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In Memoriam: Allan Metcalf (1940-2022)

Prof. Metcalf in his office at MacMurray College

The American Name Society is sad to announce the passing of longtime ANS member Professor Allan Metcalf. Professor Metcalf was innovator of the American Dialect Society’s Name of the Year selection, which served as the inspiration for the ANS Name of the Year. The celebrated dialectologist served many decades as the Executive Secretary of the American Dialect Society, the sister society of the ANS. He authored numerous popular books of US American English. Two of his most recent publications are OK: The Improbable Story of America’s Greatest Word and The Life of Guy: Guy Fawkes, the Gunpowder Plot, and the Unlikely History of an Indispensable Word. The ANS expresses is sincere condolences to the Metcalf family. For more on Professor Metcalf’s impressive career, see his personal website: http://www.allanmetcalf.net

Ukrainians Alter Road Signs to Confuse and Insult Invading Russian Troops

Photo by Укравтодор (State Agency of Automobile Roads of Ukraine)

In the wake of the Russian military invasion of Ukraine, authorities are working to remove road signs in order to confuse the Russian military and delay their movement across the country. Ukrainians—both civilians and road service employees—are intentionally removing signs that identify names of roads and places. In their place, road service workers are installing signs that taunt the invading Russian army. One digital display reads “Putin lost, the entire world is with Ukraine.” Others display the final words of the Ukrainian border guards stationed on Snake Island before they were bombed by a Russian warship.

Read more over at NPR.

N.C. State Removes “Dixie” from Alma Mater Anthem

A report from the Raleigh News and Observer notes that North Carolina State University has removed the word “Dixie” from its Alma Mater. The Board of Trustees unanimously agreed with the change, which replaced the word “Dixie” with the word “Southern.” Chancellor Randy Woodson commented on the change, saying: “Traditions remain an important part of NC State…Those traditions must reflect who we are today and what we hope to achieve.” Read more in the Raleigh News and Observer.

About Names: “Darci rooted in old English aristocracy”

Illustration by C. E. Brock for Pride and Prejudice (Public Domain)

Dr. Cleveland Evans writes about names for the Omaha World-Herald. In his February 27th column, he looks at the history of the name Darci.

Darci will be throwing her voice in Omaha next Sunday.

Darci Lynne, born Darci Lynne Farmer in 2004, won the top prize on “America’s Got Talent” in September 2017, a month before turning 13. A ventriloquist whose puppets include sweet bunny Petunia and stuttering Motown mouse Oscar, she stars at Omaha’s Orpheum Theater March 6.

Darci’s a respelling of Darcy, a surname with two origins. Darcy came to England with William the Conqueror’s knight Norman D’Arcy. He was granted vast lands in Lincolnshire. He was from Arcy, a French village whose name meant “Bear’s place” in Gaulish.

Darcys have been English aristocrats ever since. Thomas Darcy, 1st Baron Darcy of Darcy (1467-1537), was beheaded for rebelling against Henry VIII’s seizure of monasteries.

The most famous English Darcy is fictional Fitzwilliam Darcy in Jane Austen’s 1813 novel “Pride and Prejudice.” Proud but honorable Mr. Darcy is the model for romantic heroes in countless other novels and films.

In western Ireland, Darcy’s the English form of Ó Dorchaidhe, “descendant of the dark one.” Patrick Darcy (1598-1668) was a Galway lawyer who wrote the constitution for Confederate Ireland, Catholic rebels who ruled two-thirds of Ireland between 1642 and 1649.

When the custom of turning surnames into first names began during Elizabethan times, Darcy turned up among sons of British nobles. It remained rare; in 1841, the first British census found 29 men named Darcy.

Want to learn more? Read on to find out more the history of the name Darci!

About Names: “Sonny a famous nickname with a long lineage”

Jazz musician Sonny Rollins (Photo by Yves Moch, CC-BY-3.0)

Dr. Cleveland Evans writes about names for the Omaha World-Herald. In his February 13th column, he looks at the history of the name Sonny.

Omaha has a new favorite Sonny.

The male elephant born to mother Claire at Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium Jan. 30 has been named Sonny by an anonymous donor. Half-sister Eugenia was born Jan. 7 to mother Kiki and father Callee.

Sonny’s a diminutive of “son” used to address boys or men younger than oneself. Though “son” goes back millennia to ancient Indo-European, “sonny” is surprisingly recent. The earliest example is found in 1833.

It’s hard to tell when Sonny became a nickname. It looks a lot like Lonny in 19th-century handwriting, and census takers sometimes used it for an unknown name. The 1860 census of Bloomington, Illinois, includes a German immigrant family with parents Daddy and Mammy and two boys both called Sonny. The census taker probably couldn’t understand their real names.

Exactly when the nickname became an official name is also unclear. Sonny first appeared on Social Security’s yearly name lists in 1888. However, Social Security only began in 1935, and only since the 1980s has everyone gotten a Social Security card as an infant. Many born before 1970 didn’t enter the data until they were going by a nickname which wasn’t given at birth.

It’s probable boys were being officially named Sonny by 1920, though, because the name starts showing pop culture influences. The first big boom in Sonnys began in 1928, when Al Jolson’s hit song “Sonny Boy” premiered, sung by a father whose little son “made a heaven for me here on earth.” Sonny first peaked at 470th in 1935.

Want to learn more? Read on to find out more the history of the name Sonny!

ICOS Presents Onomastics Online lecture series

As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to prevent face-to-face scientific meetings, ICOS (the International Council of Onomastic Sciences) wants to support sharing onomastic ideas by introducing a new initiative: Onomastics Online. Onomastics Online is a series of lectures dealing with important timely topics related to names and naming. Given by distinguished scholars from various academic backgrounds, the lectures demonstrate the importance and the multidisciplinary nature of onomastic research. For more information, see the ICOS website.  

The series start with four lectures during spring 2022, first of them given by Derek Alderman on 15 February, 3:00 PM (UTC). You can follow the lectures in real time via Zoom or watch their recordings afterwards on the ICOS YouTube channel. The schedule and the Zoom links can be found below.

The aim of the series is also to improve the visibility of ICOS and onomastic research, so please share this information to colleagues and friends who might be interested. If you have any questions or want to suggest improvements to this concept, you may contact ICOS President Katalin Reszegi (reszegi.katalin@arts.unideb.hu). For questions related to Zoom events and YouTube, please contact Lasse Hämäläinen (lasse.hamalainen@tuni.fi), the chair of the ICOS PR Group.  

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  • 15 February 2022, 3:00 PM (UTC)
    Derek H. Alderman: Race, Memory, and Campus Place Name Reform: Strategies for Transforming the Classroom into a Toponymic Workspace. Zoom link  
  • 24 March 2022, 3:00 PM (UTC)
    Martin Thiering: Toponyms and Landmarks as Cognitive Maps in Dene Chipewyan and Eipomek. Zoom link  
  • 11 April 2022, 10:00 AM (UTC)
    Kimberly Klassen: The lexical load of proper names for second language readers of English. Zoom link  
  • 18 May 2022, 2:00 PM (UTC)
    Richard Coates: Introducing The Pragmatic Theory of Properhood (TPTP). Zoom link  

On the Shift from Popular to Unique Baby Names

A page from the 1940s US Census, years before the trend emerged (public domain)

In a column in The Atlantic, writer Joe Pinsker explores a noticeable shift in parents’ selection of baby names. Since the 1960s, more American parents have opted for less-popular names to help their children stand out. Pinsker interviews ANS member and Past President Dr. Cleveland Evans about this trend, who points out that the unifying events of the early- to mid-twentieth century may have given parents “a sense of solidarity with the whole culture, the whole country”.

Read more in The Atlantic!

“Great Resignation” Chosen 2021 Name of the Year

“Great Resignation” was chosen as the winner of the Name of the Year for 2021 by the American Name Society at its virtual annual meeting on January 23, 2022. Also known as the Big Quit, the Great Resignation refers to an economic trend in 2021 where large numbers of people left their jobs with a record 4.3 million resigning in August 2021. The phrase was likely coined by Anthony Klotz, a professor at Texas A&M.

“Karen” was chosen as Personal Name of the Year. “Karen” is a pejorative term used for a typically white woman who is perceived as entitled or demanding beyond the scope of what’s considered normal and civil. Although started years ago, the pejorative use has continued to gain momentum in memes and on social media.

“United States Capitol” was voted Place Name of the Year. On January 6, 2021, a mob of thousands of Trump supporters attacked the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., and violently disrupted a joint session of Congress. Linguistically, this is significant because it underlined confusion between the uses of “capitol” and “capital.” Interestingly, “Insurrection” was selected as Word of the Year 2021 by the American Dialect Society.

“Cyber Ninjas” won the title Trade Name of the Year. Cyber Ninjas is the name of the firm that led the partisan 2020 election review in Arizona with the intention to overturn the 2020 Presidential election results. The company was plagued with legal battles and eventually dissolved.

“Squid Game” was chosen Artistic Name of the Year. Squid Game is a South Korean survival drama streaming on Netflix in 2021. It quickly became one of the most popular Netflix series worldwide. The name is taken from a Korean children’s game.

“#FreeBritney” was voted E-Name of the Year. Due to mental health issues, Britney Spears was placed in conservatorship in 2008 with her father controlling her estate and medical decisions. Out of concern for her situation, Spears’ fans created the hashtag in 2019 for the Free Britney movement in order to change her legal standing. The movement led to Spears’ release from conservatorship and to a bill reforming conserveratorships in California.

“CRT” was chosen Miscellaneous Name of the Year. Although more than 40 years old, CRT, or Critical Race Theory, examines the relationship between race and law in the United States. ANS chose the initialism over the full term because it highlights the misunderstanding of the theory and the latest controversies in education.

The American Name Society is a scholarly organization founded in 1951 devoted to studying all aspects of names and naming. The Name of the Year vote has been held since 2004.The 2020 Name of the Year was jointly held by “Kamala” and “COVID-19.” ”Brexit” was Name of the Decade and “Arrokoth” was the 2019 Name of the Year. “Jamal Khashoggi” was the 2018 Name of the Year. “Rohingya” was the 2017 Name of the Year. “Aleppo“ won for 2016 , “Caitlyn Jenner” for 2015, “Ferguson” for 2014, “Francis” for 2013, and “Sandy” for 2012.

For further information contact Deborah Walker, chair of the Name of the Year committee, at debwalk@gmail.com, 206-621-3543.

A PDF version of this press release can be found here.