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Unique and Hard-to-Pronounce Names on the Job Market

Recently we shared a story about the rise of unique baby names in America over the course of the last few decades. A new study reveals that those same unique and hard-to-pronounce names might have an impact on job callbacks. The Wall Street Journal reports on the study of 1,500 economics PhD’s looking for academic, government, and private sector jobs, and concludes:

“Overall, people with complex names had a 10% lower chance of getting an academic job—generally the most desirable for economics Ph.D. candidates—over the next year. But there was a big split within those results. For candidates from top-ranked doctoral programs, having a complex name only decreased their chance of placing in an academic job by 5%, but for those coming from lower-ranked Ph.D. programs, a complex name decreased their chance by 12%. In other words, the penalty is small for those coming from top programs, but it is large for those coming from lesser ranked programs, Dr. Wu says.”

Read more in The Wall Street Journal.

 

Seeking New ANS Officers for 2023

Ever thought about getting more involved with the American Name Society?  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 in 2023, new officers will be needed to fill the positions listed below.

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

 

Vice President (2023-2025)

The person elected to this position is primarily responsible for co-organizing the ANS annual conference in close cooperation with the ANS President. As conference co-chair, the person in this position will issue an official call for papers, organize a team of reviewers, design the program of paper presentations, and coordinate with the Linguistic Society of America and the other linguistic affiliates or “Sister Societies”: the American Dialect Society (ADS), the Society of Pidgin and Creole Linguistics (SPCL), the Society for the Study of Indigenous Languages of the America (SSILA), The Association for Linguistic Evidence (TALE), and the North American Association for the History of Language Sciences (NAAHoLS). In addition to these duties, the VP also serves as a voting member of the Executive Council and, as such, is actively involved in the legislative process of the ANS. The person selected for this office has the option of running for the office of ANS President, at the end of his/her term. Candidates for this position are expected to have superior organizational, time-management, and communication skills.

 

Allied Conference Coordinator (2023-2025)

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.

 

On Wine Branding and Labeling

A collection of wine bottles (Public Domain)

A recently published guide in the Wall Street Journal helps readers interpret and decipher a wine label. A veritable Rosetta Stone for label readers, grape enthusiasts, and vineyard dilettantes alike, this short guide helps any imbiber get the most out of a wine label.

One fascinating fact: “For a wine to be labeled “estate-bottled,” 100% of the wine must come from grapes grown on land owned or controlled by the winery, and both the winery and the vineyard must be located within the labeled viticultural area.”

Read more over at the Wall Street Journal.

A Royal Rebranding: “Her Majesty’s” becomes “His Majesty’s” with the Rise of King Charles III

A 2021 photo of the now King Charles III (Public Domain)

Following King Charles III ascension to the throne, a major rebranding effort is underway. Where the phrase “Her Majesty’s” was found on everything including “British coins, flags, post boxes, chocolate wrappers, gin labels and attorney business cards,” now the phrase “His Majesty’s” will appear. For more on this rebranding effort, see this article in the Wall Street Journal.

Registration opens for the 2023 ANS Conference, Online, January 20-22, 2023

Registration is now open for the 2023 ANS Conference. The ANS conference will take place online, on Zoom, from January 20-22, 2023.

Detailed information for attendees, along with the book of abstracts, will be sent in January.

You can register online here, or download a PDF of the Conference Registration Form and mail it to ANS Treasurer Saundra Wright, as per the instructions on the form.

The schedule will be available as soon as possible.

For more information about the ANS Conference, please visit our Conference Page.

About Names: “Cleveland Evans: Agatha’s popularity is a mystery”

Agatha Christie in 1910 (Public Domain)

Dr. Cleveland Evans writes about names for the Omaha World-Herald. In his September 11th column, he looks at the name Agatha.

Forty-six years after her death, Agatha still inspires books.

British author Agatha Christie (1890-1976) is the best-selling novelist of all time. Her 72 novels and 14 short-story collections have sold over two billion copies. “Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman,” a biography by historian Lucy Worsley, was released Sept. 8. Next week “Marple: Twelve New Mysteries,” where contemporary writers including Leigh Bardugo, Lucy Foley and Ruth Ware present stories about Christie’s sleuth Miss Marple, goes on sale.

Agatha’s the Latin form of Greek Agathe, from “agathos” (“good”). The original St. Agatha was a Christian martyred in Catania, Sicily, in the third century. A later legend claimed virgin Agatha was imprisoned in a brothel after refusing a Roman official’s advances. There her breasts were cut off, making her patron saint of breast cancer patients.The first Agatha in England was wife of Edward the Exile (1016-1057). When Danish conqueror Cnut defeated King Edmund Ironside in 1016, Edmund’s infant son Edward was banished, first to Sweden and later to Ukraine. He helped another exile, Andrew of Hungary, regain his throne in 1046.

Edward married Agatha in Hungary. Her origin’s unclear. She might have been a German, Hungarian, Ukrainian, Polish or Bulgarian princess. When Edward was recalled in 1056 by King Edward the Confessor, Agatha brought her name to England.

Agatha’s husband died in 1057, leading to 1066’s Norman conquest. Agatha’s granddaughter Matilda married King Henry I in 1100, joining Norman and Anglo-Saxon royal lines.

Though her medieval namesakes were “Agatha” in official records, in everyday English they were called Agace. Agace disappeared in the 1500s. When the Victorian love of medieval names revived Agatha, the Latin form came into use.

Want to learn more? Read on to learn more about the name Agatha!

The Word “Squaw” has been removed from Federal Geographic Names

Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland (Public Domain)

Last Thursday the U.S. Board on Geographic Names released a list of replacement names for 650 features across the United States, removing the word “sq – – -” from Federal use. An article in the Reno Gazette Journal discusses the 34 changes in Nevada alone. The press release includes a map marking the locations of the changed names and quotes from Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, who said,

“I feel a deep obligation to use my platform to ensure that our public lands and waters are accessible and welcoming. That starts with removing racist and derogatory names that have graced federal locations for far too long… I am grateful to the members of the Derogatory Geographic Names Task Force and the Board on Geographic Names for their efforts to prioritize this important work. Together, we are showing why representation matters and charting a path for an inclusive America.”

Read more in the Reno Gazette Journal.

About Names: “Cleveland Evans: As a name, Sylvester has had a ‘Rocky’ run”

Pope Sylvester I, who lived from 285 – 335 CE (Public Domain)

Dr. Cleveland Evans writes about names for the Omaha World-Herald. In his August 28th column, he looks at the name Sylvester.

Sylvester’s once again a hero on movie screens.

Sylvester Stallone, who turned 76 in July, became famous writing and starring in 1976’s hit “Rocky”, about a heroic heavyweight boxer. Today, he’s the title character in “Samaritan,” released Aug. 26. There, young Sam (Javon Walton) discovers superhero Samaritan, who disappeared 25 years ago, is secretly living as “Joe Smith.”

Sylvester’s a Latin name meaning “of the forest.” St. Sylvester I (285-335) was Pope from 314 through 335. During his reign, Constantine became Rome’s first Christian emperor.

Not much is known about St. Sylvester. However, about two centuries after his death, the legend developed that Sylvester cured Constantine of leprosy. The grateful emperor then was baptized and gave the Pope temporal power over Rome and the Western empire.

Modern historians know Constantine was baptized on his deathbed in 337, two years after Sylvester died. The legend was used to promote Papal authority.

In 999, French bishop Gerbert, a mathematician who popularized the abacus, became Pope Sylvester II. His fame, along with St. Sylvester legend’s, spread the name throughout Europe. Though never common in medieval England, it was used enough to spawn surnames Silvester, Sylvester and Siveter.

Want to learn more? Read on to learn more about the name Sylvester!

Publication announcement: Names: A Journal of Onomastics 70, no. 3 is now available

The latest issue of Names: A Journal of Onomastics is now available online! Click here to read the latest in onomastics scholarship in volume 70, number 3 of Names. A table of contents appears below.

Names is published as an open access journal available to all via the Journal’s new home at the University of Pittsburgh. All journal content, including the content found in previous volumes, is now available for free online as downloadable PDF files.

Subscribers to the print version of the journal will receive their copies within the next few weeks.

 

Table of Contents

Articles

Place Names in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye: A Literary Landscape
of Racism by Christine DeVinne

In the Name of Freedom: A Corpus Linguistic Analysis of Personal Names Recorded in Fugitive Slave Advertisements Published in New York and New Jersey 18th Century Newspapers by I. M. Nick

“Missouree Was Always Out of Step with Missourah”: Sociolinguistic Variants as Moral Toponyms by Daniel Duncan

Using Onomastics to Inform Diversity Initiatives: Race, Gender, and Names in Academic Radiology in Canada by Sohrab Towfighi, Adrian Marcuzzi, Salman Masood, Mohsin Yakub, Jessica B. Robbins, and Faisal Khosa

Book Reviews

Claire Cock-Starkey, The Real McCoy and 149 Other Eponyms by Beth DiNatale Johnson

Stephen Heard, Charles Darwin’s Barnacle and David Bowie’s Spider: How Scientific Names Celebrate Adventurers, Heroes, and Even a Few Scoundrels by I. M. Nick

Obituary

In Memoriam: Wolfgang Peter Ahrens (1940-2022) by I. M. Nick

Announcement                                                                                                          

Invitation to Apply for the American Name Society’s Emerging Scholar Award

View All Issues