It is the time to remove the clouds from
the sky of the hope!
Yes, it is the happy New Year,
It’s the time to celebrate.
Happy new year to our dear friends and
colleagues!
Member News
Call for Nominations for the 2020 Names of the Year
The American Name Society requests nominations for the “Names of the Year for 2020”. The names selected will be ones that best illustrate, 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 five 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 incorporated companies and organizations, including businesses and universities.
- Artistic & 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. Such names are deliberately given by the creator of the work.
- Miscellaneous Names: Any name which does fit in the above four categories, such as names created by linguistic errors, names of particular inanimate objects other than hurricanes, names of unorganized political movements, names of languages, etc. In general, to be considered a name such items would be capitalized in everyday English orthography.
Winners will be chosen in each category, and then a final vote will determine the overall Name of the Year for 2020. 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 on January 24, 2021
Advance nominations must be received before January 21, 2021.
You can submit your nominations via this form: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/LVGCQRZ
Alternately, you can download the form and email it to Deborah Walker: debwalk@gmail.com
Nominations will also be taken from the floor at the Annual Meeting.
Thank you for your nominations!
Registration opens for the 2021 ANS Conference, Online,January 22-24, 2021
Registration is now open for the 2021 ANS Conference. The ANS conference will take place on the Crowdcast platform from January 22-24, 2021.
You can register online here, or download a PDF of the Conference Registration Form and mail it to ANS Treasurer Saundra Wright, as per the instructions on the form.
For more information about the ANS Conference, please visit our Conference Page.
Government seeks to rescue the toponymy of the islands
Holocaust Education Week lecture explores discrimination based on names
The Israel and Golda Koschitzky Centre for Jewish Studies at York University will host an event on November 3 2020 that explores how Nazis used names to fulfill Hitler’s genocidal vision.
The event runs during 2020 Holocaust Education Week and features a lectures with guest presenter Iman Nick on “Hitler’s Lists: How the Nazis Used Names to Spawn the Holocaust.” It runs from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Zoom.
Even before the infamous Yellow Star, the Nazis devised a simple yet effective method to pinpoint victims for wide-spread discrimination, marginalization, relocation, deportation and finally extermination. Using first-hand accounts from Holocaust survivors and documents unearthed from the once secret files of the Nazi Party, this lecture tells the story of how personal names were used to fulfill Hitler’s genocidal vision. The talk will also present modern-day examples in which something as seemingly innocuous as a person’s name has been used to carry out crimes against humanity.
Register online here to join the virtual event.
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.
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.
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.
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.
FINAL Call for Papers: ANS 2021, ONLINE, January 22-25, 2021
The American Name Society (ANS) is inviting proposals for papers for its next annual conference, January 22-25, 2021. After serious deliberation of an official proposal made on the 8th of May 2020, the Executive Council of the American Name Society unanimously voted to hold the 2021 Annual Conference online. All presentation sessions will be held online during the four 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 January 2021 in San Francisco. To submit a proposal, simply complete the 2021 Author Information Form.
Abstracts in any area of onomastic research are welcome. The NEW DEADLINE for receipt of abstracts is AUGUST 1, 2020.
Please email this completed form to ANS Vice President Laurel Sutton using the following address: <laurelasutton@gmail.com>. For organizational purposes, please be sure to include the phrase “ANS 2021” 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, 2020. All authors whose papers have been accepted must be current members of the ANS. Please feel free to contact ANS Vice President Laurel Sutton should you have any questions or concerns.
A downloadable PDF of the REVISED Call for Papers can be found here.
We look forward to receiving your submission!
Baby’s name of Elon Musk is “X AE A-XII”
Elon Musk and Grimes really followed through with their outer this world baby name … but they had to play a little ball to comply with California law. According to the newborn’s birth certificate, Elon and Grimes seriously named their first child, X AE A-XII Musk.
Mom and Dad had to get a little creative to make their tyke all legal and stuff. As you know, Elon and Grimes’ baby boy was born on May 4th 2020, and they wanted to name him X Æ A-12 Musk. As it turns out, the aeronautic name hasn’t been accepted in California, where birth names must be limited to the English alphabet – no numbers or special signs. The result is a first name X, middle name AE A-XII and last name Musk.