Place Names: Approaches and Perspectives in Toponymy and Toponomastics. By Francesco Perono Cacciafo and Francesco Cavallaro. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2023. Pp. 298. (Paperback) $34.99. ISBN 13: 978-1-108-74824-7.

This paper examines the commonalities among several countries and languages through the lens of proper names, especially forenames. It posits that the investigation of these names offers a fresh perspective on language similarity due to their distinct influence from cross-cultural interactions and language contact compared to regular vocabulary. The study introduces a novel measure that generalizes the similarity between sets by considering the distances between elements. This metric is employed to assess phonetic commonalities in forenames. The results of this analysis show a notable correlation between the commonality of proper names across languages and the overarching commonality of the languages themselves. In addition, the forename commonalities also provided more insights. As this investigation shows, proper names can also serve as a potentially potent metric for language similarity and may be used to unveil additional cultural commonalities and disparities among nations. The paper concludes by addressing the constraints of this research and discussing prospects for subsequent studies.

The Names of the Wyandot. By John Steckley. Oakville, Ontario: Rock’s Mills Press. 2023. Pp. 291. (Paperback) $13.44 CAD. ISBN 13: 978-1-77244-264-9.

This paper provides a brief introduction to Chinese posthumous names. This name system is based on the opposition between positive and negative evaluations of the deceased. It was employed as a means for negotiating legitimacy and shaping the historical record. This article also provides information on the “Order of Posthumous Names Explained”, a chapter of the Neglected Zhou Scriptures. This chapter is a canonical source for the study of Chinese posthumous names. It is commonly seen by scholars as an ancient onomasticon used to assign posthumous names. This paper argues that, in its present form, this chapter is a complex medieval compilation of multiple earlier sources. This paper counters the narrow interpretation of onomasticons of Chinese posthumous names as manuals for assigning names to the deceased. Instead, it postulates that onomasticons of posthumous names were also used as aids in the interpretation of history. They provided meaningful moralistic interpretations for the posthumous names attested in historical sources.

On January 4, 2024, the American Name Society continued its long-standing tradition and conducted the Name of the Year selection (NoY). The 2023 online vote was chaired by ANS President, Laurel Sutton, and ANS Information Officer, Brandon Simonson. This report gives a summary of this year’s NoY deliberations and offers readers background information about some of the onomastic nominations and decision-making.

Proper names habitually express the cultural and social characteristics of a group; therefore, they express collective confirmation of a sense of self-image, affiliations, and emotional anchors. The goal of this investigation is to help deepen our understanding of the onomastic identity revealed in the collective discourse and manifested through the memetic features of onyms. The research presented here consolidated onomastics, psycholinguistics, memetics, and cultural studies. The focus of this investigation is on the changing collective onomastic identity in the Ukrainian society. The data for this research was gathered from two free associative experiments carried out with Ukrainian respondents in 2006 and 2021. In both years, respondents were presented with identical lists of stimuli. Both corpora reveal proper names with memetic features that were preserved in collective memory.

The goal of this research was to examine the linguistic properties of Western Ukraine’s toponymy as presented on Austrian, interwar-Polish, and Soviet topographic maps from the late 18th century to the 1980s. The research question was, “To what extent does this toponymy include languages other than Ukrainian?” As this article demonstrates, the changing toponymy corresponds with general language policies implemented in Western Ukraine by foreign states. The analysis in this work comprises 1,741 toponymic forms that refer to 207 geographical features on nine multi-sheet topographic maps. The toponyms examined are mainly oikonyms. The data collection was limited to the districts of eastern Galicia where Ukrainian speakers outnumbered Polish speakers by at least three to one. Given that linguistic context, it comes as no surprise that examples of non-vernacular “polonized” toponym forms were found to be especially prevalent in this examination. The general finding of this research is that the toponymies of Austrian and Polish maps comprise a mixture of Ukrainian and Polish/Polonized forms. The toponymic “polonization” was quite inconsistent and may reflect the diverse periods and forms of Polish policies.

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During the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War, Ukrainian society has demonstrated an unprecedented growth in volunteer activity (from 103rd position in the World Ranking of Charity to 10th in 2022), which specializes in aiding the Ukrainian military and civilians defending Ukrainian territories. This article presents the results of a study that analyzed the naming practices of volunteer organizations in Ukraine. The research was based on an original corpus of 300 names. The study revealed that the names of volunteer organizations are an important component of political language, because their function is to unite people and encourage action via the manifestation of shared cultural values and practices. The names of volunteer organizations may be viewed as cultural artifacts that codify common spontaneous social reactions to the current conflict. These ergonyms are grouped according to three main patterns: naming peculiarities relating to the participants of volunteer groups (both volunteers themselves as well as those supporting their activity), names given depending on the situation, and naming goals as a method of driving social transformation.

The area between Romania and Ukraine has been the site of frequent language contact for many centuries. This contact has impacted the onomastic store of both nations. This study analyzes anthroponyms (family and first names) in the border area between Ukraine and Romania, along the Tisza River. This study investigates the frequency and etymological origin of family names in the Ukrainian/Romanian communities on both sides of the Tisza. It explores the factors that may have facilitated the spread of Ukrainian/Romanian names beyond their linguistic communities of origin; and it discusses the cultural identity of the two minorities as expressed by their anthroponymic trends. Based on the results of a corpus of historical data gathered between 2000 and 2021, the findings of this research show how language contact, migration, fashion, and tradition can influence anthroponymic choices and reflect ethnic identity.