The editorial board of Onomastica Canadiana, the bilingual peer-reviewed journal of the Canadian Society for the Study of Names (CSSN) / Société canadienne d’onomastique (SCO), invites submissions of scholarly manuscripts for publication in its new online series in open access. Onomastica Canadiana publishes original research articles, review essays, and critical notes, written in English or French, on all aspects of onomastics — the study of names and naming practices or trends in all languages, cultures, periods, and areas.

Dr. Cleveland Evans writes about names for the Omaha World-Herald. In his October 5th column, he discusses the name "Chester". Chester A. Arthur became president in 1881 after James Garfield’s assassination. Chester A. Arthur (1829-1886) was born 196 years ago today. Elected vice president in 1884, he became president on Sept. 19, 1881 after James Garfield’s assassination. Chester Arthur was a protégé of Roscoe Conkling’s corrupt New York Republican machine.

The American Name Society (ANS) is now issuing its first call for abstracts for an upcoming Special issue of the Society’s journal, NAMES: A Journal of Onomastics. One of the most fascinating areas of interdisciplinary research involving onomastics,  criminology, and the law is forensic onomastics. The current call for paper proposals for original pieces of research for an upcoming Special Issue of NAMES devoted to this branch of onomastic investigation.   

Dr. Cleveland Evans writes about names for the Omaha World-Herald. In his June 1st column, he discusses the name "June". “June is bustin’ out all over,” and rising as a baby name, too. June’s derived from Latin Junius, originally the fourth and later the sixth month on the Roman calendar. It’s named after Juno, Rome’s patron goddess. Juno probably meant “young one,” related to the word “junior.” Rare English surname June is from French “jeune (young).”

A recent poll of almost 10,000 people has ranked the names of NHL teams (that's ice-hockey, for those of you who, like me, are not North American!). Leading the poll were the San Jose Sharks and trailing behind, in 32nd place, were Minnesota Wild. Read more about this story, and the full ranking, here.

Each calendar year, the members of the NAMES Editorial Board review the articles that appeared in the previous volume to determine the winners of the Best Article of the Year. All article publications are judged across the following three criteria: (1) creativity and originality; (2) potential scholarly contribution to onomastics; and (3) writing style and organization. The article that was selected as the top publication for 2024 was contributed by a scientific team of three researchers: Siyue Li (Zhejiang University, CHINA), Chunyu Kit (City University of Hong Kong, HONG KONG), and Le Cheng (Zhejiang University, CHINA). 

The countdown to Congress 2025 is on! We’re just 19 days away from kicking offtheannual conference of the Canadian Society for the Study of Names (CSSN). CSSN has accepted 17 engaging presentations covering a wide range of onomastics topics over the two conference days (see programme attached). Join us on May 31 and June 1 online or at George Brown College, Toronto.

From the organizers: Names, whether they refer to people, places, businesses, languages etc., are not mere labels disconnected from a social fabric, they are “a repository of accumulated meanings, practices, and beliefs, a powerful linguistic means of asserting identity (or defining someone else) and inhabiting a social world” (Rymes 1999: 165). Through their referential function and multiple connotations, they “identify, categorize, tell stories and provide social tools for interactions” (Bramwell 2016: 276).

A recent Vox article explores why so many US true crime shows include 'American' in their title. Our very own Laurel Sutton suggests its both an attempt to emphasise the distinctively American nature of the crimes under discussion, but also to draw on the deliberatly large audience for whom  'American' means different things. You can read more on this story here.

Dr. Cleveland Evans writes about names for the Omaha World-Herald. In his March 9th column, he discusses the name "Lionel". Lionel Richie, born 1949, has been a judge on “American Idol” since 2018, which begins its 23rd season on March 9. Richie became famous singing with funk/soul group Commodores in the 1970s. His duet of “Endless Love” with Diana Ross in 1980 is a top 20 bestselling single of all time.

Date: 26-Nov-2025 - 29-Nov-2025 Location: Clarens, South Africa Contact Person: Chrismi Loth Meeting Email: [email protected] Linguistic Field(s): Sociolinguistics 2nd Call for Papers: Join our LinkedIn group:  Submit your abstract (250 words) by 4 April to [email protected] The Department of South African Sign Language and Deaf Studies at the University of the Free State (RSA), in partnership with the Joint ICA/IGU Commission on Toponymy as well as the ICOS Working Group on Toponymy, is pleased to announce the next biennial international symposium on place names – ISPN 2025.

According to a new article in the NYT, 'a British investment firm restored most of the vowels to its name after a widely ridiculed revamp that showed the pitfalls of trying to look cool in the digital age'. 'Aberdeen Group' has chosen to undo its 2021 decision to rebrand as 'abrdn', re-instating its vowels to return to a more traditional spelling. Read more on this story here.

Registration is open for ANS 2025, which will be held on February 22, 2025. You can register online via Eventbrite by clicking here or the following link: You can also download this form and mail in a check. The American Name Society Annual Meeting for 2025 will be held online using the Zoom platform. It is accessible via Mac or PC.

The American Name Society Annual Meeting for 2025 will be held online using the Zoom platform. It is accessible via Mac or PC. The meeting will require a passcode, which will be sent via email to all registrants and presenters by 21 February 2025. We have been working hard to set up a schedule that will work globally, and this means that some presenters will be scheduled at times outside of normal working hours.