in the Wake of Social Movements

ANS President, linguist, and co-founder of naming agency Catchword Laurel Sutton writes about the ethics of rebranding in a piece for the brand development magazine transform.

Throughout the essay, Sutton highlights many recent examples of problematic brand names and changes (including Aunt Jemima, the Washington Redskins, Uncle Ben’s and Eskimo Pie, for example), illustrating the dangers of maintaining these brand names. Sutton writes: “The cost of renaming a company or product might be high, but stacked against the cost of losing business, bad press, and, most importantly, perpetuating oppression, it’s a small investment for the greater good. Caring about other people wins over not caring, every time.”

Call for Papers: ANS 2022, Online, 21-23 January 2022

https://wp.me/a6e07Q-29o

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

We look forward to receiving your submission!

Publication announcement: Names: A Journal of Onomastics 69, no. 2 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 69, number 2 of Names.

Volume 69 marks the first year that Names is published as an open access journal available to all via the Journal’s new home at the University of Pittsburgh. All journal content, including the content found in previous volumes, is now available for free online as downloadable PDF files.

Subscribers to the print version of the journal will receive their copies within the next few weeks.

In Memoriam: Ronald Butters (1940-2021)

Long-time ANS member Ronald Richard Butters 81, passed away in his home on April 6, 2021 after a long battle with cancer. Ron was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in February of 1940. After achieving his PhD at the University of Iowa, he moved to Durham, NC to begin his 40 year career at Duke University. He was a professor of English and Linguistics as well as a founder of the linguistics program at Duke University and held a joint appointment in the Cultural Anthropology Department at Duke. Following his retirement from Duke University in 2007, he developed a consulting firm called Trademark Linguistics and continued working in the field with many distinguished law firms.

Ron loved to travel and experience other cultures and he especially enjoyed the time he spent teaching in Bamburg, Germany and Marrakesh, Morocco, as well as the many lectures and seminars he gave in countries around the world. He was honored to touch the lives of so many students, as well as others, throughout his life.

Ron wrote extensively on naming and trademarks. A detailed list of his work can be found on his website, and you can read his obituary online here.

In Memoriam: Lynn Westney (1947-2021)

Long-time ANS member Lynn Westney passed away Sunday, Jan. 10, 2021, at Hamilton Communities in New Carlisle, Indiana. Born Dec. 24, 1947, in Chicago, Ill., to Joseph and Alma (Stankovitch) Tvrdik (both now deceased), Lynn lived a rich life filled with curiosity, exuberance and passion. In June 1980, she married William Homer Hattendorf, II, who preceded her in death in 1995. In August 1997, she married Robert J. Westney, who preceded her in death in 2014.

Lynn earned the BA in Sociology from Loyola and the MS in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois at Champaign. Lynn enjoyed a 25-year career at the University of Illinois at Chicago where she was a reference librarian and Associate Professor and Coordinator of Reference Collection Development. She was a member of the American Library Association, Illinois Library Association, and the Canadian Society for the Study of Names. Lynn was Editor of the Educational Rankings Annual for years 1991-2006, and wrote numerous scholarly papers, many of which she presented as a guest speaker in a variety of international locations, including Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, Switzerland, Thailand, and the United States. She also served as the editor of a regular column on e-journals, “E-Journals-Inside and Out”, in JAHC: Journal of the Association for History and Computing.

Her 2007 paper, “From Courtesans to Queens: Recipes Named for Women”, can be found online in the archives of NAMES.

Lynn loved reading about and writing about food, and enjoyed fine dining and ethnic cuisines. She was an avid rock and fossil collector, especially the Petoskey stones found along the Michigan shoreline of Lake Michigan. She was also a passionate advocate for the protection and humane treatment of all animals, domesticated and wild.