This note applies NLP-based polarity analysis and topic modeling to explore the stigmatization of the Chinese occupational by-name wanghong. Using over 40,000 Weibo posts (2014-2023), the study reveals a shift toward negative sentiment and identifies key thematic patterns. It demonstrates how NLP methods can support socio-onomastic inquiry by tracing affective and ideological dynamics in digital naming practices, while also offering an efficient and objective methodological approach for investigating other socially salient by-names.
This article examines a specific form of anthroponymic taboo: the prohibition against uttering a combatant’s proper name at the decisive moment of battle. Using the Earl Brand / Ribold and Guldborg ballad complex as its central case study, the article argues that this prohibition constitutes a historically meaningful onomastic pattern rather than a merely decorative narrative motif. The study combines close reading of the British and Scandinavian ballad record with comparative onomastic theory and anthropological work on name avoidance, true-name ideology, and verbal danger. The analysis shows that the interdiction “name me not” operates as a context-bound rule of anthroponymic management, one activated under conditions of mortal risk, kin-conflict, and liminality. In the northern ballads, the heroine’s breach of this rule triggers the hero’s death, thereby converting naming into a fatal speech act. The article further argues that the motif preserves the convergence of two older logics: tactical non-identification in feud warfare and a wider belief that the personal name is an exposed extension of the self. By reframing the motif as an onomastic phenomenon, the article contributes to scholarship on names as socially regulated and pragmatically dangerous forms, and proposes the category “dead-naming prohibition” for traditions in which pronouncing a person’s proper name is believed to precipitate injury, capture, or death.
This study applies quantitative methods to explore the evolution of personal names in late medieval Florence. Using large historical datasets—including the “Libro di Montaperti” (1260), the “Catasto” (1427), and the “Tratte” (1282–1532)—I examine how the concentration of personal names changed over time. After assessing several possible indicators of diversification, I show that many are affected by finite-size effects and selection bias, which can distort historical interpretation. The homonymy rate, defined as the probability that two randomly chosen individuals share the same name, is identified as a robust and scale-independent metric. Applied across the Florentine sources mentioned above, this measure reveals a gradual but significant process of concentration beginning in the early fourteenth century and accelerating strongly around the time of the Black Death. The results provide a quantitative basis for dating and characterizing the long-term evolution of naming practices, illustrating how statistical reasoning can enrich the study of cultural and historical phenomena.
This study examined, from the perspective of sound symbolism, whether the phonological properties of foreign player names in Japanese professional baseball are associated with hit-by-pitch (HBP) and intentional walks (IW). Data were collected from 682 foreign batters who played in Nippon Professional Baseball between 1952 and 2023. For each player, the number of morae and voiced obstruents (VOs) such as [b], [d], [g], and [z] in their katakana-registered names was recorded. Generalized linear models were used to analyze the associations between these phonological features and the counts of HBP and IW. Players whose names contained two VOs had a significantly higher HBP rate, whereas no significant effects were observed for morae or IW. These findings suggest that, in line with sound-symbolic effects, VOs in names are associated with a slight increase in HBP. More broadly, these findings raise the possibility that sound-symbolic properties of names may extend beyond impression formation and be reflected in actual performance-related outcomes, albeit weakly. However, the observed association was small in magnitude and is unlikely to be practically meaningful.
Researchers studying nicknaming practices have uncovered a variety of interesting features across a range of social groups. This paper expands this line of research by examining the norms, bases, and functions of personal “trail names” among Appalachian Trail (AT) long-distance hikers. This voluntary and relatively egalitarian leisure social world provides an ideal setting for studying nicknaming practices, as virtually all participants adopt a trail name for themselves during their journey. The research design primarily consists of interviews with 107 long-distance hikers conducted by the first author in 2025 while hiking 425 miles of the AT across six states. Findings reveal that long-distance hikers display a remarkable degree of agency in trail naming practices, reflective of the “hike your own hike” philosophy that pervades the long-distance hiking social world on the AT. Bases for trail names vary, with many names blending multiple characteristics, making them deeply meaningful for hikers. Functions of trail names include boundary maintenance, feelings of in-group acceptance, anxiety reduction, and identity transformation. The article’s discussion includes the theoretical implications of these findings and concludes with suggestions for future research.
Vegan and vegetarian brands exhibit ingenuity through word formation processes to signal vegetal origin. This paper analyzes a manually compiled corpus of 563 product names from 55 brands to identify the orthographic, morphological, and semantic devices used to navigate regulatory pressures while achieving market distinctiveness. By examining these linguistic mechanisms, the study explores how naming strategies communicate that products are meatless alternatives while preserving consumer appeal. The findings reveal five primary conceptual strategies, indicating a varying degree of similarity to animal-based counterparts: (1) approximate identity, achieved through vowel-based orthographic alteration and unorthodox spellings (e.g., cheeze); (2) negation and absence, utilizing compounding and negative suffixation (e.g., no-pork, fishless); (3) conceptual hybridization, effected via linguistic blending (e.g., soyrizo); (4) positive valence, employing positively connotated words (e.g., ultimate); and (5) equivalence, established through constructions denoting sameness (e.g., just like). Ultimately, these devices not only serve as innovative mechanisms to communicate the product’s plant-based nature but also help bypass legal nomenclature restrictions while contributing to the introduction of novelty, creativity, and “spiciness” to Modern English.
Urban place naming extends beyond navigation and constitutes a political practice through which ideological discourses are inscribed into space and collective memory. Naming practices play a central role in shaping gendered representations of space and determining whose identities are rendered visible in the public realm. Within this framework, and focusing on the case of Turkey, this study examines how patriarchal narratives are embedded in urban memory through toponymic practices, by approaching urban place names as a city text. Using a mixed-methods approach, the research combines quantitative and qualitative analyses to investigate gender representation in street, avenue, and boulevard names in Turkey. The findings reveal a pronounced gender imbalance: 23,020 urban place names (12.80%) commemorate men, whereas only 719 (0.40%) commemorate women, meaning that male names are approximately thirty-two times more prevalent than female names. Even in major metropolitan centers, female representation remains below 1%. Women are predominantly commemorated through familial roles, while representations based on professional, intellectual, or artistic identities remain extremely limited. Overall, the findings demonstrate that urban memory in Turkey is largely structured through male-centered narratives, marginalizing women in public space. The study highlights the importance of reconsidering urban naming policies to promote more inclusive and equitable urban environments.
Viet Nam's 2025 commune-level administrative consolidation, enacted through Resolution 202/2025/QH15 by the National Assembly, provides a large-scale context for examining how states negotiate identity through place naming. This study analyzes 3,321 newly constituted commune-level units to identify patterns of name retention, combination, and innovation. Using a mixed-methods design that integrates quantitative pattern mapping with qualitative analysis of policy documents, historical maps, and topo nymic archives, it interprets naming as a sociolinguistic process through which governance, heritage, and collective identity intersect. The findings reveal a predominance of name retention in rural, culturally cohesive areas, and greater innovation in urban centers such as Ho Chi Minh City, where renaming reinforced heritage and place branding. Situating the Vietnamese case within the framework of critical toponymy, the study demonstrates how large-scale administrative reforms mediate between political rationalization and symbolic continuity. It contributes to onomastic scholarship by proposing a replicable model for analyzing state-led renaming and by advancing understanding of how naming practices encode power, memory, and belonging.
Urban place naming extends beyond navigation and constitutes a political practice through which ideological discourses are inscribed into space and collective memory. Naming practices play a central role in shaping gendered representations of space and determining whose identities are rendered visible in the public realm. Within this framework, and focusing on the case of Turkey, this study examines how patriarchal narratives are embedded in urban memory through toponymic practices, by approaching urban place names as a city text. Using a mixed-methods approach, the research combines quantitative and qualitative analyses to investigate gender representation in street, avenue, and boulevard names in Turkey. The findings reveal a pronounced gender imbalance: 23,020 urban place names (12.80%) commemorate men, whereas only 719 (0.40%) commemorate women, meaning that male names are approximately thirty-two times more prevalent than female names. Even in major metropolitan centers, female representation remains below 1%. Women are predominantly commemorated through familial roles, while representations based on professional, intellectual, or artistic identities remain extremely limited. Overall, the findings demonstrate that urban memory in Turkey is largely structured through male-centered narratives, marginalizing women in public space. The study highlights the importance of reconsidering urban naming policies to promote more inclusive and equitable urban environments.
This paper presents the analysis of a corpus of place-names, assessing the patterns and impact of Old Norse–Old English (ON-OE) language contact in medieval Lancashire. It argues that Lancashire proves to be a particularly dense area for ON onomastic evidence. However, it does not appear to follow the general patterns of ON–OE interactions established in other areas of Scandinavian settlement in England. Instead, these linguistic interactions may be better understood within the regional context of Irish sea mobility, multilingual speakers, and mixed communities.
Việt Nam’s 2025 commune-level administrative consolidation, enacted through Resolution 202/2025/QH15 by the National Assembly, provides a large-scale context for examining how states negotiate identity through place naming. This study analyzes 3,321 newly constituted commune-level units to identify patterns of name retention, combination, and innovation. Using a mixed-methods design that integrates quantitative pattern mapping with qualitative analysis of policy documents, historical maps, and toponymic archives, it interprets naming as a sociolinguistic process through which governance, heritage, and collective identity intersect. The findings reveal a predominance of name retention in rural, culturally cohesive areas, and greater innovation in urban centers such as Hồ Chí Minh City, where renaming reinforced heritage and place branding. Situating the Vietnamese case within the framework of critical toponymy, the study demonstrates how large-scale administrative reforms mediate between political rationalization and symbolic continuity. It contributes to onomastic scholarship by proposing a replicable model for analyzing state-led renaming and by advancing understanding of how naming practices encode power, memory, and belonging.
Names used in the middle position of an anthroponym (that is, between the first name and surname) are a relatively recent introduction to England, first substantively occurring in the eighteenth century but only becoming widespread from the nineteenth. Using approximately 34 million full name birth and death records from 1733 to 2024, this study empirically characterises the origin and spread of middle names in England from (as much as it was possible) the point of their initial adoption. In so doing, I chart the development of what is today a commonplace naming custom as it was being established. I show that, when first adopted, middle names were an elite concept, their propagation in England following the reign of the Hanoverian monarchs, who encoded dynastic genealogies in their names—a Germanic noble tradition. Nevertheless, middle naming spread in England not primarily through the use of forenames, but the use of surnames, in the middle position—a stark contrast with royal practice, and one which suggests its essence was being emulated, not its exact nature. This use of surname-middle names as elite status markers declined rapidly in the early 19th century, losing exclusivity as middle names in general became widespread.
The Khitans lived on the steppe of Mongolia during the tenth through twelfth centuries. According to Chinese historical records, many Khitan people had names ending in the Chinese word nu kA 'slave'. This study explores why this naming pattern occurred and identifies the Khitan naming systems reflected by this phenomenon. Based on data collected from materials and steles engraved in Chinese and Khitan scripts, the study shows that Khitan names are not simply dichotomized into either inherited Chinese conventions or Khitan customs. Rather, the dataset demonstrates that in their bilingual and bicultural context, the Khitan people used two linguistic approaches to personal naming. They not only continued their own kinship-based naming system by applying three strategic patterns of father-son, brother-brother, and husband-wife linkages. They also integrated elements from the Chinese lexicon and imitated the Chinese onomastic pattern of assigning nicknames containing nu. Nu thus became a Khitan naming component. This investigation draws on pragmatic and semantic theoretical frameworks in multilingual contexts, and utilizes the sociolinguistic concepts of borrowing and code-mixing. Using this multidimensional approach, this study systematically describes the Khitan naming practice and provides evidence for historical contact onomastics, thereby shedding new insights into the relationships between names, languages, and cultures.
This study examines street names within the Hankow Concession. More specifically, it focuses on investigating street naming and renaming practices during and after the Concession Era. The findings reveal that during the Concession Era, the most frequently used strategy in street naming was the use of compatriots' names, while the least common strategy involved the use of toponyms from the colonial powers' own territories. The current street naming practices within the former concession area show the reverse: the use of Chinese toponyms is, at present, the most commonly used naming strategy. Some street names in the former British Concession that were originally named after Chinese places have been retained. The street names in the former Japanese Concession are associated with the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (WRAJA). Together, they construct a historical narrative that contrasts with the original intent of the Japanese Concession's establishment. The street renaming practice within the Concession has changed the original street names in the Concession Era greatly while emphasizing Chinese national and cultural identity. This practice represents a reconstruction of public memory through two approaches: (1. ) reinforcing or removing the historical narratives selectively; and (2.) reshaping historical narratives to align with the shared values and contemporary mainstream cultural ideologies.
Presidential candidates engage in long deliberations trying to balance the ticket to give them the best chance of winning. This study argues that the choice of a vice-presidential running mate is far simpler and more elegant than any of the complex variables often part of a vice-presidential decision ... and fits onto a metaphorical bumper sticker. The Bumper Sticker Effect model has predicted the winning candidate in 44 of the last 46 presidential elections (95.60 percent since 1840), based on the differential in letter length between presidential and vice-presidential candidate last names. To win, the presidential winner's name must either exceed the vice president's or be no more than two letters shorter. Voters appear to perceive cognitively that the presidential candidate is overawed when the VP's name dominates. An Amazon Mechanical Turk online survey largely confirmed the theory. The study concluded that Tim Scott, J. D. Vance, or Kristi Noem would be the most numerically advantageous running mates for Donald Trump in the 2024 election, while the Biden-Harris pairing remained a winning combination as did the eventual Harris-Walz ticket.
The goal of this paper is to offer an analysis of the Mandarin genre name Wuxi & aacute;, a name usually referring to a Chinese genre of narratives involving martially skilled protagonists and heroic deeds. We show that Mandarin speakers use Wuxi & aacute; across different contexts as a genre name expressing subtly different degrees of context-based content. For instance, users in on-line conversations may label any fantastic-like fiction as Wuxi & aacute;, but literature scholars use it for a historically well-defined type of genre with well-established cultural themes. We generalise this analysis to names for sub-genres of Wuxi & aacute; narratives (e.g., Ji & agrave;nxi & aacute;, Y & oacute;uxi & aacute;), and propose that they act as hyponyms of the name Xi & aacute; W & eacute;nhu & agrave; 'knight narratives'. We thus offer evidence that genre names in Mandarin have descriptive senses that allow speakers to refer to genres, and to narratives belonging to these genres. At the same time, these names display the properties of nominals, including their participation in lexical relations such as hyponymy. We conclude by discussing how our proposal supports an account of genre names that reconciles apparently diverging linguistic and onomastic theories into a unified theory.
This paper examines the languages of food and senses of place revealed through traditional food naming by ethnic heritage communities, such as the Hokkiens, in Penang, Malaysia. This study uses ethnographic data, photographic data, geospatial analysis, questionnaire surveys, and interviews to examine (1) how traditional names pertaining to ethnic foods are presented and (2) how traditional Penang Hokkien food names are maintained or standardized toward English/Mandarin. While there is a notable trend of mainstream food narratives emphasizing state-backed national food and the use of main languages in food naming, the present study offers a different glocal understanding of the diversified and small ethnic foods and their translingual naming that highlights the shift in and maintenance of these practices. This study thus extends beyond an account of changing food names to indicate broader linguistic and social changes, possible underlying inequalities, the blurring of ethnic and identity boundaries, the (in)visibility of small ethnic/heritage cultures amid the rise of consumer society and a mainstream national heritage that tends to represent the dominant and majority perspectives.
The evolution of gendered naming has been widely examined, yet most studies focus on single languages or limited cultural contexts. This study broadens that scope by analyzing the phonological evolution of gendered names across six countries-Korea, Bangladesh, the United States, Britain, Canada, and Australia-spanning 143 years (1880-2023). Using official national and subnational name series for 18 units, the design combines nationwide data with decade-relative contrasts between hyper-urban and traditional regions, employing top-name lists as proxies for cultural salience. The analysis identifies consistent main effects of culture, time, and region type. Male names show a historical decline in plosive-final forms, whereas female names display a persistent predominance of vowel-final endings. These patterns indicate a cross-national, though not universal, trend toward phonological feminization of names, reflecting the interplay of modernization, urbanization, and evolving gender ideologies. By integrating a comparative, cross-national, diachronic and regional perspectives, this study shows how language evolves alongside shifting gender norms and how naming practices embody both recurrent sound-symbolic tendencies and culturally specific trajectories of change. The scope remains limited by the concentration of Anglophone cases and binary gender classifications.
This article provides a sustained close reading and literary onomastic analysis of Derek Walcott's "Sainte Lucie", arguing that the poem presents names as poetic terms of art: sites of mimicry, misnomer, and transformation. The poem confronts the philosophical and linguistic instability at the heart of naming. By weaving together multilingual references, colonial and postcolonial toponyms, oral traditions, and etymological slippages, names are shown to act not as referential tools but as creative misrepresentations. Resisting referential realism, Walcott presents a name not as a mirror of the world but as a poetic artifact with an aesthetic value derived from its capacity to generate meaning beyond its referent. Ultimately, the article shows that Walcott's poetics do not seek to repair the inherent aporia between name and referent but to embrace it as the very grounds of art. In contrast to dominant philosophical theories (from Frege to Russell to Searle), Walcott's approach recasts the name as a transformative site of memory, loss, and aesthetic form and naming as a mode of poetic authorship that sustains cultural identity amidst historical dislocation. Within this view, naming becomes a mode of poiesis.
