The American Name Society Welcomes Its New President: Dr. Brandon Simonson

 The American Name Society (ANS) is pleased to announce that Dr. Brandon Simonson has been elected as the organization’s new President. His election took place during the General Business Meeting at the 2025 ANS Annual Meeting this past February. A long-time and active member of the ANS, Dr. Simonson previously served as Information Officer and Vice President, and now brings his energy, vision, and deep scholarly commitment to this new role.

Dr. Simonson is a scholar of ancient languages and biblical studies, currently teaching at the School of Theology. He holds a PhD from Boston University, an MA from Tel Aviv University, an MDiv from Vanderbilt University, and a BA from Luther College. His academic trajectory reflects a profound engagement with the languages and cultures of the ancient Near East and Egypt.

His research interests center on the onomastics and legal traditions of the ancient world, particularly as they pertain to individual and family identity in multicultural contexts. Of special focus in his work is the corpus of Aramaic and Demotic legal documents from Elephantine, an island that once hosted a diverse and dynamic community in the First Millennium BCE. His work explores how names, laws, and social practices on Elephantine and elsewhere reveal the deeper dynamics of life in ancient Israel, Egypt, and Mesopotamia.

Dr. Simonson is the author of several influential publications, including:

• "Theophoric Aramaic Personal Names as Onomastic Sequences in Diasporic and Cosmopolitan Communities," in What's in a Divine Name? Religious Systems and Human Agency in the Ancient Mediterranean (De Gruyter, 2024),

• "On the Aramaic Onomasticon in the Cuneiform Text Corpus," in BAF-Online: Proceedings of the Berner Altorientalisches Forum (University of Bern, 2020),

• And his PhD dissertation, Aramaic Names from Syro-Mesopotamian Texts and Inscriptions: A Comprehensive Study, which offers an authoritative resource on personal names from a wide variety of ancient sources.

In addition to his teaching and research, Dr. Simonson also serves as Thesis Coordinator at the School of Theology, where he guides graduate students through the rigorous process of scholarly writing, from STM theses to doctoral dissertations.

The ANS is delighted to welcome Dr. Simonson to his new position as President. His interdisciplinary expertise, international perspective, and dedication to the advancement of onomastic studies make him exceptionally well-suited to lead the Society into a new chapter. We look forward to the initiatives and insights his presidency will bring.

Congratulations, Dr. Simonson!