Name News

About Names: “Sonny a famous nickname with a long lineage”

Jazz musician Sonny Rollins (Photo by Yves Moch, CC-BY-3.0)

Dr. Cleveland Evans writes about names for the Omaha World-Herald. In his February 13th column, he looks at the history of the name Sonny.

Omaha has a new favorite Sonny.

The male elephant born to mother Claire at Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium Jan. 30 has been named Sonny by an anonymous donor. Half-sister Eugenia was born Jan. 7 to mother Kiki and father Callee.

Sonny’s a diminutive of “son” used to address boys or men younger than oneself. Though “son” goes back millennia to ancient Indo-European, “sonny” is surprisingly recent. The earliest example is found in 1833.

It’s hard to tell when Sonny became a nickname. It looks a lot like Lonny in 19th-century handwriting, and census takers sometimes used it for an unknown name. The 1860 census of Bloomington, Illinois, includes a German immigrant family with parents Daddy and Mammy and two boys both called Sonny. The census taker probably couldn’t understand their real names.

Exactly when the nickname became an official name is also unclear. Sonny first appeared on Social Security’s yearly name lists in 1888. However, Social Security only began in 1935, and only since the 1980s has everyone gotten a Social Security card as an infant. Many born before 1970 didn’t enter the data until they were going by a nickname which wasn’t given at birth.

It’s probable boys were being officially named Sonny by 1920, though, because the name starts showing pop culture influences. The first big boom in Sonnys began in 1928, when Al Jolson’s hit song “Sonny Boy” premiered, sung by a father whose little son “made a heaven for me here on earth.” Sonny first peaked at 470th in 1935.

Want to learn more? Read on to find out more the history of the name Sonny!

ICOS Presents Onomastics Online lecture series

As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to prevent face-to-face scientific meetings, ICOS (the International Council of Onomastic Sciences) wants to support sharing onomastic ideas by introducing a new initiative: Onomastics Online. Onomastics Online is a series of lectures dealing with important timely topics related to names and naming. Given by distinguished scholars from various academic backgrounds, the lectures demonstrate the importance and the multidisciplinary nature of onomastic research. For more information, see the ICOS website.  

The series start with four lectures during spring 2022, first of them given by Derek Alderman on 15 February, 3:00 PM (UTC). You can follow the lectures in real time via Zoom or watch their recordings afterwards on the ICOS YouTube channel. The schedule and the Zoom links can be found below.

The aim of the series is also to improve the visibility of ICOS and onomastic research, so please share this information to colleagues and friends who might be interested. If you have any questions or want to suggest improvements to this concept, you may contact ICOS President Katalin Reszegi (reszegi.katalin@arts.unideb.hu). For questions related to Zoom events and YouTube, please contact Lasse Hämäläinen (lasse.hamalainen@tuni.fi), the chair of the ICOS PR Group.  

* * * * *  

  • 15 February 2022, 3:00 PM (UTC)
    Derek H. Alderman: Race, Memory, and Campus Place Name Reform: Strategies for Transforming the Classroom into a Toponymic Workspace. Zoom link  
  • 24 March 2022, 3:00 PM (UTC)
    Martin Thiering: Toponyms and Landmarks as Cognitive Maps in Dene Chipewyan and Eipomek. Zoom link  
  • 11 April 2022, 10:00 AM (UTC)
    Kimberly Klassen: The lexical load of proper names for second language readers of English. Zoom link  
  • 18 May 2022, 2:00 PM (UTC)
    Richard Coates: Introducing The Pragmatic Theory of Properhood (TPTP). Zoom link  

On the Shift from Popular to Unique Baby Names

A page from the 1940s US Census, years before the trend emerged (public domain)

In a column in The Atlantic, writer Joe Pinsker explores a noticeable shift in parents’ selection of baby names. Since the 1960s, more American parents have opted for less-popular names to help their children stand out. Pinsker interviews ANS member and Past President Dr. Cleveland Evans about this trend, who points out that the unifying events of the early- to mid-twentieth century may have given parents “a sense of solidarity with the whole culture, the whole country”.

Read more in The Atlantic!

“Great Resignation” Chosen 2021 Name of the Year

“Great Resignation” was chosen as the winner of the Name of the Year for 2021 by the American Name Society at its virtual annual meeting on January 23, 2022. Also known as the Big Quit, the Great Resignation refers to an economic trend in 2021 where large numbers of people left their jobs with a record 4.3 million resigning in August 2021. The phrase was likely coined by Anthony Klotz, a professor at Texas A&M.

“Karen” was chosen as Personal Name of the Year. “Karen” is a pejorative term used for a typically white woman who is perceived as entitled or demanding beyond the scope of what’s considered normal and civil. Although started years ago, the pejorative use has continued to gain momentum in memes and on social media.

“United States Capitol” was voted Place Name of the Year. On January 6, 2021, a mob of thousands of Trump supporters attacked the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., and violently disrupted a joint session of Congress. Linguistically, this is significant because it underlined confusion between the uses of “capitol” and “capital.” Interestingly, “Insurrection” was selected as Word of the Year 2021 by the American Dialect Society.

“Cyber Ninjas” won the title Trade Name of the Year. Cyber Ninjas is the name of the firm that led the partisan 2020 election review in Arizona with the intention to overturn the 2020 Presidential election results. The company was plagued with legal battles and eventually dissolved.

“Squid Game” was chosen Artistic Name of the Year. Squid Game is a South Korean survival drama streaming on Netflix in 2021. It quickly became one of the most popular Netflix series worldwide. The name is taken from a Korean children’s game.

“#FreeBritney” was voted E-Name of the Year. Due to mental health issues, Britney Spears was placed in conservatorship in 2008 with her father controlling her estate and medical decisions. Out of concern for her situation, Spears’ fans created the hashtag in 2019 for the Free Britney movement in order to change her legal standing. The movement led to Spears’ release from conservatorship and to a bill reforming conserveratorships in California.

“CRT” was chosen Miscellaneous Name of the Year. Although more than 40 years old, CRT, or Critical Race Theory, examines the relationship between race and law in the United States. ANS chose the initialism over the full term because it highlights the misunderstanding of the theory and the latest controversies in education.

The American Name Society is a scholarly organization founded in 1951 devoted to studying all aspects of names and naming. The Name of the Year vote has been held since 2004.The 2020 Name of the Year was jointly held by “Kamala” and “COVID-19.” ”Brexit” was Name of the Decade and “Arrokoth” was the 2019 Name of the Year. “Jamal Khashoggi” was the 2018 Name of the Year. “Rohingya” was the 2017 Name of the Year. “Aleppo“ won for 2016 , “Caitlyn Jenner” for 2015, “Ferguson” for 2014, “Francis” for 2013, and “Sandy” for 2012.

For further information contact Deborah Walker, chair of the Name of the Year committee, at debwalk@gmail.com, 206-621-3543.

A PDF version of this press release can be found here.

Call for Papers: ANS panel at the 2023 Modern Language Association (MLA) Convention

The American Name Society is issuing its Call for Papers for the ANS panel at the Modern Language Association (MLA) Convention, which will be held 5–8 January 2023, in San Francisco, CA, USA. The theme of the panel is “Names and Identity in Literature: Contemporary Debates.”

The politics of names and naming has been brought into sharp relief by several influential scholars and studies during the 21st century. Recent work in this area is exemplified by the papers in edited collections including Luisa Caiazzo and I.M. Nick’s Shifting Toponymies: (Re)naming Places, (Re)shaping Identities (2020), and Guy Puzey and Laura Kostanski’s Names and Naming: People, Places, Perceptions and Power (2016). Debates about names may be symbolic of wider cultural questions about social change and ownership, from post-colonial naming practices to the rights of an individual to (re)name themselves. Papers for this panel will explore questions about names and identity and how they are reflected in contemporary literature. Examples of themes that can be addressed include: contested place-names; post-colonial place-names; transgender names; names and raciolinguistics; names and legal status; names as political statements.

Proposal Submission Process:

  1. Abstracts proposals (350 words) should be sent as an email attachment (PDF format) to Dr Maggie Scott (m.r.scott@salford.ac.uk);
  2. Proposals should include “MLA 2023 proposal” in the subject line of the email;
  3. All submissions must include an abstract, title, full name(s) of the author(s), the author(s) affiliation(s), and email address(s) in the body of the email and NOT with the abstract;
  4. DEADLINE: Proposals must be received by 8pm GMT on Friday 18 March 2022. Authors will be notified about the results of the blind review on or by 25 March 2022;
  5. Contributors selected for the thematic panel must be members of both MLA and ANS in order to present their papers, and members of MLA by 7 April 2022;
  6. For further information, please contact Dr Maggie Scott (m.r.scott@salford.ac.uk).

Download a PDF copy of the full call for papers here

 

Confronting “Dixie” in Southern Utah

Dixie National Park in Utah (Photo by m01229, CC-BY-2.0)

A recent column in The Washington Post recounts efforts to confront the name “Dixie” in a small part of Utah. The author notes that there are an “unusually high numbers of Dixie names” in three different Utah Zip codes. Local businesses, and even cuisines, cary the “Dixie” name. While residents are ready for a name change, others are hesitant because the name is so ingrained in local culture.

Read more in The Washington Post.

About Names: “Sports, music, and works of fiction helped popularize Andre”

French author and poet André Breton (Attribution: public domain)

Dr. Cleveland Evans writes about names for the Omaha World-Herald. In his January 2nd column, he looks at the history of the name Andre.

Andre starts the beginning of the end Tuesday.

“Black-ish,” the popular ABC sitcom about a wealthy African American family, premieres its final season Jan. 4. Anthony Anderson, starring as advertising executive Andre “Dre” Johnson, has been nominated for the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series all seven seasons.

André is the French form of Andreas, a Greek name derived from “andreios” (“manly”), known as Simon Peter’s brother, the first Apostle of Jesus. In English, he’s of course called St. Andrew.

Before the 19th century, it was normal to translate given names when moving from one culture to another. Men born André in France would naturally be called Andrew when visiting or immigrating to an English-speaking country. It’s only around 1800 that different forms of common saint’s names from other languages started being adopted into English.

The 1850 United States census, first listing all free residents by name, found 475 men called Andre. Eleven percent were born in France or Quebec, and 38% in French-influenced Louisiana.

The names of slaves weren’t listed in the census. The 1870 census included 670 Andres. Twenty-two percent of those were Black, mostly freed slaves and their sons. Forty-two percent of them were born in Louisiana.

Andre increased slowly over the next 70 years, though it didn’t maintain its popularity with Black parents. In the 1940 census, the latest with names available, only 5.4% of the 3,673 Andres were Black men, though Black men made up 9.8% of the population.

Meanwhile André had boomed back in France. Between 1910 and 1935, it was second only to Jean as a name for French boys.

Andre entered the top thousand baby names in the United States in 1924. Starting in the 1930s, it was helped by orchestra conductor Andre Kostelanetz (1901-1980). Born Abram Kostelyanetz in Russia, he’s credited with inventing “easy listening” light classical arrangements years before the term was created. Albums with him conducting the New York Philharmonic billed as “Andre Kostelanetz and his orchestra” sold millions.

Want to learn more? Read on to find out more the history of the name Andre!

Vaccine Names and the Trademark Restrictions that Govern Them

A column in The Wall Street Journal discusses the difficulties involved with creating and marketing new trademarks in the pharmaceutical industry. COVID-19 vaccine shots are more popularly designated by the company that produced the vaccine rather than their proper names. “Moderna” and “Pfizer” are likely more recognizable than “Spikevax” or “Comirnaty”. While one executive from Moderna is quoted as favoring either “Spikevax” or “The Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine”, she notes that a unique and catchy name is still necessary.

Read more about how pharmaceuticals navigate these tricky trademark-naming waters in The Wall Street Journal.

“Rudolph” was one of many Names Considered for Santa’s Ninth Reindeer

“Rodney, Roddy, Roderick, Rudolph, Rudy, Rollo, Roland, Reggy, Reginald, Romeo.” All of the preceding names have two things in common: they begin with the letter “R” and they were all finalists for the name of Santa’s ninth reindeer in Robert May’s story “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” A recent column in The Chicago Tribune tells the story of the famous reindeer and its creator, a Montgomery Ward copywriter who penned the book as part of an ad campaign. On May’s handwritten list of names—located in a special collection at Dartmouth College—only “Rudolph” and “Reginald” are circled.

Read more in The Chicago Tribune!