Recently presented at the 2024 Annual Meeting of the American Name Society, Jane Pilcher’s work explores surnames and surnaming in adoption. You can watch the full presentation here:

Watch this video on YouTube by clicking here.

Abstract:

In this talk, we present new data about adoptive family surnames drawn from our qualitative study in the UK which examines names in the experiences of adults who are either adoptees or adopters. Our findings suggest that adoptees and adopters can feel differently about surnames and how these link them – or otherwise – to familial lineages and to their own individual identities. Some adoptees may feel that their adoptive family surname does not link them authentically to that genealogical familial line or at least is disruptive for their sense of family identity. At marriage, some women adoptees were pleased to change their surname to that of their husband, as this meant they were able to exercise choice about their name-based familial identity and affiliation that had been denied them in the past. Yet other adoptees reported feeling happily connected to their adoptive family surname. For adoptees who had become parents themselves, sharing a surname with their child (and so across another generation) had made their adoptive surname meaningful to them in a way that it had not been previously. For participants who were adopters, sharing a surname with their child(ren) was also a key part of their family identity, including through extending the genealogical line. In examining these types of experiences of and feelings about family names amongst adult adoptees and amongst adopters, our article highlights the complexities of meanings of surnames for adoptive family life and for adoptees’ identities.

Biography:

Dr. Jane Pilcher is Associate Professor of Sociology at Nottingham Trent University in the UK. As a self-described sociological names nerd, Jane studies people’s names to analyse, understand and deconstruct identities and inequalities. Her current project examines names and naming in experiences of adoption.

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Recently presented at the 2024 Annual Meeting of the American Name Society, Deborah Ball’s work explores proper names and their grammatical characteristics. You can watch the presentation here:

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Abstract:

The category of proper names is quite varied and includes personal names, place names, company names, brand names, organisations, historical events, book and film titles, and numerous other sub-categories such as ships, swords, diseases, etc. Although the literature on the linguistics of proper names is filled with examples of personal names, as well as place names and other kinds of proper names to a lesser extent, the focus of the research and discussion leans heavily towards onomastics (history and use), semantics (meaning and/or reference) and morphology (word-formation).  Much less can be found on the grammar of proper names.  However, what can be found describes the importance of grammatical indicators displayed by proper names in speech and in writing, in helping us to make correct interpretations between those proper names and other kinds of words such as common nouns.  It appears that proper names can range from being clearly proper names to being ambiguously so, and where there is ambiguity, there is grammar to point us in the right direction.  Key grammatical indicators, at least in the English language, include the presence/absence of determiners and singularity/plurality.  Although most proper names behave in a similar way grammatically, each sub-category has its own personality, and there are of course numerous exceptions. Understanding these differences will help form a better understanding of the particularities of brand names.

Biography:

Deborah Ball has been working in branding, content, marketing and communications for nearly 10 years in the UK and the US.  One special focus has been brand naming. This was a source of inspiration for a part-time PhD with the University of Oxford researching the linguistics of brand names.​

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Recently presented at the 2024 Annual Meeting of the American Name Society, Sara Racca’s work explores the displacement of microtoponyms in Italy. You can watch the presentation here:

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DclAbiTEUDs

Abstract:

Place names are usually studied for their stability over time, that makes them ‘linguistic fossils’ informing us about previous stages of languages and people who spoke them on a certain territory. Furthermore, the study of their etymology unveils landscapes’ features that may have changed over time. However, while the relevance of the etymological study is undisputed, sometimes it can misdirect: over time, a toponym can “move” from its original place to a new location somehow related to the previous one. Thus, the semiotic relationship between toponym and referent falls apart, so that the study of etymology is no longer sufficient, and it becomes necessary to reconstruct the motivation that led to the displacement. This proposal presents the case study of some place names collected in an Italian town. Specifically, they are vernacular microtoponyms originally referring to rural areas, which, due to a process related to the role of contemporary hodonymy, have come to indicate suburbs of the town located a few hundred meters from the original place. The process is driven by the need to find new names for new urbanized areas, and can be found probably in other contexts with similar needs. The displacement, however, is in progress: inhabitants use the investigated toponyms to refer whether to the original rural areas or the new suburbs, depending on their socio-demographical characteristics. Therefore, the research captured the (perhaps transitional) time in which, in a sense, the identity of those place names is under redefinition.

Biography:

Sara Racca is a Postdoc at the priority program Language and Space, University of Zurich (Switzerland), where she is also affiliated with the Department of Geography. She obtained her PhD in Dialectology, Geolinguistics and Sociolinguistics in Turin (Italy) in 2022. In the field of onomastics, her main interests concern urban and sociotoponomastics.

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Recently presented at the 2024 Annual Meeting of the American Name Society, Reima Al-Jarf’s work explores Arabic and foreign shop names in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. You can watch the presentation here:

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oK7NK4q7vi8

Abstract:

The translatability of shop names constitutes a problem for translation students. To find out the status of shop name translation in Saudi Arabia, a corpus of 500 shop names (clothing, accessories, beauty products, restaurants, cafes… etc.) was collected and analyzed to find out which shop names are translated, which are not, and which should be translated. Results showed that 24% of the shops have pure Arabic names, 25% have international brand names such as Starbucks, Burger King, McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, Monsoon, Zara, Sony which are not translated, i.e., used as they are. 39% have English names created by the shop owners such as أو ﺑ ﺮﯾ ﺸﻦ ﻓ ﻼﻓ ﻞ , ﺑﺮ اﻧﺪ ﺳﻨﺘﺮ , ﺑﯿﺒ ﻲ ﺷ ﻮ ب which were not translated. Some foreign shop names were transliterated using Arabic letters although such names have Arabic equivalents as in دﻛ ﺘ ﻮرﻧﯿ ﻮﺗ ﺮﯾ ﺸﻦ , ﻧﺎﺗ ﺸ ﺮ ا ل ﺗﺎﺗ ﺶ , ﻧﺴﻜﺎﻓﯿﮫ دوﻟ ﺲ ﻗ ﻮﺳﺘ ﻮ , أد ﻓﻨﺘ ﻮرا , ﺟﺎ رﻟﯿ ﺸﻮز ﻻو ﻧ ﺞ , أﻣ ﯿ ﺮﯾ ﻜﺎ ن إﯾ ﺠﻞ أ وﺗﻔﺘ ﺮز , ﻛﯿ ﺴﺮ ي ﻛﺎﻓﯿ ﮫ , إﺳ ﺒ ﺮﯾ ﺖ , أﻛﺴﺴﻮرﯾ ﺰ , ﺑﺎﯾ ﻠﯿ ﺲ , ﺑﺎر ﺑ ﻜﯿ ﻮﺗ ﻮﻧﺎﯾ ﺖ . Names in this category should be translated as they were difficult for the subjects to decode. However, subjects could decode ﻣﺎ ﻛﺪوﻧﺎﻟ ﺪ ر، ﺑﯿ ﺮﻏﺮ ﻛﯿﻨ ﺞ، ھﺎ ردﯾ ﺰ، ﻛﻮﺳﺘﺎ، ﺳﺎ رﺑ ﻜ ﺲ . . Shop workers believe that use of foreign names without translation is more prestigious, attracts shoppers’ attention more than Arabic names, and more customers can be reached. They also gave globalization factors that affect the preference for foreign words to Arabic equivalents and poor knowledge of Arabic equivalents, especially for new coinages. Guidelines for translating foreign and native shop names will be given based on the views of a sample of translation students and instructors.

Biography:

Prof. Reima Al-Jarf is professor of English and translation studies. She has 700 publications and conference presentations in 70 countries. She reviews Ph.D. theses, promotion works, conference and grant proposals, and articles for numerous peer-reviewed international journals including Web of Science and Scopus journals. She presented at ANS and CNS twice.

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Recently presented at the 2024 Annual Meeting of the American Name Society, Zhazira Agabekova’s work explores the concept of “UL” (son, child), in Kazakh anthropology. You can watch the presentation here:

Watch this video on YouTube here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_13QFm2AhQ

Abstract:

In the Kazakh language, there are many names with the root “ul” (meaning “son”, “child”), such as Ulbosyn (let it be a son), Ulzhalgas (next will be a son), Ultusyn (wishing to give birth to a son). These names are given if a family had only daughters, and with the intention that after several girls born in a family, the next child will be a boy (names that indicated the family’s expectation of having boys). This is because historically, the boy was treated as the main breadwinner of the family and the protector of the people, the continuation of the generation, and the birth of a son in the family was important. This shows that the concept of patriarchy still prevails in Kazakh culture. Beyond that lies gender inequality. Although the number of names in the “ul” (son) context has decreased somewhat, the process has not stopped. This article hypothesizes that the use of names in the context of “ul” indicates that the role of men in the Kazakh society is higher than that of women. In order to prove it, linguistic lexemes and proverbs in the culture of the people are considered as the main linguistic facts. The number of these names changes in the different regions of Kazakhstan. These differences (frequency) are based not only on the population density, but also depends on the fact of observing Kazakhs traditions. The findings of this research will help better understand the concept of “ul”, and the analysis shows the importance of studying Kazakh names with root “ul”, which refers to existing gender inequality and gender norms in Kazakh society.

Biography:

Zhazira Agabekova is Assistant Professor of Nazarbayev University, Candidate of Philological Sciences. Her scientific area is Turkic Studies, Linguistics, Onomastics, Gender studies. Currently, Zhazira is focused on gender issues in onomastics. She is a member of the Onomastic Commission under the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

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Recently presented at the 2024 Annual Meeting of the American Name Society, Olga Chesnokova’s work explores ludic representations of toponyms in riddles. You can watch the presentation here:

Watch this video on YouTube here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOtPOJTzU6o

Abstract:

Each culture possesses riddles about toponyms. The hypothesis of this study is that riddles about cities and their names create a ludic image of toponyms, and each riddle text acts as a topographical image and a sign of collective memory, actively developing nowadays on the internet. The investigation of Spanish, Argentinian and Russian riddles about cities proves that they form a system of internal architectonics and create a ludic image in the range from the direct question “What city”: What city is located on 101 islands? (Saint-Petersburg), to diverse metaphors and personifications: En el mapa de Argentina ¿cuál es la provincia que nunca camina?’ (Salta), and complex sound symbols riddles with a fictional plot: El rey Alí /Fue con su can/A tomar té/¿a qué ciudad? (Alicante). Riddles about cities typically praise the cities; no critical or derogatory features of the ludic descriptions were found. The city image in riddles is always positive and combines real topographical features, elements of touristic discourse, cultural associations; all together creating a system of topographic images on the principles of direct questions, polysemy, homonymy, folk etymology, sound symbolism, and allusions to well-known proverbs. Descriptive riddles are typical for all studied cultures; however, a greater diversity was found for the Spanish and Argentinian cultures. Riddles based on sound symbolism are also more characteristic of the Hispanic tradition, which is obviously due to the letter-sound structure of the Spanish place names.

Biography:

Olga Chesnokova (Doctor in Romance Philology) is Full-time Spanish Professor at the Department of Foreign Languages at RUDN University and author of more than 200 publications on Hispanic Onomastics, Literary Text translation, and particularities of Spanish in Latin America.

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Recently presented at the 2024 Annual Meeting of the American Name Society, Anna Tsepkova’s work explores American and Russian Nicknames. You can watch the presentation here:

Watch this video on YouTube here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fta5mEFLt5s

Abstract:

Nicknames of persons coined by means of mixing linguistic and extralinguistic motives form a unique group of unconventional anthroponyms performing identifying and characterizing functions by means of combining a person’s official name with lexemes referring to qualities, attributes, situations associated with nickname-bearers. These nicknames are formed by means of:

• substituting a name by an appellative sounding similar (false etymology): Madison from Maddie + “always mad at something” (US); Парадокс / Paradox from Paradovsky + an irregular person (Rus);
• substituting a last name by an appellative reviving its etymology: Blood from Trueblood + “a cool head under stressful situations” (US); Goose from Goosev + appearance (Rus);
• blending a name with an appellative: Encyclo’pete’ia from Pete + “no matter what you talked about he thought he was an expert on it…” (US); Olgushonok from Olga + lyagushka [frog]: cold limbs (Rus);
• inevitable associations with a famous name / person: Marco Polo from Mark + “always looking for an adventure” (US);
• meaningful abbreviations of first, middle/patronymic, last names: M&M: “because I love M&Ms and m is the first letter in my first and last name” (US); ОМ from initials of the teacher of physics / reference to Ohm (Rus).

If small in number (46 nicknames / 5.5% in the American sample; 54 / 1.5% in the Russian sample), this group is the most diverse in terms of coinage patterns, demonstrating the phenomenon of linguistic creativity, aimed at catching and carrying multifaceted audio-visual and emotional experiences of human interaction.

Biography:

Anna Tsepkova is an Associate Professor in the English Language Department at Novosibirsk State Pedagogical University (Siberian region of Russia) and has a PhD in Philology. She is a Fulbright Alumna, a member of ICOS and the ANS. She is currently working on “A Cross-Cultural Dictionary of American and Russian Nicknames”

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