In Tartu, Estonia, along the Emajõgi riverbank, a naming controversy has erupted over a new street name. After spending what many felt was an exorbitant amount of money for a lawyer to develop a name for the new thoroughfare, residents of the once nameless street were horrified by the solicitor’s final toponymic suggestion: Madruse. It translates into ‘The Sailors’ in English.

As defenders of the street name explain, the proposal has to be seen in the geographic context. In a neighborhood where other streets are named Kapteni ‘The Capitans’ and Lootsi ‘The (River) Pilots’, the quaint name ‘The Sailors’ would fit right in.

However, residents of the street complain that the comparatively low nautical status of sailors relative to that of marine positions immortalized in the neighboring street names constitutes a collective insult. While officials might have been willing to overlook that perceived slight, the fact that the street name has become the butt of many jokes throughout the nation has led the government to conclude that the name Madruse has to go. The search is now on to find a new street name.

This is not the first time that fights have arisen in Estonia over who gets the most prestigious name. In another neighborhood where the streets are named after regal birds of prey such as Kotka, ‘The Eagle’, residents living on ‘Duck Street’ say their street name is simply humiliating and they would prefer the name Kondori or ‘The Condors’.

For more on this controversy, in Estonian, click here.

Nike recently announced that it is officially changing the name of one of its sneakers. Previously known as Zenji, the Nike footwear has been re-named Juvenate. The reason for the name change is that the original name was dangerously close to an Arabic slur that is as offensive as the English “N-word.” According to Nike representatives, company officials were completely unaware of the similarity and had chosen the z-word to describe the zen-like state of comfort the sneaker provides. True to their word, buyers who go to the Nike website and type in the old name will be automatically brought to the Juvenate webpage.

Click here for additional information.

Each year, the famous German dictionary publisher, Langenscheidt, crowns “the Youth Word of the Year” from amongst hundreds of linguistic innovations making up German youth-speak. For the year 2015, several German names have already made their way onto the top ten list of potential winners. For example, according to Langenscheidt, the surname of the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, has been used to generate the new German verb “to merkel” which is German youth slang for “to do nothing or refusing to make a clear decision.”

This sardonic nameplay is not the first time that controversial political policies have inspired German teens. Last year, after reports began to surface that the CIA and NSA had spied on several of European leaders, not one but two new verbs were derived from the surnames of US Americans caught up in the scandal. The first was President Obama, whose last name was used to form the new predicate “to obama,” a new synonym for the verb “to spy” or “abhören.” The second surname which was used to create a new word was Snowden. In that same year, German teens borrowed this last name to generate the predicate “entsnowden” meaning “to bring to light” or “to uncover.”

For additional information in German, see this article, this article, and this article.

Click here to cast your vote for name of the year for the United States.

According to medical experts, addiction to the synthetic methamphetamine nicknamed “ice” can cause severe mood swings, violent hallucinations, paranoia, psychosis, and unpredictable bouts of aggression as well as kidney disease, liver failure, brain damage, stroke and death. Despite these dangers, cities and towns around the world are reporting that the addiction rates to this drug have reached epidemic portions. In New Zealand, the town of Wellington has been so decimated by ice that residents and visitors have nicknamed the tiny town “The South Pole”.

Wellington is not the first city to be bestowed a nickname inspired by residents’ drug consumption. US American rap artist, Big Moe, named the city of Houston, Texas the “City of Syrup” to draw attention to the rising rate of residents addicted to codeine-infused cough syrup. The progressive marijuana policies of Canada’s Pacific Northwest metropolis of Vancouver has inspired some insiders to nickname the green city Vansterdam, a blend of the place names Vancouver and Amsterdam, another city known for its liberal marijuana laws.

For more information about this phenomenon, see this article and this article.

Finnian Galbraith, a teenager from New Zealand is doing his best to protect one of his country’s most precious treasures, the Māori language. In an instructional YouTube video, Finnian warns that the growing tendency of New Zealanders to mispronounce Maori names is not simply irritating, it is potentially damaging to the nation’s precious cultural heritage. “Now, I’m no expert,” the young man concedes, “but I’m willing to learn and that is what counts.” With more than 100,000 clicks in less than two days, Finnian’s cinematic plea for the preservation of indigenous words and names is a resounding internet hit.

Click here for more information.

Lüderitz, a small Namibian harbor town located off the coast of Africa, was founded in 1883 and named after a well-to-do tobacco trader, Adolf Lüderitz, from Bremen, Germany. Originally a trading post and fishing town, Lüderitz achieved sudden global notoriety at the turn of the century when a small pocket of diamonds were found. After the mines closed, the name of the former German colony was all but forgotten…until this year when the current Mayor, Suzan Ndjaleka, publicly called for an official name change.

According to Ndjaleka, the name is offensive to the Nama people who were decimated during the European occupation. In just a few decades, some 80% of the Nama’s original population had perished in the colonial genocide. In recognition of this town’s original African ancestry, Ndjaleka and her supporters have lobbied to change the harbor town’s name from Lüderitz to !Nam’Nus.

Critics of the proposal have charged that such a name change would endanger the critical yearly income that the town receives from droves of curious European tourists. The opponents also charge that the proposed name is alienating to town residents who do not speak the local indigenous click language.

At the moment, the town is sharply divided.

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Researchers have confirmed the importance of naming a new baby right away. A new baby needs a distinctive name on his/her medical bracelet to ensure he/she receives the right medical treatment. The study devised a new system that generates unique identifier names for, as of yet, unnamed newborns. The research team hopes this new method will lower the rate of medical errors.

Click here for more information.

The New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs has just released its official listing of banned baby names for 2014. Among this year’s onomastic rejects are the names: Christ, Lucifer, Juztice, Anal, and 09. Other onomastic creations which the NZ officials blocked tackled in years past include: Mafia No Fear, 4Real, D, M, 89, Mr., II, III, T V8.

According to officials, the primary motivation for banning a baby name is if it is felt to be offensive. However, names which are judged to be “unreasonably” long can also get the hatchet. For example, in 2008, a NZ couple was given court orders to change the phrasal name they had chosen for their baby girl: Talula Does the Hula From Hawaii. On the other end of the spectrum, NZ authorities have also put a stop to names which were deemed impossibly short. For example, parents who wanted to give their children the symbols “.” and “*” were also stopped.

Click here and here for articles with more information.