Enterprises, be they for-profit businesses or not-for-profit organizations, require names to differentiate themselves from other entities. Over a span of more than a hundred years entrepreneurs, corporate boards, and organizational founders have chosen to use Corn Belt or some spelling variant to identify their enterprises, perhaps believing that naming after this admired agricultural region will bless their enterprise with its longevity, productivity, and favorable image. This essay looks at the beginnings of Corn Belt as a vernacular term for an agricultural region, picks up the earliest uses of Corn Belt as an inspiration for enterprise names, tracks Corn Belt enterprises through time at one of the core locations of the naming practice, and presents the enterprises that in 2020 greeted the public with Corn Belt in their names.
{"title":"Corn Belt as an Enterprise-Naming Custom in the United States","authors":"Michael D. Sublett","doi":"10.5195/names.2021.2254","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5195/names.2021.2254","url":null,"abstract":"Enterprises, be they for-profit businesses or not-for-profit organizations, require names to differentiate themselves from other entities. Over a span of more than a hundred years entrepreneurs, corporate boards, and organizational founders have chosen to use Corn Belt or some spelling variant to identify their enterprises, perhaps believing that naming after this admired agricultural region will bless their enterprise with its longevity, productivity, and favorable image. This essay looks at the beginnings of Corn Belt as a vernacular term for an agricultural region, picks up the earliest uses of Corn Belt as an inspiration for enterprise names, tracks Corn Belt enterprises through time at one of the core locations of the naming practice, and presents the enterprises that in 2020 greeted the public with Corn Belt in their names.","PeriodicalId":44254,"journal":{"name":"Names-A Journal of Onomastics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43168938","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Previous studies of snack names have focused on their psychological impact on consumers in different cultures but have tended to ignore their onomastic features. This study helps to address this gap based on a corpus of 121 snack names extracted from the book Chinese Famous Local Delicious Food and Special Products. This study explores the patterns of syllables, sounds, and name types of snack names compiled in this small-scale corpus. In this investigation, it was found that descriptive names were the dominant type in the corpus and the most frequently described type feature was the food ingredient. Interestingly, metaphorical names in the corpus were in general found to be related to shape similarities. Contrary to previous findings on dish names and drinking brand names in China, the snack names examined in this corpus showed a preference for three-syllable patterns and “light” or “flat” tones. After discussing these and other findings of this research, this paper discusses what insights this study may provide for other name investigations that utilize corpus linguistic approaches.
{"title":"Snack Names In China","authors":"Dan Zhao","doi":"10.5195/names.2021.2345","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5195/names.2021.2345","url":null,"abstract":"Previous studies of snack names have focused on their psychological impact on consumers in different cultures but have tended to ignore their onomastic features. This study helps to address this gap based on a corpus of 121 snack names extracted from the book Chinese Famous Local Delicious Food and Special Products. This study explores the patterns of syllables, sounds, and name types of snack names compiled in this small-scale corpus. In this investigation, it was found that descriptive names were the dominant type in the corpus and the most frequently described type feature was the food ingredient. Interestingly, metaphorical names in the corpus were in general found to be related to shape similarities. Contrary to previous findings on dish names and drinking brand names in China, the snack names examined in this corpus showed a preference for three-syllable patterns and “light” or “flat” tones. After discussing these and other findings of this research, this paper discusses what insights this study may provide for other name investigations that utilize corpus linguistic approaches.","PeriodicalId":44254,"journal":{"name":"Names-A Journal of Onomastics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43294656","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Usernames play a major role in online communication by providing a vital first impression and including clues about the identities and personal characteristics of users. Usernames are extremely important in the online trade of illegal drugs, which carries several risks and therefore requires a high degree of trust between the transaction parties. This study examines how sellers and buyers of illegal drugs represent themselves in their usernames. Data on 1,654 usernames collected from a Finnish darknet marketplace, Torilauta (2017–2020) are analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. The usernames are mostly in Finnish and often feature slang and spoken language expressions. Many names include clues about a user’s age, gender, and location. References to various illegal drugs in usernames were found to express a close relationship with the substances. In contrast, they only rarely utilize typical real-life marketing strategies, which suggests that the users do not seek publicity and do not wish to enhance their online reputation. Differences between drug sellers’ and buyers’ usernames are minimal, possibly because of group overlap. Overall, it appears that the users aim to blend in with the drug user community rather than stand out from it by building distinctive images of themselves.
{"title":"Usernames on a Finnish Online Marketplace for Illegal Drugs","authors":"Lasse Hämäläinen, Ari Haasio, J. Harviainen","doi":"10.5195/names.2021.2234","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5195/names.2021.2234","url":null,"abstract":"Usernames play a major role in online communication by providing a vital first impression and including clues about the identities and personal characteristics of users. Usernames are extremely important in the online trade of illegal drugs, which carries several risks and therefore requires a high degree of trust between the transaction parties. This study examines how sellers and buyers of illegal drugs represent themselves in their usernames. Data on 1,654 usernames collected from a Finnish darknet marketplace, Torilauta (2017–2020) are analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. The usernames are mostly in Finnish and often feature slang and spoken language expressions. Many names include clues about a user’s age, gender, and location. References to various illegal drugs in usernames were found to express a close relationship with the substances. In contrast, they only rarely utilize typical real-life marketing strategies, which suggests that the users do not seek publicity and do not wish to enhance their online reputation. Differences between drug sellers’ and buyers’ usernames are minimal, possibly because of group overlap. Overall, it appears that the users aim to blend in with the drug user community rather than stand out from it by building distinctive images of themselves.","PeriodicalId":44254,"journal":{"name":"Names-A Journal of Onomastics","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"70754392","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Naming, Identity, and Tourism. Edited by Luisa Caiazzo, Richard Coates, and Maoz Azaryahu. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. 2020. Pp. vii + 233. £61.99. ISBN 13: 978-1-5275-4286-0.
{"title":"Naming, Identity, and Tourism","authors":"I. M. Nick","doi":"10.5195/names.2021.2312","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5195/names.2021.2312","url":null,"abstract":"Naming, Identity, and Tourism. Edited by Luisa Caiazzo, Richard Coates, and Maoz Azaryahu. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. 2020. Pp. vii + 233. £61.99. ISBN 13: 978-1-5275-4286-0.","PeriodicalId":44254,"journal":{"name":"Names-A Journal of Onomastics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47368705","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Dictionary of French Family Names in North America. By Marc Picard. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2020. Pp xxvi + 719. ISBN:1-5275-5853-3; ISBN13: 978-1-5275-5853-3. £80.99 (Paperback).
{"title":"Dictionary of French Family Names in North America","authors":"A. Lapierre","doi":"10.5195/names.2021.2283","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5195/names.2021.2283","url":null,"abstract":"Dictionary of French Family Names in North America. By Marc Picard. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2020. Pp xxvi + 719. ISBN:1-5275-5853-3; ISBN13: 978-1-5275-5853-3. £80.99 (Paperback).","PeriodicalId":44254,"journal":{"name":"Names-A Journal of Onomastics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49132935","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This note of remembrance is written for the eminent onomastician Edwin David Lawson.
这封纪念信是为著名的未经学家埃德温·大卫·劳森写的。
{"title":"Note of Remembrance in Honor of Edwin David Lawson (December 23, 1923—July 3, 2021)","authors":"A. Demsky","doi":"10.5195/names.2021.2313","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5195/names.2021.2313","url":null,"abstract":"This note of remembrance is written for the eminent onomastician Edwin David Lawson.","PeriodicalId":44254,"journal":{"name":"Names-A Journal of Onomastics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42815899","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Recent work has argued that sound symbolism plays a much larger part in language than previously believed, given the assumption of the arbitrariness of the sign. A slate of recent papers on Pokémonastics, for example, has found sound symbolic associations to be rampant in Pokémon names cross-linguistically. In this paper, we explore a real-world dataset that parallels Pokémon, in which human players similarly have physical attributes of weight, height, and power: Major League Baseball. We investigated phonological correlations between baseball player statistics and their given first names, chosen baseball-official first names,and baseball nicknames. We found numerous sound symbolic associations in player-chosen names and nicknames, where conscious design may play a role in choosing a name that communicates an attribute. These associations were often mediated by language-specific hypocoristic formation processes. We conclude that sound symbolism occurs in real-world naming practices, but only when names are chosen in cognizance of the relevant attributes.
最近的研究表明,考虑到符号的任意性,声音象征主义在语言中扮演的角色比之前认为的要大得多。例如,最近一系列关于poksamastics的论文发现,在跨语言的poksamastics名字中,声音符号关联非常猖獗。在本文中,我们探索了一个与poksammon相似的真实世界数据集,其中人类玩家同样具有体重,身高和力量的物理属性:Major League Baseball。我们调查了棒球运动员的统计数据与他们的名字、选定的棒球官方名字和棒球昵称之间的语音相关性。我们在玩家选择的名字和昵称中发现了许多声音符号关联,有意识的设计可能在选择能够传达属性的名字时发挥作用。这些关联通常是由语言特异性的伪善形成过程介导的。我们的结论是,声音象征主义出现在现实世界的命名实践中,但只有在认识到相关属性的情况下才选择名字。
{"title":"Sound Symbolism in Baseball Player Names","authors":"Stephanie S. Shih, Deniz Rudin","doi":"10.5195/names.2021.2245","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5195/names.2021.2245","url":null,"abstract":"Recent work has argued that sound symbolism plays a much larger part in language than previously believed, given the assumption of the arbitrariness of the sign. A slate of recent papers on Pokémonastics, for example, has found sound symbolic associations to be rampant in Pokémon names cross-linguistically. In this paper, we explore a real-world dataset that parallels Pokémon, in which human players similarly have physical attributes of weight, height, and power: Major League Baseball. We investigated phonological correlations between baseball player statistics and their given first names, chosen baseball-official first names,and baseball nicknames. We found numerous sound symbolic associations in player-chosen names and nicknames, where conscious design may play a role in choosing a name that communicates an attribute. These associations were often mediated by language-specific hypocoristic formation processes. We conclude that sound symbolism occurs in real-world naming practices, but only when names are chosen in cognizance of the relevant attributes.","PeriodicalId":44254,"journal":{"name":"Names-A Journal of Onomastics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-02-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43543680","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
A Rosenberg by Any Other Name: A History of Jewish NameChanging in America. By KIRSTEN FERMAGLICH. New York: NewYork University Press. 2018. Pp. v þ 245. $28.00. ISBN: 978-1-4798-6720-2.
{"title":"Rosenberg by Any Other Name","authors":"Beth DiNatale Johnson","doi":"10.5195/names.2021.2246","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5195/names.2021.2246","url":null,"abstract":"A Rosenberg by Any Other Name: A History of Jewish NameChanging in America. By KIRSTEN FERMAGLICH. New York: NewYork University Press. 2018. Pp. v þ 245. $28.00. ISBN: 978-1-4798-6720-2.","PeriodicalId":44254,"journal":{"name":"Names-A Journal of Onomastics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-02-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42829086","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Personal names contain considerable meaningful information about biological and social characteristics of the name-bearer. They also routinely contain important data about cultural preferences in the naming process. Access to this level of information has been limited in the past by a lack of access to large-scale empirical data. As this investigation demonstrates, by utilizing a reliable large-scale sample of Beijing citizens, it is possible to empirically demonstrate onomastic imbalances in the occurrence of Chinese surnames, given names, and full names. In particular, this paper explores the matching imbalance between Chinese surnames and given names, a phenomenon which has as yet received scant attention in onomastic literature. As this article demonstrates, our innovative quantitative approach makes it possible to reveal statistically significant differences between real names and “random-matching names” that reflect a matching imbalance and imply the probable existence of underlying cultural preferences in Chinese naming processes. The key to this approach is generating a matching preference index (MPI) for names in a dataset. Alongside explaining how this approach is used, this paper offers possible reasons to explain why specific names have higher or lower MPI rankings. As this paper argues, one of the main reasons for these empirical differences may be found in special associations name-givers have within Chinese culture.
{"title":"Use of a Matching Preference Index to Empirically Examine Distribution Imbalances in Beijing Citizens’ Names","authors":"Ziming Zhao, Xiaomeng Li, Qinghua Chen","doi":"10.5195/names.2021.2314","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5195/names.2021.2314","url":null,"abstract":"Personal names contain considerable meaningful information about biological and social characteristics of the name-bearer. They also routinely contain important data about cultural preferences in the naming process. Access to this level of information has been limited in the past by a lack of access to large-scale empirical data. As this investigation demonstrates, by utilizing a reliable large-scale sample of Beijing citizens, it is possible to empirically demonstrate onomastic imbalances in the occurrence of Chinese surnames, given names, and full names. In particular, this paper explores the matching imbalance between Chinese surnames and given names, a phenomenon which has as yet received scant attention in onomastic literature. As this article demonstrates, our innovative quantitative approach makes it possible to reveal statistically significant differences between real names and “random-matching names” that reflect a matching imbalance and imply the probable existence of underlying cultural preferences in Chinese naming processes. The key to this approach is generating a matching preference index (MPI) for names in a dataset. Alongside explaining how this approach is used, this paper offers possible reasons to explain why specific names have higher or lower MPI rankings. As this paper argues, one of the main reasons for these empirical differences may be found in special associations name-givers have within Chinese culture.","PeriodicalId":44254,"journal":{"name":"Names-A Journal of Onomastics","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"70754011","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}