Invitation to Apply for the ANS Emerging Scholar Award 2018

The Emerging Scholar award recognizes the outstanding scholarship of a names researcher in the early stages of their academic or professional career. To be eligible for this award, applicants must meet the following criteria:

Be either an untenured academic or a professional in an entry-level position;
Have had their single authored abstract accepted for presentation at the ANS annual conference; and
Be a member of the ANS.

To be considered for this award, applicants must submit the full text of their paper by midnight (E.S.T.) the 14th of November 2017 to both ANS President Dr. I. M. Nick (mavi.yaz@web.de) and this year’s ESA Chair, Dr. Jan Tent (jan.tent@mq.edu.au). Submissions must be sent as an email attachment in either a .doc or .docx format. For ease of processing, please be sure to include the keyword “ESA2018” in the subject line of your email.

The information is also available here as a PDF: ESA 2018 Application Invitation

The Emerging Scholar Award Submission Guidelines PDF can be downloaded.

Papers previously published are not eligible for consideration. However, papers based on unpublished theses or dissertations are eligible. The Emerging Scholar Award Selection Committee will judge all submissions for their methodological soundness, innovation, and potential contribution to the field of onomastic research. The awardee will not only receive a cash prize, but will also be mentored by a senior onomastics scholar who will assist the awardee in preparing their paper for submission and possible publication in the ANS journal, NAMES: A Journal of Onomastics. Past recipients of the Emerging Scholar award are eligible to re-apply for this award for an entirely new piece of scholarship which examines a different area of onomastic research. However, preference may be given to applicants who have not yet received the award. In addition, the Selection Committee reserves the right to refrain from giving this award in those years in which no submission is deemed to have met the above-mentioned requirements.

Last call! Seeking New ANS Officers for 2018

We are still looking for a few good candidates! If you are interested in becoming an officer of the ANS, read on!

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. Starting January 2018, new officers will be needed to fill the positions listed below.

To apply for one or more of these positions, please fill out the application form on this page.

ANS Treasurer (2018-2020)

The person elected to this position will be responsible for keeping official record of all funds and securities of the Society; giving and keeping receipts for moneys due and payable to the Society; depositing all moneys in the name of the Society; responding to inquiries from annual conference attendees regarding registration payments; and informing the ANS President, the members of the ANS Executive Council, and the general membership about the financial status of the Society via an end-of-the year fiscal report. The ANS Treasurer will work closely with the ANS President, Vice President, and Membership Officer as well as Taylor & Francis, the current publisher of the ANS Journal NAMES. The person elected to this position is expected to have demonstrable accounting experience and competence in using standard spreadsheets programs (e.g., Excel). Applicants for this position must be long-term ANS members in good standing.

Member-at-large (2017-2020)

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.

Allied Conference Coordinator (2018-2020)

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.

Coordinators for 4 ANS Facebook Special Interest Groups (2018-2020)

The people elected to these positions are principally responsible for managing the ANS Facebook Special Interest Groups (SIGs). There are four ANS SIGs: 1) Personal Names, 2) Literary Names, 3) Trade Names, and 4) Place Names. For each of one of those SIGs, the coordinator is responsible for stimulating and monitoring discussions between users; regularly posting material of thematic interest; answering queries from the general public; and coordinating an informal gathering in-person during the annual ANS meetings. The people chosen for these positions are expected to have excellent writing skills; be a frequent and enthusiastic Facebook user; and have a demonstrable interest in the thematic area of the relevant SIG. The coordinators of the ANS Facebook SIGs will work closely with one another, the ANS President and Vice President, and the ANS Information Officer.

Rolls-Royce Is the Most Mentioned Name Brand in Pop Music

With the ascension of hip-hop in popular music, brand references have became a shorthand for aspiration and status. According to Bloomberg’s research, over the past three years Rolls-Royce or the name of a Rolls-Royce product was mentioned in 11 top-20 songs on the Billboard Hot 100. A few artists who mention Rolls in their popular songs include Quavo, Future, The Weeknd, and Kodak Black.

Ferrari came in a close second, with nine songs mentioning its supercars. Porsche tied with Hennessy, each with seven shout-outs, while Lamborghini and Chevrolet tied for six. Bentley, Cadillac, and Mercedes-Benz all tied, along with Jordan Brand, Rolex, and Xanax, with five mentions. Head over to the Bloomberg article to find out more about how brands feature in today’s hits and why Rollers are still king.

How Elon Musk names his projects

Tony Stark: Not actually Elon Musk.

Like most entrepreneurs, Elon Musk loves to create names for his many projects – space rockets, electric cars, tunnels, even travel to Mars. Looking over every name Musk has given one of his machines, some patterns emerge. He’s an avid sci-fi reader, but he’s also partial to the more mainstream literary references, with even a bit of ornithology thrown in. Read this article at Inverse to discover where he finds his inspiration for names like Kestrel, Merlin, and Raptor – as well as Heart of Gold.

How to pick – and protect – a company name in China

Finding a name for your company is hard enough, but if you’re planning on doing business in Asia, you also need to select a Chinese name and register that as a trademark in China. It’s not enough to be fluent in Chinese – you need an expert in Chinese-language branding, and a law firm that understands the complexities of Chinese trademark law.

Because China has a limited number of syllables, it is easy to come up with homophones to a foreign company’s Chinese name – especially when that Chinese name is a transliteration. This makes it even more difficult to protect your Chinese name. Chinese trademark examiners might reject a mark that has all of the same characters as yours except one, but if the mark has all different characters and they just have similar pronunciations, the mark is much more likely to be approved.

Want to know how to solve this problem? Read this informative and detailed post at the China Law Blog.

British Museum says “too many Asian names on labels can be confusing”

The British Museum began a special social media program in in which museum staff answers questions from the general public. Although the question-and-answer exchange has proved exceedingly popular, this September, the museum curator themself inadvertently stepped into a hornet’s nest. Early this month, the British Museum received the following question from the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences in Sydney: “How do you go about designing exhibition labels and information […] for a wider range of people?”. The British Museum’s official response: “We aim to be understandable to 16-year-olds. Sometimes Asian names can be confusing, so we have to be careful about using too many.” That tweet ignited a mighty backlash. Interested in reading more about this onomastic controversy? Head over to the Guardian to read the comments from social media.

In Memoriam: Vern O’Brien, Australian Placenames scholar

In the September 2017 Newsletter of the Australian National Placenames Survey, the editors report the death of Vern O’Brien. Affectionately known as the “grand old man of Australian toponymy”, O’Brien was instrumental in researching and documenting the origin of named geographical features throughout the Northern Territories. Among his impressive list of scholarly accomplishments, O’Brien was the Surveyor-General and the Director of Lands in Darwin and served as a prominent member of numerous scholarly toponymic organizations such as the Committee for Geographical Names of Australia, the Genealogical Society of the Northern Territory, and the Historical Society of the Northern Territory.

Scaly-Headed Moth Named after Trump

Somewhere floating between California and Mexico, there lives a newly discovered species of moth with an oddly familiar name. Named Neopalpa donaldtrumpi, this small-sized winged insect is distinguishable by its yellow-white head tuft that reminded the name-givers of the 45th President’s trademark hairdo. According to biologists, it is hoped that this eye-catching name will help to bring public attention to the need to protect the special habitat that this moth calls home. Trump will not be the first president to have an animal named after him. A fish native to the coral reefs of northwestern Hawaii was named after President Barack Obama in honor of his efforts to protect the fish’s habitat.

About Names: All hail Queen Serena

Serena Williams in a 2013 doubles match with Venus Williams.

Dr. Cleveland Evans writes about names for the Omaha World-Herald. In his September 26th column, he looks at the history of the name Serena.

Tennis great Serena Williams, who has twice won all four Grand Slam tournaments in a row, turns 36 today. Serena is the feminine form of Latin Serenus, meaning “clear” or “serene.” The first famous Serena was a niece of Theodosius, last emperor to rule both the western and eastern halves of the Roman Empire.

The 1850 U.S. census found 2,051 Serenas. The 1851 census of Great Britain had only 172. Perhaps Americans saw Serena, with its Latin origin, as part of the “Classical Revival” where towns were named Rome and Athens and babies Horace and Minerva.

Serena’s rise was boosted in 1993 when English actress Serena Scott Thomas starred in the miniseries “Diana: Her True Story.” In 1997, teen character Serena Baldwin (Carly Schroeder) began appearing on the soap “General Hospital.” Serena peaked again at 209th in 2000. 2000 was just after Serena Williams began her tennis career. Her first “Serena Slam” — winning the Australian, French and U.S. Opens along with Wimbledon — came in 2002 and 2003.

Want to know more? Read on to find out more about Serenas in history!

Bluetiful: Crayola announces new color name

Crayola has finally revealed the name of the new blue crayon that will replace the now-retired Dandelion yellow color in boxes around the world. A contest was held this summer to choose the name, with over 90,000 entries whittled down to just 5. The winner? Bluetiful. Predictably, some people complained that the winner wasn’t a real word and that children might get confused. Spoiler: “Crayola” isn’t a real word either; it comes from “craie”, the French word for chalk, and “ola” from oleaginous.