ABS news Australia recently reported that meteorologists down under are re-considering the tradition of bestowing storms male and female names. According to Alan Sharp who manages the tropical cyclone warning services for Australia, questions have been raised in response to American researchers’ findings that storms bearing female names may be taken less seriously than storms carrying male names. Whether or not the decades of results gathered by American investigators working within Gender Studies, Psychology, and Statistics actually apply to Australia has not yet been demonstrated.

Based on work published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, this assertion is to be taken quite seriously. As reported in an article from the Washington Post, some research indicates that simply “changing a severe hurricane’s name from Charley […] to Eloise[…] could nearly triple its death toll.” These findings are important for risk management.

One important branch of onomastics involves the investigation of the intersection between language and topography. To that end, many onomasticians are also geographers.

The American Name Society is sad to share the tragic news, recently confirmed by the Association of the American Geographers (AAG): On the 13th of November, 2015, French geographer, Dr. Matthieu Giroud, an Associate Professor at the Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée, was murdered in the terrorist attacks in Paris, France. Dr. Giroud’s area of specialization was immigration and inter-ethnic relations. Dr. Giroud leaves behind his 3 year old son and his wife, who is pregnant with their second child.

The American Name Society expresses condolences to both the Giroud family and all the other mourners who’ve lost loved ones during terrorist attacks this year.

When an asteroid is discovered and its orbit is determined, it is given a provisional identification number. Sometime later, the celestial body may be issued a formal name to be listed by the International Astronomical Union. Recently, NASA held a contest inviting students under the age of 18 to name the asteroid number: 101955 199 RQ36.

Rules:

• The name could not be longer than 16 characters.
• It must be pronounceable in more than one language.
• It could not be considered offensive.

By the time the contest deadline arrived, officials had received more than 8,000 suggestions from school children from around the world.

After reviewing this proposals, judges finally selected the name Bennu which was sent in by 9 year old Michael Puzio from North Carolina. According to officials, what made this name the winner was meaningful history. A mythological name for a large heron, the symbol of Osiris, the name Bennu means “the Ascending One” which brilliantly reflects the fact that in 2023, the asteroid will rise and shine across Earth’s night sky.

In September 2016, NASA will launch a spacecraft to take samples from Bennu. The name of this special mission is OSIRIS-Rex, an acronym for the “Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer.”

The Vietnamese Australian Phuc Dat Bich posted his passport to Facebook to prove that his name is authentic. This is yet another example of how ethnic diversity can complicate Facebook’s real name policy.

On the 5th of February 2015, a congressional committee was assigned to consider H.R. 760, a bill to rename the “Bureau of Prisons” to the “Bureau of Corrections”. Jason Chaffetz, a Republican representative for Utah’s 3rd congressional district, introduced the bill to help change the US society’s mindset toward incarceration. As Chaffetz explained in an interview with The Hill, the name change would also reflect the fact that 48 states in the Union currently use the name “corrections” instead of “prisons”. According to some prognoses, the bill only has a 1% chance of being enacted.