MyHeritage.com, a website for discovering, preserving and sharing family history, recently launched Global Name Translation™, a new technology that translates historical records and family trees between languages. This will allow matches between names in different languages, and enable users to access more search results than ever before. The technology covers first names and surnames, and can work with names it has never encountered before.

Click here for more information on this new technology.

Film Director Spike Lee is certainly no stranger to controversy. However, with his latest film project, the cinematic maverick sparked anger, even before the cameras begun to roll. At the very center of this debate is the name which Lee has selected for his newest work: Chiraq, a toponymic word blend between the city name Chicago and the country name Iraq.

While critics worry that Lee’s name choice heralds a film which will glorify the violence in Chicago’s streets, supporters state that the movie name Chiraq brilliantly brings attention to the grim reality facing Urban America.

As the controversy over the appropriateness of the name continues to rage, the name itself has already entered public, contemporary discourse. According to the Urban Dictionary, an online lexicon with more than 6 million entries uploaded by the internet community, the name chiraq currently has more than three times as many likes than dislikes.

For more information, see this article or this article.

In light of the recent release of a 2005 court testimony in which US American comedian Bill Cosby admitted to having drugged young women with the intent of having sexual relations with them, Central State University (CSU), a historically black university in Ohio, has announced that it may well change the name of the Cosby Mass Communications Center.

According to an email which CSU President, Cynthia Jackson-Hammond sent to USA Today, “although the Cosby name on the campus radio station is representative of the Cosby family, we are extremely sensitive of the effect that it may have on student, alums and the community”. Until an official decision has been reached, the CSU administration has agreed to cover up the surname Cosby with pictures of the University logo. Administrators anticipate making a final decision in this onomastic controversy this Autumn.

Other prominent organizations are also discussing the possible removal of the comedian’s surname from their honor roll. For example, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce has also received multiple petitions to remove the Cosby name from the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Chamber Officials have announced that despite significant public pressure, they will not remove Cosby’s name.

At present, Cosby has been accused of sexually assaulting or abusing over 20 women.

For more information on this onomastic controversy, see this article or this article or this article or this article.

The Pentagon has released an official statement that there are no plans to change the names of US American military bases named after Confederate leaders. The statement comes in reaction to the recent decision by the South Carolinian government to retire the Confederate flag, known as the Southern Cross.

A few examples of Confederate leaders whose surnames were chosen for now famous US American forts are: Benning, Polk, Bragg, Hood, and Lee. In a recent interview with CNN, the Army Chief of Public Affairs, Brigadier General Malcolm Frost, explained the logic behind the original selection of these surnames. According to Officer Frost, at the end of the Civil War, which claimed nearly 2% of the total national population, these names were purposefully chosen by the United States government “in the spirit of reconciliation, not division.” That being the case, Frost speculates that it is highly unlikely that the names of these military bases will change.

See this article for additional information.

One of New York’s architectural icons, the 70 story skyscraper at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, now has a new name: The Comcast Building.

This is third time that the skyscraper has undergone an onomastic overhaul. Starting in the late 1930’s, the building was first known as the RCA Building. The Art Deco monolith carried this name for nearly five decades until it was renamed for its new owner, GE, in 1988.

Despite the grandeur of the 11-foot technicolor peacock which now adorns the new Comcast moniker, most New York natives will probably continue to refer to the building with the insider name, 30 Rock. This affectionate nickname is derived from tower’s address 30 Rockefeller Plaza, where each Christmas the lights of a mammoth conifer light up Rockefeller Plaza ice skating rink.

See this article for more information.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has officially removed another name from its official list of storm monikers. According to officials, the name Odile is retired out of respect for the 11 people who perished in the 2014 Hurricane which slammed across the Baja Peninsula.

The other name to be taken off of the WMO list was Isis, given its inescapable resemblance to the name of the terrorist organization charged by the UN for committing war crimes.

Click here for more information.

According to Australian government officials, the award-wining HBO series, Game of Thrones, has inspired scores of parents to bestow their newborn babies with a whole host of fantastic characternyms. Topping the list are:

• Khaleesi
• Arya
• Tyrion
• Brandon
• Kylie

According to Jennifer Moss, founder of BabyNames.com and ANS member, the last time a media event had such an impact on baby naming was when the Twilight vampire series hit the theaters.

According to the US Social Security Administration (SSA), the folks down under are by no means alone in this onomastic trend. Based on the SSA record, 241 babies born in USA now carry the name of George R. R. Martin’s majestic dragon mother, Khaleesi. In the British Isles, the name of the sword-swinging underage heroine, Princess Arya, has proven similarly popular. Statistics released by the Office for National Statistics indicate that the ever-resilient vengeful Princess was the namesake for some 187 baby girls.

If these names continue to trend as they have been, we may well see a head-to-head race between the Stark Princess and Dragon Queen for the 2016 ANS fictional name of year. Click here to vote early for this election (as well as for the other categories for Names of Year).

In a cave located 100 feet under the earth, spelunkers and historians have made a fascinating discovery: Buried in the depths of Naours, France, two hours outside of Paris, there is a series of inscriptions of almost 2000 WWI servicemen, who left their names for posterity.

According to experts, this historic find represents the highest concentration of onomastic graffiti along the Western Front.

Located adjacent to the infamous Somme battlefields where over a million soldiers perished, the names carved into the cave walls stand as a chilling testament to the tremendous sacrifices made during the First World War. Although researchers have not completed cataloging all of the names, at last count, experts report having identified the names of 731 Australian, 55 American, and 339 British servicemen. International efforts to determine the fates of the brave name-bearers who found temporary respite in the cave are underway.

Click here to read the story published by the Sydney Morning Herald.