

About the Network
This network brings together scholars from all countries who are engaged in research on personal names. Scholars in many different disciplines around the world are researching names, but often they hardly know about each other and their research literature is difficult to access in other countries.
This is where the network comes in. Scientists around the world can
- get in touch with each other,
- exchange information about who is doing which research in which country,
- exchange news about international names research and conferences,
- discuss ideas and methodological problems and
- list and upload their publications and make them accessible to all international researchers by adding English keywords and summaries. Members of the network can send me an email and they will receive an invitation to join the literature group
In this way, each individual names researcher can gain more visibility, network with others, exchange ideas and in the best case even start a joint international names research project.
The network was founded in 2024 by Anna-Maria Balbach. It continues and expands the “People's Names Research Network (PNRN)”, which was launched by Jane Pilcher in 2021.Researchers from all disciplines are invited to network and exchange ideas.
If you would like to join the network or learn more about it, please write to Dr. Anna-Maria Balbach.
Looking forward to welcome new members!
Our Members

Comfort Iseoluwa Adeleke-Adeniji, Redeemer's University, Nigeria
I am an onomastician and a sociolinguist with focus on African drama texts. I love to delve into the thematic and sociolinguistic imports of characters' names in relation to the textual and extra-textual contexts of African plays. I am interested in discovering the sociolinguistic context of literary names.
Publications:
Adeleke-Adeniji, C. & Odebode, I. (2024). A Sociolinguistic Study of Characters’ Names in Ahmed Yerima’s Ikudeti . In Humanus Discourse, Volume 4 (4) 1-14. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/381660446
Odebode, I., Ayodeji, S., & Adeleke-Adeniji, C. (2024). Biblical names in selected plays of Wole Soyinka: A sociolinguistic study. In Onomástica desde América Latina 5, janeiro-dezembro, 1-26. http://doi.org/10.48075/odal.v5i1.33080
Adeleke-Adeniji, C. & Odebode, I. (2024). Eventonym as Characteronym: An Ethnographic Study of the Protagonist’s Name in Ahmed Yerima’s Ikudeti. https://www.sirenjournals.com

Barbara Aehnlich, University of Bremen, Germany
I am a lecturer in German linguistics specializing in the history of the German language at the University of Bremen. As a historical linguist, I have also been working in the field of name research for a long time. For my dissertation, I wrote a thesis on the field names of Thuringia and carried out name studies on various topics, such as the naming of pets by children or the names of utra-fan groups in soccer. I am currently in charge of the digitization of the Thuringian field name archive and the project “Field names as a bridge between society and science”. In the field of personal names, I have carried out contrastive studies on the assignment of names with Georgia and investigated the pragmaonomastic implications of the naming of historical female names.
Publications:
Kein „alltäglicher Gruppenname“? – Namengebung bei Ultrafangruppen (mit Tim Köring), in: Ewald, Petra / Pohl, Inge (Hg.): Inoffizielle Eigennamen – Onomastische Studien (Sprache – System und Tätigkeit, Bd. 76), Berlin u.a. 2024, S. 305-338.
Tradition neu gestalten – Digitalisierung und Bürgerwissenschaft im Thüringischen Flurnamenprojekt (gemeinsam mit David Brosius), Beiträge zur Namenforschung 59, 2024, S. 159-180.
Vom Zettel zum Datensatz. Flurnamenforschung in Thüringen (mit Petra Kunze), in: Smolarski, René; Carius, Hendrikje; Prell, Martin (Hg.): Citizen Science in den Geschichtswissenschaften. Methodische Perspektive oder perspektivlose Methode? (DH&CS Schriften des Netzwerks für digitale Geisteswissenschaften und Citizen Science 3), Göttingen 2023, S. 125-141.
„… ab morgen nennen wir uns Ultras …“ Die Benennungen von Ultrafangruppen in den deutschen Fußballligen (mit Tim Köring), in: Namenkundliche Informationen (NI) 114 (2022), hrsg. von Michael Prinz, Gerhard Rampl und Inga Siegfried-Schupp, 169-202.
Rufnamen kontrastiv: ein deutsch-georgischer Vergleich (mit Manana Bakradze, Miranda Gobiani, Jakob Wünsch); Zeitschrift Linguistische Treffen in Wrocław, vol. 21, 2022 (I), S. 17-33. (DOI: https://doi.org/10.23817/lingtreff.21-1.)
Das Thüringer Flurnamenportal – Ein Werkstattbericht, in: Namenkundliche Informationen (NI) 113 (2021), hrsg. von Michael Prinz und Inga Siegfried-Schupp, S. 35-52.
Kulturelle Spezifik der deutschen und georgischen Vornamen (gemeinsam mit Manana Bakradze, Miranda Gobiani, Diana Schluchtmann und Jakob Wünsch), in: Hengst, Karlheinz (Hg.): Namenforschung und Namenberatung (Onomastica Lipsiensia 14), Leipzig 2021, S. 47-69.
Sozio- und pragmaonomastische Implikationen der Benennungspraxis am Beispiel der Christiana von Goethe (gemeinsam mit Anja Stehfest), in: Namenkundliche Informationen 107/108 (2016), herausgegeben von Susanne Baudisch et al., Leipzig, S. 369-396.
Minka und Findus oder Helga und Brigitte – Individualbenennungen von Haustieren durch Kinder und Jugendliche (gemeinsam mit Elisabeth Witzenhausen), in: Beiträge zur Namenforschung, Band 50, Heft 1/2, 2015, S. 191-218.
Flurnamen Thüringens. Der westliche Saale-Holzland-Kreis, baar, Hamburg 2012.

Terhi Ainiala, University of Helsinki, Finland
In the fields of onomastics, the most central areas for me are socio-onomastics and folk onomastics. I’m especially interested in identity construction through naming, social and situational name variation and the various functions of names. Furthermore, the stances and perceptions towards various names are fascinating. Personally, I have studied place names but also personal names. As a supervisor for several doctoral and master thesis I’ve been involved with many kinds of personal names, both official and unofficial, both historical and current.
Publications:
Voutilainen, Eero – Visakko, Tomi – Sjöblom, Paula – Hakala, Ulla – Ainiala, Terhi
2024: Place branding and translocal chronotopes in Finnish municipality slogans. –
Language and Communication 94, 56–68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2023.12.003
Ainiala, Terhi – Jokela, Salla – Tarvainen, Jenny –Jantunen, Jarmo H. 2023: Geographic
imagination and urban-rural binary in online discourses related to the capital region of
Finland: A corpus onomastic study of Helsinki, Vantaa and Espoo. – Nordic Journal of
Socio-Onomastics, 3, 13–44. https://doi.org/10.59589/noso.32023.14401
Jantunen, Jarmo H. – Ainiala, Terhi – Jokela, Salla – Tarvainen, Jenny 2022: Mapping
Digital Discourses of the Capital Region of Finland: Combining Onomastics, CADS, and
GIS. – Names. A Journal of Onomastics 70:1, 20–39.
https://doi.org/10.5195/names.2022.2289
Ainiala, Terhi – Olsson, Pia 2021: Places of power: Naming of affective places. – Nordic
Journal of Socio-Onomastics, 1, 9–38. https://doi.org/10.59589/noso.12021.14713
Ameel, Lieven – Ainiala, Terhi 2018: Toponyms as Prompts for Presencing Place –
Making Oneself at Home in Kjell Westö’s Helsinki. – Scandinavian Studies 90(2), 195–
210. https://doi.org/10.5406/scanstud.90.2.0195
Ainiala, Terhi – Lappalainen, Hanna – Nyström, Samu 2016: Slang name or official
name? Suburb names as mirrors of urban identities in eastern Helsinki. –
Yhdyskuntasuunnittelu 54, 41–59.
Ainiala, Terhi 2016: Names in Society. – Hough, Carole (ed.), Oxford Handbook of
Names and Naming. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 371–381.
https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/34398
Ainiala, Terhi – Östman, Jan-Ola (eds.) 2017: Socio-onomastics. The pragmatics of
names. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.275
Ainiala, Terhi – Saarikivi, Janne (eds.) 2017: Personal name systems in Finnic and
beyond. Uralica Helsingiensia 12. Helsinki. https://www.sgr.fi/fi/items/show/193
Ainiala, Terhi – Saarelma, Minna – Sjöblom, Paula 2012: Names in Focus. An
Introduction to Finnish Onomastics. Studia Fennica Linguistica. 287 s. Helsinki: Finnish
Literature Society. https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/3212

Fatemeh Akbari, Academy of Persian Language and Literature (APLL), Austria
Names are living entities, as are societies. They are born, grow, weaken, and occasionally disappear. Throughout their existence, they interact with each other. The influence of names and societies on each other, particularly from socio-political and terminological perspectives, lies at the heart of my onomastic studies.
I am an onomastician, sociolinguist, and terminologist. Currently, I contribute as a non-executive member of the International Council of Onomastic Sciences (ICOS) Board (responsible for international collaborations, with Dr. Peter Jordan), a member of Terminology Working Group, and a member of the ICOS Congress 2027 Organising Committee. Additionally, I serve as the head of the Terminology Committee of the APLL; and a sociolinguist on the project Investigating Iranian Surnames in the USA (sponsored by the Persian Heritage Foundation), among others.
Further information
Websites:
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7898-9096
https://www.linkedin.com/in/fatemeh-akbari-963b3216
Publications:
2025. (with M.R. Razavi and B. Fathi) “Definition: A Function-Style Classification” (submitted for publication)
2023. “A Look at Onomastics in Western World”. Iranian Journal of Sociolinguistics, 6(4):13-25. https://sociolinguistics.journals.pnu.ac.ir/article_10553.html?lang=en
2023. “The Power of Names and Naming”. The 1st. International Congress on Social Sciences, 20-21 October 2023, KTO Karatay University, Konya, Turkey
2023. “Names in Politics”. Invited speaker, International Council of Onomastic Sciences’ Summer School, 21-25 August 2023. Glasgow, University of Glasgow
2022. “International Collaboration on Onomastics”. Keynote speech (with Prof. Dr. Peter Jordan). The Second National Conference on Onomastic Studies in Iran, 23 February 2022, Tehran, Linguistic Society of Iran
2021. “Names in Protest Actions”. The 27th International Congress of Onomastic Sciences, 22–27 August 2021, Cracow, Poland
2020. Iran’s Language Planning to Confront English Abbreviations. n.p.: Springer International Publishing. https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783030353827
2019. Immigrants’ Business Naming: Persian Restaurants and Supermarkets in Vienna’s Linguistic Landscape. Onoma (Journal of the International Council of Onomastic Sciences), 54, pp. 99–117.
2019. “Persian Commercial Names and Appealing Strategies” In Onomastic Studies. Tehran: Neveeseh Parsi, pp. 13–34.

Emilia Aldrin, Halmstad University, Sweden
My research interests centre around social positioning and identity creation through naming. I have studied for example parents choice of first names for their children as an act of identity, name choices in multilingual families, gendered patterns in name innovations, teenagers positioning through usernames, the effects of name based stereotypes in school assessment, and name use in educational materials as representation of society.
Publications:
Vad säger väl ett namn? Reflektioner kring teorin om markerade namn utifrån exemplet etniska konnotationer till förnamn. [What’s in a name? Reflections on the theory of name markedness based on the example of ethnic connotations to first names] In: Namn och gränser. Rapport från den sjuttonde nordiska namnforskarkongressen den 8–11 juni 2021 (NORNA-rapporter 100), edited by Väinö Syrjälä, Terhi Ainiala, and Pamela Gustavsson. Uppsala 2023, p. 57–79. https://norna.org/sites/default/files/rapporter/NORNA100.pdf
Representing Sweden: A diachronic study of names and illustrations in Swedish textbooks from the 20th and 21st centuries. In: Beiträge zur Namenforschung 56 (2021), p. 63–78.
Naming, Identity, and Social Positioning in Teenagers’ Everyday Mobile Phone Interaction. In: Names: A journal of onomastics 67:1 (2019), p. 30–39. https://doi.org/10.1080/00277738.2017.1415523
Assessing names? Effects of name-based stereotypes on teachers’ evaluation of pupils’ texts. In: Names: A journal of onomastics. 65:1 (2017), p. 3–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/00277738.2016.1223116
Creating identities through the choice of first name. In: Socio-onomastics. Ed. by: Terhi Ainiala & Jan-Ola Östman. Amsterdam 2017, p. 45–68.
Vad säger mitt namn om mig? En folkonomastisk studie av vuxnas syn på relationen mellan namn och identitet. [What does my name say about me? A folk onomastic study of adults’ views of the relationship between name and identity] In: NORNA-rapporter 96. Namn som kjelder. Rapport frå Den sekstande nordiske namneforskarkongressen på Jæren folkehøgskole, Kleppe 8.–11. juni 2016. Red. av Tom Schmidt & Inge Særheim. Uppsala (2017), p. 21–34.
Names and identity. In: The Oxford Handbook of names and naming. Ed. by Carole Hough. Oxford (2016), p. 382–394.
Att skapa kön. Könsmönster och könsroller i nyskapade förnamn. [Creating gender. Gendered patterns and gender roles in newly created first names] In: NORNA-rapporter 92. Innovationer i namn och namnmönster. Rapport från NORNA:s 43 symposium i Halmstad 6–8 november 2013. Red: Emilia Aldrin, Linnea Gustafsson, Maria Löfdahl och Catarina Röjder. Uppsala (2015), p. 36–51.
Namnval som social handling. Val av förnamn och samtal om förnamn bland föräldrar i Göteborg 2007–2009. [Naming as a social act. Choice of first names and conversations about first names among parents in Göteborg 2007-2009] Uppsala (2011). https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:402591/FULLTEXT01.pdf
2009: The choice of first names as a social resource and act of identity among multilingual families in contemporary Sweden. In: Names in multi-lingual, multi-cultural and multi-ethnic contact. Proceedings of The 23rd International Congress of Onomastic Sciences, August 17–22, 2008. York (2009), p. 86–92.

Anna-Maria Balbach, University of Muenster, Germany
E-Mail: Anna.Balbach@uni-muenster.de
I am a linguist of German philology studying the interdependence of language and society, culture and especially religion in diachronic and synchronic perspective. I am interested in onomastics of personal names and their influence by these external factors. Who chooses what names for what reasons at what times? What do personal names, especially given names, tell us about a person’s values and various affiliations within his or her society and culture? So far, I have studied German given names of the early modern period, African-American names and their development from 1600 to the present, as well as personal names and gender.
Currently, I am planning a research project on given names in Europe and their historical and contemporary development.
Publications:
Given Names and Gender: An Initial Comparison between Germany and Other European Countries. In: Sociolinguistic Studies (2025), 25 pages (accepted).
Noah and Luca, Sofia and Mia: Current First Name Trends in Europe. In: Linguistica Lettica (2024), p. 76–95.
Personal Names and Naming in Europe. First Insights into Variabilities and Similarities. In: Beiträge zur Namenforschung 58/4 (2023), p. 355–392.
Names, Naming (People), Christianity - Modern Europe. In: Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception (EBR), vol. 20. Berlin, Boston 2022, p. 699–706.
„Rose, formerly called Grace“. Fremd- und selbstinitiierter Namenwechsel afro-amerikanischer Sklaven im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert. In: Beiträge zur Namenforschung 56 (2021), p. 79–104.
Caesar, Jack, and Cuffee: African-American fugitive slave names in the 17th to the 19th century. In: ONOMA 55 (2021), p. 205–227.
Die Scrabble-Score-Methode zur Messung sprachlicher Komplexität – Ein Test anhand von 90.000 Rufnamen aus dem SOEP. In: SOEPpapers 990 (2018), p. 1–14.
Von Agustin über Tom zu DaShawn – Zur Geschichte und Entwicklung so genannter ‚Black Names‘ in den USA. Teil 3: Von der Mitte des 20. Jahrhunderts bis heute In: Beiträge zur Namenforschung 3 (2018), p. 283–338. Abstract.
Von Agustin über Tom zu DaShawn – Zur Geschichte und Entwicklung so genannter ‚Black Names‘ in den USA. Teil 2: Vom Ende der Sklaverei bis ins frühe 20. Jahrhundert. In: Beiträge zur Namenforschung 2 (2018), p. 133–185. Abstract.
Von Agustin über Tom zu DaShawn – Zur Geschichte und Entwicklung so genannter ‚Black Names‘ in den USA. Teil 1. In: Beiträge zur Namenforschung 1 (2018), p. 1–45. Abstract.
Name – Geschlecht – Individuum. Konfessioneller Einfluss auf die Vornamengebung im frühneuzeitlichen Bayerisch-Schwaben. In: Beiträge zur Namenforschung 2/2014, p. 127–163.
Jakob, Johann oder Joseph? - Frühneuzeitliche Vornamen im Streit der Konfessionen. In: Konfession und Sprache in der Frühen Neuzeit. Interdisziplinäre Perspektiven. Hrsg. von Jürgen Macha, Anna-Maria Balbach und Sarah Horstkamp. Münster 2012, p. 11–30.

Laimute Balode, University of Latvia, Lativa / University of Helsinki, Finland
Email: laimute.balode@lu.lv / laimute.balode@helsinki.fi
I am Baltic linguist, main field of my research – onomastics. My scientific interests are more related to Latvian and Lithuanian toponymy, particularly Baltic hydronymy, as well as lexical parallels in Baltic languages. I am also one of the authors of multy-years project – Latvian Place Name Dictionary, and Short Dictionary of the Origin of Latvian Geographical Names (“No Abavas līdz Zilupei”, 2015). For the past 20 years – I have also focused on socio-anthroponymy, especially on the motivation of newborn names and the latest trends of given-names in Latvia, as well as tendencies in changing of given-names in recent years. Currently, together with colleagues from the Institute of the Latvian Language, I am working on the new Doctionary of Given-names of Latvia.
I have taught onomastics at the University of Latvia for many years and, in parallel, as a visiting professor of Baltic languages at the University of Helsinki, I have also taught a Baltic onomastics course for Finnish students. I was elected as a non-executive Board member of the International Council of Onomastic Sciences (ICOS) (1999–2002).
Publications:
Balode, Laimute. Ko atklāj mūsdienu Latvijas iedzīvotāju priekšvārdi. / What do the given names of the residents of contemporary Latvia reveal. Onomastika Lettica. 6., Rīga: Latviešu valodas institūts, 2024, 124–148. https://lavi.lu.lv/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/OL_6_22.11.pdf
Balode, Laimute. Names of Newborns in Latvia: Recent Changes. Onomastics in Interaction With Other Branches of Science. Volume 2. Anthroponomastics. Proceedings of the 27th International Congress of Onomastic Sciences. Edited by: Urszula Bijak, Paweł Swoboda, Justyna B. Walkowiak, Kraków: Jagiellonian University Press. 2023, 21–48. Pieejams: https://wuj.pl/en/book/onomastics-in-interaction-with-other-branches-of-science-volume-2
Balode, Laimute. Personvārdu izvēles tendences Latvijā un citās Baltijas valstīs: salīdzinošais aspekts / Trends in the choice of personal names in Latvia and other Baltic countries: a comparative aspect. Baltìstikos platýbėse. Baltų kalbotyros straipsnių rinkinys, skirtas prof. Bonifaco Stundžios 70 metų jubiliejui”, Vilniaus universiteto leidykla / Vilnius University Open Series, 2022, 33–64. https://www.zurnalai.vu.lt/open-series/article/view/29772/28817
Balode, Laimute. Vai Jānis atgriežas? / Does Jānis return? Akadēmiķa Jāņa Endzelīna 148. dzimšanas dienas atceres starptautiskā zinātniskā konference „Baltijas onīmi: no sendienām līdz mūsdienām”. Tēzes, Rīga: LU Latviešu valodas institūts, 2021, 5–6.
Balode, Laimute. Name Changes and Identity in Latvia. Onomastikas Pētījumi / Onomastic Investigations, Rīga: Latviešu valodas institūts, 2020, 18–37. https://lavi.lu.lv/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Onomastic_Investigations_2.pdf
Balode, Laimute. 100 izplatītākie latviešu sieviešu un vīriešu vārdi. / The most popular 100 male and female names. Valodas prakse: vērojumi un ieteikumi, 14, Populārzinātnisku rakstu krājums, Rīga: Latviešu valodas aģentūra, 2019, 151–170.
Balode, Laimute. Piezīmes par personvārdu maiņu Latvijā / Some Comments of First Name Change in Latvia). Dzīves lingvistika. Veltījumkrājums profesoram Jānim Valdmanim = Linguistics of Life. A festschrift in honour of Jānis Valdmanis. Krājuma redaktore Inita Vītola. Rīga: LU Akadēmiskais apgāds, 2018a, 67–86.
Balode, Laimute. Deminutīvi patstāvīgu vārdu funkcijā / Diminutives as Official Personal Names in Latvian. Onomastica Lettica. 5., Rīga: LU Latviešu valodas institūts, 2018b, 195–209.
Balode, Laimute. Anthroponymic Nests in Latvian. Onomastica Uralica, 13., Debrecen-Helsinki, 2018c, 65–79. http://mnytud.arts.unideb.hu/onomural/kotetek/ou13a.html
Balode, Laimute, Plēsuma, Ieva. Retie personvārdi Latvijā trešās tūkstošgades sākumā / Rare given names at the beginning of the third millenium. Onomastica Lettica 4, Rīga, 2015, 220–251.
Balode, Laimute. Lietuviešu cilmes personvārdi latviešu antroponīmiskajā sistēmā / Personal Names of Lithuanian origin in Latvian anthroponymic system. Baltu filoloģija. X. Rīga, 2001, 9–20. https://dbh.nsd.uib.no/publiseringskanaler/erihplus/periodical/info.action?id=480017
Balode, Laimute, Smilts un stikls latviešu un citu tautu antroponīmijā./ Sand and Glass in the Latvian and Foreign Anthroponymy. Starptautiskais simpozijs “Smilts un stikls” / International symposium “Sand and Glass”. Zinātnisko rakstu krājums. Symposium scientific papers. Rīga: Latvijas Universitāte, 2017, 112–115.
Balode, Laimute, Bušs, Ojārs. Das lettische Personennamensystem. Europäishe Personennamensysteme. Ein Handbuch von Abasisch bis Zentralladinisch (herausgegeben von Andrea Brendler und Silvio Brendler), Hamburg: baar, 2007, 459–473.
Balode, Laimute. Personvārdi Rīgas ielu nosaukumos / Personal Names in Riga’s streets/ Tavs vārdadienu kalendārs – 2005, 2006, 2007, Rīga: Nordic, 2004, 425–435.
Balode, Laimute. Lietuviešu cilmes personvārdi latviešu antroponīmiskajā sistēmā / Personal names of Lithuanian origin in the Latvian anthroponymic system. Baltu filoloģija. X. Rīga: LU, 2001, 9–20.
Balode, Laimute. Latvian Hydronyms of Anthroponymik Origin. Patroponimica Romanica. Band 17. Onomastik. Akten des 18. Internationalen Kongresses für Namenforschung, Trier, 12.-17. April 1993. Band IV: Personennamen und Ortsnamen, 1999, 76–81.
Siliņa-Piņķe, Renāte, Balode, Laimute. Mazā personvārdu vārdnīca. / Small Dictionary of Given-names, Rīga: Latviešu valodas aģentūra, 2025. (in print).
List of scientific and popular-scientific publications (~ 260).

Ivona Barešová, Palacký University Olomouc, Czech Republic
I primarily focus on various aspects of Japanese given names, including the recent trend of gender-neutral names. I enjoy exploring how names reflect the period in which they are chosen, capturing parental values, needs, and aspirations shaped by broader societal changes. Recently, I have also conducted comparative analyses of Japanese and Taiwanese names and naming practices. I greatly welcome this initiative and am eager to collaborate with scholars working on similar themes in other cultures, as well as to explore new directions in the study of names and identity.
Publications:
Barešová, I., K. Machů, and M. Šturdík. 2024. Contemporary Japanese Gender-Neutral Names from the Perspective of Their Bearers. Japanese Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/10371397.2024.2430558
Barešová, I., Nakaya, T., Matlach, V. 2024. Gender-specific Features in Contemporary Japanese Names. Digital Scholarship in the Humanities 39(2): 467–484. https://doi.org/10.1093/llc/fqae022
Barešová, I. 2023. Born in the Reiwa Era: The Reflection of Contemporary Events in Japanese Given Names. In: Bijak, U., Swoboda, P., Walkowiak, J. B. Onomastics in Interaction With Other Branches of Science. Volume 2, 49–66. https://doi.org/10.4467/K7446.46/22.23.17269
Barešová, I., and P. Janda. 2023. Tradition and Change: Naming Practices in Contemporary Japan and Taiwan. In F. Kraus, K. Šamajová, R. Westlake, and B. Ferklová. Continuity and change in Asia. 393–411. Olomouc: Palacký University Press.
Barešová, I., and P. Janda. 2022. Different, Yet Similar: Given Names of Contemporary Japanese and Taiwanese Young Women. Acta Onomastica 63(1): 7–36.
Barešová, I., and M. Pikhart. 2020. Going by an English name: The Adoption and Use of English Names by Taiwanese Young Adults. Social Sciences 9(4): 60. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci9040060
Barešová, I. 2020. Name-based Nickname Formation among Japanese Junior High School Students. Acta Onomastica 61(2): 267–286.
Barešová, I. 2020. Boy or Girl? The Rise of Non-Gender-Specific Names in Japan. Silva Iaponicarum 56–59: 26–41. 10.12775/sijp.2020.56-59.2
Barešová, I. 2019. Our Second Son Is Number One: Numbers in Recent Japanese Given Names. Investigationes Linguisticae 43: 1–14. doi: 10.14746/il.2019.43.1.
Barešová, I. 2016. Japanese Given Names: A Window into Contemporary Japanese Society. Olomouc: Palacký University Press. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317527958_Japanese_Given_Names_A_Window_Into_Contemporary_Japanese_Society
Katrine Bechsgaard, University of California, Berkeley, USA / University of Copenhagen, Denmark
My research focuses on sociolinguistics and socioonomastics – on how language and names are used in and reflect contemporary society. I am interested in naming practices, especially in terms of how name choices are related to identity. I have studied Danish parents’ choice of first names for children, written a book examining cultural, sociological, linguistic, and psychological aspects of naming, and my current project focuses on surname choices, family practices, gender, and identity.

Gerrit Bloothoft, Utrecht University, Netherlands
The naming of a child is a personal act of identity. How this choice relates to tradition, social group, fashion and time (as an example of cultural evolution) has my deepest interest, and I try to unravel this by the analysis of Dutch naming from about 1790 onwards. This is possible on the basis of full population data for the Netherlands of given names, date, place and country of birth, with added information from 19th century marriage records. This allows for unprecedented analytical research. Most of this information can be accessed online at the Dutch Corpus of Given Names which I founded in 2009. Even though I am retired now, I continue my research as guest of Utrecht University, the Netherlands, and the Meertens Institute of the Royal Academy of sciences.
Publications:
Bloothooft, G. (2002), 'Naming and subcultures in The Netherlands' (.pdf), Proceedings International Conference of Onomastic Sciences, Uppsala, eds E. Brylla and M. Wahlberg, part 2, pp 53-62 (published 2006)
Bloothooft, G., van Nifterick, E. en Gerritzen, D. (2004), 'Over voornamen - hoe Nederland aan z'n voornamen komt', Het Spectrum, Utrecht, SBN 90 274 8444 9, 364 pp. [On first names - how The Netherlands gets its first names]
Bloothooft, G. and L. Groot (2008), 'Name clustering on the basis of parental preferences', Names 56:3, 111-163 (Maney Publishing)
Bloothooft, G. and D. Onland (2011), 'Socioeconomic determinants of first names', Names 59, 1, 25-41.
Bloothooft, G. and Schraagen, M. (2011), 'Name fashion dynamics and social class', Proceedings of the XXIV-International Conference of Onomastic Sciences, Barcelona, pp 271-282.
Bloothooft, G. and Darlu, P. (2013), 'Evaluation of the Bayesian Method to Derive Migration Patterns from Changes in Surname Distributions over Time', Human Biology 85(3), 537 - 551.
Bloothooft, G., Christen, P., Mandemakers, K., Schraagen, M. (Eds.) (2015), Population Reconstruction, Springer, Switzerland, ISBN 978-3-319-19883-5
Bloothooft, G. and Onland, D. (2016), 'Multiple first names in the Netherlands (1760-2014)', Names, 64:1, 3-18, DOI: 10.1080/00277738.2016.1118860
Bloothooft, G. (2021), 'De machtswet van de voornamen', in Nicoline van der Sijs, Lauren Fonteijn en Marten van der Meulen (red.), Wat gebeurt er in het Nederlands?, Sterck & De Vreese, Gorredijk, pp160-166. [The power law of given names]
Bloothooft, G. and Onland, D. (2023). Online Exploration of Given Name Popularity in the Netherlands since 1790. In U. Bijak, P. Swoboda, & J. B. Walkowiak (Eds.), Proceedings of the 27th International Congress of Onomastic Sciences: Onomastics in Interaction With Other Branches of Science. Volume 2: Anthroponomastics (pp. 67–84). Kraków: Jagiellonian University Press. https://doi.org/10.4467/K7446.46/22.23.17270
At www.neerlandistiek.nl 114 publications in Dutch can be found on various aspects of baby naming in the Netherlands (published since 2018). Also visit my personal website (in Dutch) www.gerritbloothooft.nl > Publicaties for a full overview.
Jane Bryan, University of Warwick, UK
I am a Reader of Law at the University of Warwick and the Academic Lead of our Community Values Education Programme. I am interested in dialogue in several contexts: as a way to develop reflective teaching practice through peer dialogue, as a way to engage students in their learning through supporting the student voice and as a way to resolve conflicts through mediation and restorative approaches. My interest in the importance of names and correct pronunciation arises in part from my wider attempts to remove barriers to dialogue that can arise in the teaching space and beyond.

Luis Ramón Campo Yumar, Universidad Central "Marta Abreu" de Las Villas (UCLV)
E-Mail: lcampo@uclv.cu; luisrcy92@gmail.com
I am interested in the motivations and referents for the selection of first names in Cuba, as well as the problems derived from this choice. Also at the center of my studies are the perceptions and stereotypes that users have about certain first names. In collaboration with other colleagues, I have studied the relationship between onomastics and literature, phraseology and political and historical changes. I have directed my final thesis on nicknames, hypocoristics, given names and surnames in the Cuban context. As part of the bibliographic studies group at ICOS, I have compiled and organized research on Cuban anthroponymy. I am currently finishing my doctoral thesis on the namegiving process in the city of Santa Clara, Cuba. To connect with the new generations and stimulate interest in onomastics I have created my own YouTube channel with the aim of making the discipline more dynamic, accessible and attractive.
Publications:
Campo Yumar, L. R. (2022). Onomastik und Revolution: Über den Einfluss der kommunistischen Ideologie auf kubanische Namensgebungspraktiken. Kuckuck, 2 (22). [Impreso]
Campo Yumar, L. R. (2020). Análisis sociolingüístico de los nombres de pila de los estudiantes cubanos de la Universidad Central de Las Villas (UCLV) nacidos entre 1996-2000 [Tesis de Maestría]. Universidad Central de Las Villas.
Elian Carsenat, Namsor, France
I am a private researcher on names and created NamSor applied onomastics software in 2012. The idea was to apply various machine learning algorithms to names. For example, we train a probabilistic model to distinguish personal names from place names, brand names etc. which is mostly used to clean data. Also, we have a model to infer gender from names, combining baby name statistics and morphology, which provides accurate probabilities in all regions / alphabets which is used in large gender studies (EU SheFigures ; Elsevier’s reports on gender in research). Finaly, we work on models to classify names by ‘race’/ethnicity or country of origin and apply those models to the complex and important problem of estimating ethnic biases in external algorithms (recruitment, credit allocations etc.)
Francesco Cerchiaro, Center for Sociological Research, KU Leuven, Belgium
I am a cultural sociologist with a specific interest in the intersection of family, migration and religion. I came across the study of names during my research on Christian-Muslim families in Italy, France and Belgium. Although mixed couples are often interpreted as a marker of the gradual loosening of traditional ties, naming practices, on the contrary, show parents’ attempt to pass down their racial, ethnic and faith backgrounds. Moreover, naming practices open up a new perspective to analyse how partners mediate with the expectations of the family of origin and with the social context characterised by a growing islamophobia.

Osward Chanda Penda, Stellenbosch University, South Africa
Osward Chanda (alias Chanda Penda) is currently a Lisa Maskell Doctoral Fellow in the Department of History at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. He previously taught Intangible Cultural Heritage at the University of Zambia, where he also taught a component on personal and place names. His current and previous research has jointly focused on personal and place names. In addition, he is founder and editor of the Encyclopedia of Zambian Names, an ongoing research and publication on Zambian personal names from dozens of local languages and dialects, their meanings and brief histories.
Publications:
Chanda Penda. “Personal Name Trends in Independent Zambia: A Reflection on the Fluidity of Living Heritage”. (2020). 4–1: 28–40. Journal of Law and Social Sciences (University of Zambia, Lusaka). https://journals.unza.zm/index.php?journal=JLSS&page=issue&op=view&path%5B%5D=43
Osward Chanda. “Portable Inheritance: The Living Heritage of Traditional Names in Postcolonial Zambia.” Budapest:
Central European University (MA Thesis, 2020). https://sierra.ceu.edu/record=b1428492
Chanda Penda. Encyclopedia of Zambian Names: Reconciling Zambian and Global Worldviews. Lusaka: Pensulo Publishers Limited, 2013.
Presentations
Chanda Penda, Yvonne Kabombwe and Martha M. Kayuni. “Teaching Names in School History: A Decolonial Possibility for the Zambian Society.” American Name Society (ANS2023) Conference. (Virtual). 20-22 January 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQT8ghvO5fQ&t=44s
Penda, Osward Chanda. “Safeguarding Cultural Heritage in Postcolonial Zambia through Personal Names” at the Personal Names and Cultural Reconstructions conference, University of Helsinki, Finland (21 to 23 August 2019);
Penda, Osward Chanda. “Typology of Zambian Personal Names: Key to Unity in a Multilingual Society”, International Congress of Onomastic Sciences (ICOS2017), University of Debrecen, Hungary (27 August to 1 September 2017);
Hannah Deakin-Smith, Nottingham Trent University, UK
I am a social scientist, and my earlier research focused on international student and academic mobility. More recently, I have researched people’s names and identities. As a researcher on the ‘Say My Name’ project, I examined experiences of the pronunciation of student names within higher education in England in the context of culturally diverse student identities. I was also a researcher on a project on long term trends in name changes via analyses of enrolled deed polls. From September 2022, I will be working on the Leverhulme Trust-funded project ‘Name stories: experiences of names & naming in adoptive family life’.

Thomas Ditye, Sigmund Freud University, Austria
Together with my colleague Lisa Welleschik I am interested in the psychological mechanisms of the inability to call others by their personal names. Concerned individuals report to experience anxieties and emotional stress in situations in which calling someone by their name is intended. Our data show that the problem is getting more severe the closer the relationship, linking it to identity and attachment. We have started referring to this condition by “alexinomia” which means “no words for names” and are currently exploring the topic using quantitative and qualitative research methods.
Publications:
Ditye, T., Sartorio, M., Welleschik, L. (2025). Name avoidance in social anxiety: Understanding alexinomia. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 102958. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2024.102958
Bergert, A., Welleschik, L., & Ditye, T. (2024). “Why can’t I say people’s names?” Alexinomia as a widespread psychological phenomenon. Acta Psychologica, 246, 104279. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2024.104279
Ditye, T., Rodax, N., Welleschik, L. (2023). Alexinomia: The fear of using personal names. Frontiers in Psychology, 14:1129272. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1129272
Birgit Eggert, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
I am an onomastician and Nordic philologist. I am interested in personal names as a mirror of cultural currents in society. I mainly use quantitative data from censuses and church books to describe the changes that have taken place in naming over time, and how these changes have manifested differently in relation to time, place and social position, i.e., how innovations spread in society. My research is primarily historical, but I have also worked on trends and changes in today’s baby names, both in terms of the names and of their spelling.

Tamás Farkas, Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), Budapest
I am an onomastician, and my research focuses on the history, changes, system and use of personal names: family names and given names, historical and contemporary. I aim to study names and their functions within their broader context, as linguistically and socioculturally determined phenomena. In addition to anthroponomastics and socioonomastics, and some other fields of name studies, I am also involved in applied onomastics. I am interested in topics such as names and lexicography, the translation of names, names and law, or onomastic terminology. I am an associate professor, and the editor-in-chief of the Hungarian onomastic journal Névtani Értesítő.
E-Mail: farkas.tamas@btk.elte.hu
Publications:
ORCID
Farkas, Tamás (2024). Names for non‑existing places and persons. Names and naming in sci‑fi and fantasy fiction. In: Oliviu Felecan – Alina Bugheșiu (eds.), Name and Naming. Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference On Onomastics “Name and Naming”. (In)Correctness in Onomastics. Baia Mare, September 5-7, 2023. Mega, Cluj-Napoca. 799–807. https://doi.org/10.30816/ICONN6/2023/58
Farkas, Tamás (2023). Translation and Mistranslation of Proper Names: The Challenge of Proper Names and Common Words in the Translation Process. In: Ursula Bijak – Pavel Swoboda – Justyna B. Walkowiak (eds.), Proceedings of the 27th International Congress of Onomastic Sciences: Onomastics in Interaction With Other Branches of Science. Volume 3. General and Applied Onomastics. Literary Onomastics. Chrematonomastics. Reports. Jagiellonian University Press, Kraków. 55–74. https://doi.org/10.4467/K7478.47/22.23.17727
Slíz, Mariann – Szabó, Panna – Farkas, Tamás (2023). The Role of Academic Journals in the Circulation of Academic Knowledge. In: Wiebke Keim – Leandro Rodriguez Medina (eds.), Routledge Handbook of Academic Knowledge Circulation. Routledge, London – New York. 223–234. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003290650-21
Slíz, Mariann – Farkas, Tamás (2021). Dynamics of the modern Hungarian given name system. Onoma 56: 15–36. https://doi.org/10.34158/ONOMA.56/2021/2
Farkas, Tamás (2020). Being named or being nameless: On the fundamental questions of proper name giving. Studia Linguistica Hungarica 32: 54–65. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3907336
Farkas, Tamás (2018). Onomastics Today: An International Overview. Onomastica Uralica 14: 5–14. https://mnytud.arts.unideb.hu/onomural/kotetek/ou14/01.pdf
Farkas, Tamás (2015). The most frequent Hungarian surnames. A study of some aspects of contrastive surname typology. In: Oliviu Felecan (ed.), Name and Naming. Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Onomastics “Name and Naming”. Conventional / Unconventional in Onomastics. Baia Mare, September 1–3, 2015. Editura Mega – Editura Argonaut, Cluj-Napoca. 122–136. https://onomasticafelecan.ro/iconn3/proceedings/2_6_Farkas_Tamas_ICONN_3.pdf
Farkas, Tamás (2014). Onomastic Terminology in Hungarian – Situation, Problems and Needs. In: Joan Tort i Donada – Montserrat Montagut i Montagut (eds.), Els noms en la vida quotidiana. Actes del XXIV Congrés Internacional d’ICOS sobre Ciències Onomàstiques. / Names in daily life. Proceedings of the XXIV ICOS International Congress of Onomastic Sciences. Biblioteca Tècnica De Política Lingüística 11. Generalitat de Catalunya, Barcelona. 14–20. https://doi.org/10.2436/15.8040.01.3
Farkas, Tamás (2012). Jewish Name Magyarization in Hungary. Hungarian Cultural Studies 5: 1–16. http://ahea.net/e-journal/volume-5-2012/28
Farkas, Tamás (ed.) (2009). Régi magyar családnevek névvégmutató szótára XIV–XVII. század. [A tergo dictionary of old Hungarian family names.] ELTE Magyar Nyelvtudományi és Finnugor Intézet – Magyar Nyelvtudományi Társaság, Budapest. http://mek.oszk.hu/08900/08923/08923.pdf

Oliviu Felecan, University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania
I am a Professor Dr. Habil., PhD supervisor at the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Faculty of Letters (Romania). My main research interest include onomastics (both anthroponymy and toponymy), socio-, ethno-, and psycholinguistics, lexicology, classical languages. I have authored three books, co-authored four, edited or co-edited fourteen volumes, and published more than 160 studies, primarily in the field of onomastics. I have organised six editions of the International Conference on Onomastics “Name and Naming” (ICONN, 2011-2023). Since 2019, I have been the Editor-in-Chief of Onoma, the journal of ICOS, and I am also a member of the Scientific Committees of several journals from various countries.
Email: olifelecan@yahoo.com
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-0078-4437
Publications:
- Romanian First Names in America: A Synchronic Perspective, in ”Onomástica desde América Latina”, 4 (2)/2023, p. 1-17, https://e-revista.unioeste.br/index.php/onomastica/article/view/31665/22463 .
-Together with Adelina Emilia Mihali, Romanian-Ukrainian Anthroponymic Contact on the Interstate Border along the Tisza River, in „Names”, 71(4)/2023, p. 5-18, DOI 10.5195/names.2023.2597 , https://ans-names.pitt.edu/ans/article/view/2597/2417 .
-Transylvania – An Anthroponymic Perspective, in Names and Naming: Multicultural Aspects, Palgrave Macmillan, O. Felecan, A. Bugheșiu (eds.), 2021, p. 149-163, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-73186-1_10.
- A Psycholinguistic Approach to Nicknaming (With Reference to Nicknames Given by Students to Teachers), in ‘Names and Their Environment’. Proceedings of the 25th International Congress of Onomastic Sciences, Glasgow, 25-29 August 2014, vol. 3, (Carole Hough, Daria Izdebska eds.), University of Glasgow, 2016, p. 65-81, http://www.icos2014.com/wp-content/uploads/icos2014_vol_3.pdf
- Together with Daiana Felecan, Nicknames of Romanian Politicians after 1989, in “Philologica Jassyensia”, XII, no. 2 (24)/2016, p. 191-208 (http://www.philologica-jassyensia.ro/upload/XII_2_FELECAN.pdf).
- Unconventional First Names: Between Onomastic Innovations and Illustrious Models, in Oliviu Felecan, Daiana Felecan (eds.), Unconventional Anthroponyms: Formation Patterns and Discursive Function, Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014, p. 133-155.
- Gypsy names: anthroponymic identity/assimilation, in Joan Tort i Donada, Montserrat Montagut i Montagut (eds.), Els noms en la vida quotidiana. Actes del XXIV Congrés Internacional d’ICOS sobre Ciències Onomàstiques/ Names in daily life. Proceedings of the XXIV ICOS International Congress of Onomastic Sciences, Secció 4, Barcelona: Generalitat de Catalunya, Departament de Cultura, 2014, p. 502-514.
-Il contatto linguistico romeno-romanzo attuale, riflesso nell'antroponimia [The contemporary Romanian-Romance linguistic contact mirrored in anthroponymy], in Actes de 26é Congrés Internacional de Lingüística i Filologia Romàniques, Valencia, Berlin/ New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2013, vol. V, Secció 6: Descripció històrica i/o sincrònica de les llengües romàniques: onomàstica (toponímia i antroponímia), p. 123-134.
- The Monastic Names in the North-West of Transylvania. A Sociolinguistic and Cultural Perspective, in “Transylvanian Review”, vol. XIX, Supplement no. 3/ 2010: Aspects of confessional diversity within the Romanian Space, p. 193-208.
- A Diachronic Excursion into the Anthroponymy of Eastern Romania, in “Philologica Jassyensia”, VI, no. 1 (11)/2010, p. 57-80.
Andrew Francis-Tan, National University of Singapore
I am a quantitative social scientist. My research aims to understand patterns of inequality and factors that influence social identities like race and gender. My interest in names is personal. My current family name is a combination of my spouse’s family name and my own. Growing up, people often mistook my family name (Francis) as my first/given name. Thus, I became aware that Francis was a gender ambiguous name, since the name Frances, usually given to women, was pronounced identically. More recently, I teamed up with Aliya Saperstein to investigate the socioeconomic implications of having a gender discordant first/given name. Our work is now published in Social Science Research.
Publications:
Francis-Tan, Andrew and Aliya Saperstein. 2023. "Conflicting signals: Exploring the socioeconomic implications of gender discordant names." Social Science Research, 110(Feb): 102842. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2022.102842
Linnea Gustafsson, Halmstad University, Sweden
With a starting point in the field of linguistics, my research interest is how personal names are used in society and what they mean to their bearers. The perspective has often been within the questions of identity and otherness. Regarding personal names, I have, among other things, worked with the acceptance and spreading of new first names, the creation, and use of nicknames, structural differences between female and male first names, class differences within name giving, and names from different cultures in contact.
Federica Guccini, University of Western Ontario, Canada
As an anthropologist interested in the intersections of migration, language, and identity, I study personal names in plurilingual contexts. I examine how naming practices change when people migrate and experience shifts in their language(s) and identities. I have applied this to contexts of historical Hakka Chinese migration from southern China to Mauritius in the Indian Ocean as well as contemporary Chinese international student mobility. Informed by decolonial understandings of language, I am currently conceptualizing a translanguaging approach to naming practices that seeks to detangle names from monolingual and raciolinguistic ideologies.
Lasse Hämäläinen, University of Helsinki, Finland
My primary area of onomastic research are online usernames, i.e., names that people choose for their personal user accounts on various websites. I am especially interested in how usernames represent the identities of their owners and the cultures of online communities, as well as how they influence the communication between website users. Moreover, I have studied Finnish given names using a large given name corpus provided by the Finnish Civil Registry.

Sophie Kihm, Nameberry, USA
I am the Editor-in-Chief of Nameberry, the world’s largest website about names. Nameberry analyzes name trends and popularity, as well as works with expectant parents and others to choose names for their children and themselves. I am particularly interested in the intersection of names and identity, such as how a parent’s personal identity affects their choice of baby names, and how children’s names can define a family identity.
Sofia Kotilainen, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
I am a historian and a sociolinguist. My onomastic research focuses on personal names and the (long-term) cultural and social name-giving practices in the local communities. I have been analysing the motives of the choice of inherited first names and inherited surnames in Finnish family networks, godparenthood (namesakes), identities and mentalities of naming, as well as nicknames in the social networks. I have created a methodological concept of onomastic literacy (see Kotilainen 2022). I am also interested in royal names and naming traditions.

Larysa Kovbasyuk
I am an Associate Professor and Deputy Head of the Department of German and Romance Studies, Faculty of Ukrainian and Foreign Languages and Journalism, Kherson State University, Ukraine. Currently I am a Visiting Scholar at the Institute of German Studies, University of Münster, Germany.
My research interests cover a wide range of linguistic and cultural studies, including German as a Foreign Language (DaF), onomastics, gender studies, intercultural communication, new media, lexicology, phraseology, word formation, language and culture, and German literature.
My academic contributions include 74 research articles, three methodological guides, seven study and workbooks (co-authored with colleagues), as well as specialised textbooks on German grammar and the theory of contemporary German.
E-Mail: lkovbasiuk@ksu.ks.ua
Further information
E-Mail:
larysa.kovbasyuk@uni-muenster.de
Websites:
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Larysa-Kovbasyuk
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1441-2458
https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=57226342160
https://www.uni-muenster.de/Germanistik/Internationales/projekte/sprache-im-krieg.html
Publications:
Universal Precedent Anthroponyms in the Novel “Maybe Esther” by Katja Petrowskaja. In: Transkarpatian Philological Studies 21 (2022), pp. 181-186.
Unofficial Oikonyms of Modern German in Intercultural Communication. In: Naukovyi visnyk Khersonskoho derzhavnoho universytetu. Seriia “Hermanistyka ta mizhkulturna komunikatsiia”. Naukove periodychne vydannia 1 (2019), S. 291 – 296.
Eigennamen als Basis für Wortbildung in deutschen SMS-Berichten. In: Naukovi zapysky Kirovohradskoho derzh. pedah. un-tu im. Volodymyra Vinnichenka. Seriia «Filolohichni nauky» 154 (2017), S. 114-119.
Onomastyka suchasnoi nimetskoi movy: zdobutky ta perspektyvy nimetskoi ta ukrainskoi hermanistyky / Onomastik des Gegenwartsdeutschen: Ergebnisse und Perspektive der deutschen und ukrainischen Germanistik). In: Naukovi zapysky Natsionalnoho universytetu «Ostrozka akademiia». Seriia «Filolohichna» 58 (2015), S. 152-154.
Kovbasyuk, Larysa & Kasatkin, Oleh. Vlasna nazva u frazeolohichnykh odynytsiakh suchasnoi nimetskoi movy: gendernyi aspekt / Eigennamen in Phraseologismen des Gegenwartsdeutschen. In: Molody vcheny, №2 (17) (2015), S. 158-161.
Vornamen als primäre und sekundäre Nominationen im Gegenwartsdeutschen. In: Odessa Linguistic Journal 4 (2014), S. 327-331.
Kovbasyuk, Larysa. & Sereda, Svitlana. Nimetski toponimy z komponentom „koloronazva“: lingvolulturologichny aspekt/ Deutsche Toponyme mit dem Bestandteil „Farbname“ aus der linguokulturologischen Sicht. In: Mahisterski studii, І (2009), S. 101 – 102.
Toponimy z komponentom „koloronazva“ u u nimetskii ta anhliiskykh⁄ Toponyme mit dem Bestandteil Farbbezeichnung“ im Deutschen und Englischen. In: Problemy zistavnoi semantyky 8 (2007), S. 182 – 188.

Oleksandra Kuzmenko, University of Muenster, Germany
I am currently a postgraduate student at the University of Münster, Germany. My dissertation explores the role of personal names in constructing post-apocalyptic fictional worlds, self-naming practices among gamers, and the use of usernames in online communication. My research interests include literary onomastics, ludology, cognitive studies, and sociolinguistics. In 2023, I co-organized the international conference “Language and Power” at the University of Münster. In 2024, I developed and co-led a seminar titled “Between Post-Nuclear Narratives and the Threat of Nuclear War: Post-Apocalyptic Discourse in the Media.”
Publications:
Kuzmenko, Oleksandra. 2024. Anthroponyms, Apocalyptic Dualism, and Identity Formation in Post-Apocalyptic Video Games. In: End-Game, pp. 239-256. DOI: 10.1515/9783110752809-014
Kuzmenko, Oleksandra. 2023. Brahmin meat, Fat Man, Katzelmacher, or the cases of cultural and social (in)sensitivity in video gaming. In: Name and Naming: Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Onomastics “Name and Naming” – (In)correctness in Onomastics, pp. 875–888. DOI: 10.30816/ICONN6/2023/65.
Kuzmenko, Oleksandra. 2023. In-game Toponyms: Telling the Story and Building the Video Game World. In: Proceedings of the 27th International Congress of Onomastic Sciences: Onomastics in Interaction with Other Branches of Science. Volume 3: General and Applied Onomastics. Literary Onomastics. Chrematonomastics. Reports, pp. 307–327. DOI: 10.4467/K7478.47/22.23.19014
Kuzmenko, Oleksandra. 2023. The most infamous fictional factions: What lies beneath the name? In: Proceedings of the Conference Language and Power, pp. 52–61. DOI: 10.17879/68958578934
Kuzmenko, Oleksandra. 2019. The role of pragmatonyms in the formation of a post-apocalyptic worldview in a role-playing video game. In: Onoma 54, pp. 117–135. DOI: 10.34158/ONOMA.54/2019/7

Katharina Leibring, Institute for language and folklore, Uppsala, Sweden
I am a senior research archivist in onomastics at the Institute for language and folklore, Uppsala, as well as Associate Professor at Uppsala University. My main research interests are names given to individuals, humans or animals, i.e. anthroponyms and zoonyms. These categories have their specific qualities, but they do also overlap and contribute to each other. In my research I have, from different aspects, studied names from the 17th century to present times. As a socioonomastician, I am interested in how names and name categories are perceived and used, as well as what they can tell about their time.
Some of my research has focussed on names in official sources in Early Modern Sweden, but I have also studied anthroponyms and zoonyms used today, as well as attitudes to names, and how names are created and accomodated. I have given some attention to names used for economic incentives. A further area of interest to me is official name care and name planning. In this field I include studies on the Swedish name-day calendars and their role in Sweden today.
E-Mail: Katharina.Leibring@isof.se
Publications:
Olle, Maja and Noa – new names in the Swedish almanac, and the history behind the name-day calendar. In: Beiträge für Namenforschung 58:4 (2024). P. 437–458.
Rörelser inom onomastikonet i det 21:a seklet. [Movements in the onomasticon in the 21st century.] In: Namn och gränser. [Names and borders. Report from the 17th Nordic Onomastic Congress 8.-11. June, 2021.] Ed. by Väinö Syrjälä et al. Uppsala, 2023. (NORNA-rapporter 100.) P. 7–21. https://www.norna.org/sites/default/files/rapporter/NORNA100.pdf
Swedish teenagers’ attitudes on unisex and gender-crossing first names. In: Namen und Geschlechter. Studien zum onymischen Un/doing Gender. Hrsg. Stefan Hirschauer & Damaris Nübling. Boston, 2018. (Germanistische Linguistik.) S. 303–326.
The new Personal Names Act in Sweden – some possible consequences for the name usage. In: Namenkundliche Informationen 109/110 (2017). Schwerpunktthema Namen in Europa. Festgabe für Dieter Kremer und Albrecht Greule. P. 408–419.
Namn och nutidskänsla. Semantiska fält i nybildade efternamn. [Names and that modern feeling. Semantic fields in newly-created surnames.] In: Namn som kjelder. [Names as sources. Report from the 16th Nordic Onomastic Congress, Jæren, Kleppe, 8.–11. juni 2016.] Ed. by Tom Schmidt & Inge Særheim. Uppsala & Stavanger: NORNA-förlaget, 2017. (NORNA-rapporter 96.) P. 133–145.
Given names in European naming systems and Animal Names. In: The Oxford handbook of names and naming. Ed. by Carole Hough. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016. S. 199–213, 615–627.
Karin, Kirstin och Per Månssons svära – det tidiga 1600-talets kvinnonamn och namnfraser i Sverige. [Karin, Kirstin and Per Månssons mum-in-law. The early 17th century’s women’s name and name phrases in Sweden.] In: Studia anthroponymica Scandinavica 29 (2012). P. 37–62.
Is your name a good investment? Socio-economic reasons for surname changes in Sweden. In: Onomastic goes Business: Role and Relevance of Brand, Company and Other Names in Economic Contexts. Ed. by Holger Wochele et al. Berlin, Logos: 2012. P. 273–280.
Children as name-givers – on the creation, formation and system structure of individual toy names in Sweden. In: Proceedings of the 21st ICOS conference in Uppsala. Vol. 5. Ed. by Eva Brylla et al. Uppsala, 2010. P. 364–371.
Sommargås och Stjärnberg. Studier i svenska nötkreatursnamn. [’Summer goose’ and ’Star berg’. Studies in Swedish cattle names.] Doctoral dissertation. Uppsala, 2000. (Acta academiae regiae Gustavi Adolphi 69.) 542 pp.
For my full publication list, search at www.diva-portal.org

Yolanda Guillermina López Franco, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico
E-Mail: yolalf@unam.mx / yolalf1@yahoo.com.mx
I’m a linguist and, since the 1990’s, I have worked on socioanthroponomastical projects: social perception of given names, reasons for their choice, name lexicon usage evolution in time, comparison of naming practices between Romanic language speaking countries (Mexico, France, Cuba, Brazil), etc. My works are theoretically situated in Socioanthroponomastics, Pragmalinguistics and Sociolinguistics of Personal names. I employ both quantitative and qualitative methods, with a preference for the latter, using documentary research (birth certificates, baptismal records, to integrate corpus), as well as field surveys, semi-structured interviews, or focus groups. I study first name attribution models of the 20th and 21st centuries. I’m currently Vice President of the International Council of Onomastic Sciences for a 2d term (2024-2027), and I’m co-editor of the open-access, indexed (Scopus and other) journal, Onomástica desde América Latina, published since 2020: https://e-revista.unioeste.br/index.php/onomastica/index
Publications:
López Franco, Y.G. (en prensa) Un acercamiento lexicológico y socioantroponímico a los nombres de pila más atribuidos en México en 2021 [A lexicological and socio-anthroponymic approach to the most attributed first names in Mexico in 2021]. Onomástica desde América Latina, vol. 7, no.1, 2026
López Franco, Y.G. & Rosales Novoa, S. (2024) Attribuer des prénoms à Santiago de Cuba et à Tlalnepantla de Baz, au Mexique, en 1970: convergences et divergences dans deux variantes de l’espagnol [Giving names in Santiago de Cuba and Tlalnepantla de Baz, Mexico in 1970: convergences and divergences in two variants of Spanish] Onoma 59, 19–47. DOI: https://doi.org/10.34158/ONOMA.59/2024/2
López Franco, Y.G. (2023) De camino a la laicidad: los nombres atribuidos en 1970, en la parroquia de San Bartolomé Apóstol, Naucalpan de Juárez, Estado de México [On the way to secularism: the names attributed in 1970, in the parish of San Bartolomé Apóstol, Naucalpan de Juárez, State of Mexico] Onomástica desde América Latina, vol. 6, no.1, 2025 https://doi.org/10.48075/odal.v4i1.30757
López Franco, Y.G. (2022) Mode ou tradition ? Modèles d’attribution des prénoms au baptême catholique dans une commune mexicaine en 1960 [Fashion or tradition? Models of the attribution of first names at Catholic baptism in a Mexican city in 1960]. Onoma 57, 227– 246. DOI : https://doi.org/10.34158/ONOMA.57/2022/15
López Franco, Y.G. & Rosales Novoa, S. (2022) Primera comparación de los modelos de atribución de los nombres de pila en Santiago de Cuba y en Tlalnepantla de Baz, México (año de 1960). [First comparison of first name attribution models in Santiago de Cuba and Tlalnepantla de Baz, Mexico (1960).] Revista GTLex, Uberlândia, v. 8, p. e0815, 2023. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14393/Lex-v8a2022/23-15
López Franco, Y.G. (2021) Aspects méthodologiques de l’étude lexicologique et socioanthroponymique des prénoms. [Methodological aspects of the lexicological and socioanthroponymic study of first names] In Karlheinz Hengst (Edit.) Onomastica Lipsiensia. Leipziger Untersüchungen zur Namenforschung, Band 14. Namenforschung und Namenberatung. Dietlind Kremer un Gabriele Rodríguez zum 60. Geburstag. Leipzig: Leipziger Universitätsverlag. p. 499-515. ISBN: 978-3-96023-175-2. ISSN: 16-14-7464.
López Franco, Y.G. (2020) Las relaciones intercategoriales e intracategoriales en antroponimia. El caso de los nombres de pila en francés de Francia y en español de México. [Intercategorical and intra-categorical relationships in Anthroponomastics. The case of first names in French from France and Spanish from Mexico Onomástica desde América Latina, [S. l.], v. 1, n. 1, p. 222–247, 2020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.48075/odal.v1i1.24169 Disponível em: https://e-revista.unioeste.br/index.php/onomastica/article/view/24169.
López Franco, Y.G. (2018a) Une enquête socioanthroponymique finiséculaire : la perception des prénoms dans huit communes de l'Hérault, France, en 1995. Une méthodologie toujours en vigueur. [A socioanthroponymic finisecular survey: the perception of first names in eight communes of Hérault, France, in 1995. A methodology still in force]. Onomastica uralica, no. 10. p. 209-227. Debrecen, Hungary: Debrecen University Press. ISSN 1586-3719 (Print), ISSN 2061-0661 (Online) ISBN 978-963-318-660-2 https://mnytud.arts.unideb.hu/onomural/kotetek/ou10.html
López Franco, Y.G. (2018b) La question des sources dans les études anthroponymiques contemporaines. Paris : Publication des Archives Nationales / Open Edition Books. ISBN: 9791036512308. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/books.pan.998
López Franco, Y.G. (2014) En torno a l semantismo de los nombres propios. Entre debate y síntesis teórica. [About Semantics of proper names. Between debate and theoretical synthesis] Revista Trama, vol. 10, núm. 20, 2o semestre 2014. p. 69-81. DOI: https://doi.org/10.48075/rt.v10i20.10346
López Franco, Y.G. (2010) Un siglo de nombres de pila en Tlalnepantla de Baz. Estudio Lexicológico y sociolingüístico. [A century of first names in Tlalnepantla de Baz. Lexicological and sociolinguistic study] México: UNAM-Plaza y Valdés. ISBN: 9786074023183

Chrismi-Rinda Loth, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa
I am broadly interested in names as interesting semiotic devices that humans deploy and deny in various ways, but especially in the linguistic landscape. My current research focuses on toponomastics
At the moment I am the team lead on a project to document and analyse place names in South African Sign Language (more information soon!). Since its inauguration in 2011 I have been the facilitator of the International Symposium on Place Names. I also serve as a non-executive Board member of the International Council of Onomastic Sciences (ICOS) as well as Vice-Chair of the ICOS Working Group on Toponymy for the 2024-2027 term.