What Place Names Reveal About Germany’s Settlement History

 Place names are much more than labels on a map. Their elements and endings preserve traces of earlier language areas, landscapes, and patterns of settlement. The endings -ing, -ingen, and -bach are particularly revealing because their present-day distribution reflects different phases in the settlement history of Germany.

🏘️ The endings -ing and -ingen belong to the oldest types of German settlement names. They developed mainly during the period of Germanic settlement from the fourth century onward and frequently referred to the founder or leader of a community.

Their original meaning can be paraphrased as:

“among the people of …” or “at the settlement of the followers of …”

Thus, Sigmaringen originally meant approximately “among the people of Sigmar.”

🗺️ Their geographical distribution reveals a clear linguistic contrast:

• -ingen is especially common in southwestern Germany.
• -ing is concentrated mainly in the Bavarian-speaking region.

These endings therefore reflect an early period in which settlements were often named after groups of people or their leaders.

Around 1,200 years ago, however, naming practices increasingly began to change. New settlements were more often named not after individuals, but after features of the surrounding landscape. Streams became particularly important in this process.

💧 A stream supplied drinking water, provided water for animals, powered mills, and helped communities develop new land. Many settlements were therefore founded directly beside a watercourse and eventually adopted its name. In this way, -bach, meaning “stream” or “brook,” became one of the most frequent place-name endings in Germany.

⛰️ The corresponding map shows that names ending in -bach are especially common in the upland and low-mountain regions of southern Germany. In these areas, new land was often settled outward from valleys and stream courses. A stream was therefore not merely a geographical feature; it was frequently the starting point of a new settlement.

In the North German Plain, by contrast, names ending in -bach are rare. The Low German equivalents -beck and -bek are more common there.

Taken together, the two maps illustrate a fundamental change in place-name formation:

Older names ending in -ing and -ingen often refer to people and social groups, whereas later names ending in -bach place greater emphasis on landscape and natural resources.

Place names therefore continue to make historical language regions, phases of settlement, and different ways of interpreting the landscape visible today.

💬 What is your favourite place ending in -ing, -ingen, or -bach?

Was Ortsnamen über Deutschlands Siedlungsgeschichte erzählen

Ortsnamen sind weit mehr als bloße Bezeichnungen auf einer Karte. Ihre Bestandteile und Endungen bewahren Spuren früherer Sprachräume, Landschaftsformen und Siedlungsbewegungen. Besonders aufschlussreich sind die Endungen -ing, -ingen und -bach, deren heutige Verteilung unterschiedliche Phasen der deutschen Siedlungsgeschichte sichtbar macht.

🏘️ Die Endungen -ing und -ingen gehören zu den ältesten deutschen Siedlungsnamensformen. Sie entstanden überwiegend während der germanischen Landnahmezeit ab dem vierten Jahrhundert und bezogen sich häufig auf den Gründer oder Anführer einer Gemeinschaft.

Ihre ursprüngliche Bedeutung lässt sich ungefähr wiedergeben als:

„bei den Leuten des …“ oder „bei den Angehörigen von …“

So bedeutete Sigmaringen ursprünglich etwa „bei den Leuten des Sigmar“.

🗺️ Die räumliche Verteilung zeigt dabei einen deutlichen sprachgeografischen Unterschied:

• -ingen konzentriert sich besonders im Südwesten Deutschlands.
• -ing ist vor allem im bairischen Sprachraum verbreitet.

Diese Endungen erzählen somit von einer älteren Phase der Besiedlung, in der neue Orte häufig nach Personengruppen oder ihren Anführern benannt wurden.

Rund 1.200 Jahre vor unserer Zeit veränderte sich die Namengebung jedoch zunehmend. Neue Siedlungen wurden nun häufiger nicht mehr nach Personen, sondern nach den Merkmalen der Landschaft benannt. Besonders wichtig waren dabei Bäche.

💧 Ein Bach lieferte Trinkwasser, versorgte Tiere, trieb Mühlen an und erleichterte die Erschließung neuer Gebiete. Viele Siedlungen entstanden deshalb unmittelbar an einem Wasserlauf und übernahmen dessen Namen. So wurde -bach zu einer der häufigsten Ortsnamenendungen Deutschlands.

⛰️ Die entsprechende Karte zeigt, dass Ortsnamen auf -bach besonders im süddeutschen Mittelgebirgsraum verbreitet sind. Dort wurden neue Siedlungsflächen häufig von Tälern und Bachläufen aus erschlossen. Der Bach war also nicht nur ein landschaftliches Merkmal, sondern oft der Ausgangspunkt einer Siedlungsgründung.

Im norddeutschen Tiefland ist -bach dagegen selten. Dort finden sich häufiger die niederdeutschen Formen -beck und -bek.

Zusammengenommen zeigen die beiden Karten einen grundlegenden Wandel der Ortsnamengebung:

Ältere Namen auf -ing und -ingen verweisen häufig auf Menschen und soziale Gruppen, während jüngere Namen auf -bach stärker die Landschaft und natürliche Ressourcen in den Mittelpunkt stellen.

Ortsnamen machen damit historische Sprachräume, Besiedlungsphasen und unterschiedliche Formen der Wahrnehmung von Landschaft bis heute sichtbar.

💬 Welcher Ort mit -ing, -ingen oder -bach ist euer Lieblingsort?

Français

Ce que les noms de lieux révèlent sur l’histoire du peuplement allemand

Les noms de lieux sont bien plus que de simples indications sur une carte. Leurs éléments et leurs terminaisons conservent les traces d’anciens espaces linguistiques, de différents paysages et de mouvements de peuplement. Les terminaisons -ing, -ingen et -bach sont particulièrement instructives, car leur répartition actuelle reflète plusieurs phases de l’histoire du peuplement de l’Allemagne.

🏘️ Les terminaisons -ing et -ingen appartiennent aux types les plus anciens de noms de localités germaniques. Elles se sont surtout développées au cours de la période de colonisation germanique, à partir du IVe siècle, et renvoyaient souvent au fondateur ou au chef d’une communauté.

Leur sens originel peut être rendu approximativement par :

« chez les gens de… » ou « auprès des membres du groupe de… »

Ainsi, Sigmaringen signifiait à l’origine quelque chose comme « chez les gens de Sigmar ».

🗺️ Leur répartition géographique révèle une nette différence linguistique :

• -ingen est particulièrement fréquent dans le sud-ouest de l’Allemagne.
• -ing est surtout répandu dans l’espace linguistique bavarois.

Ces terminaisons témoignent donc d’une ancienne phase de peuplement au cours de laquelle les localités étaient souvent nommées d’après des groupes humains ou leurs dirigeants.

Il y a environ 1 200 ans, les pratiques de dénomination commencèrent toutefois à évoluer. Les nouvelles implantations furent de plus en plus souvent nommées non plus d’après des personnes, mais d’après les caractéristiques du paysage. Les ruisseaux jouèrent alors un rôle essentiel.

💧 Un ruisseau fournissait de l’eau potable, abreuvait les animaux, actionnait les moulins et facilitait la mise en valeur de nouveaux territoires. De nombreuses localités furent donc fondées directement le long d’un cours d’eau et finirent par en adopter le nom. C’est ainsi que -bach, qui signifie « ruisseau », devint l’un des éléments les plus fréquents dans les noms de lieux allemands.

⛰️ La carte correspondante montre que les noms en -bach sont particulièrement fréquents dans les régions de moyenne montagne du sud de l’Allemagne. Dans ces territoires, les nouvelles terres furent souvent peuplées à partir des vallées et des cours d’eau. Le ruisseau n’était donc pas seulement un élément du paysage : il constituait fréquemment le point de départ d’une implantation.

Dans la plaine d’Allemagne du Nord, en revanche, les noms en -bach sont rares. On y trouve plus souvent les formes bas-allemandes -beck et -bek.

Ensemble, les deux cartes illustrent une transformation fondamentale de la formation des noms de lieux :

Les noms plus anciens en -ing et -ingen renvoient souvent à des personnes ou à des groupes sociaux, tandis que les noms plus récents en -bach mettent davantage l’accent sur le paysage et les ressources naturelles.

Les noms de lieux rendent ainsi encore visibles aujourd’hui les anciens espaces linguistiques, les différentes phases du peuplement et les manières diverses de percevoir le paysage.

💬 Quel est votre lieu préféré dont le nom se termine par -ing, -ingen ou -bach ?

Proud of My Students: 1st State Prize and 3rd Federal Prize in the Foreign Languages Competition

 I am very proud to share that my students at FES Lahr have received two major awards this academic year. They won the first state prize in the Federal Foreign Languages Competition in Baden-Württemberg, which qualified them for Sprachenfest 2026, the national final of the competition in Dachau and Munich. There, they competed against the best language teams from across Germany and from German schools abroad, and were awarded a third federal prize.

The students were recognized for their trilingual film “Time Switch: Une leçon à travers les siècles.” In the film, a class from Lahr finds a mysterious mobile phone and accidentally travels through different periods of time: first to the year 1826, then to Roman antiquity, and finally to a dark future in 2226. Along the way, the students discover how strict, unfair, or even dangerous school could be in the past - and how frightening a technologized future without freedom, privacy, and real multilingualism might become.

As their supervising teacher, what makes me proudest is not only the award itself, but the commitment, creativity, and teamwork behind it. The students developed ideas together, learned texts in several languages, worked on pronunciation and acting, created scenes and costumes, and connected language learning with media, history, humor, and social reflection. To see this work honored first at state level and then at federal level is a wonderful recognition of their effort.

Fier de mes étudiants : 1er prix régional et 3me prix fédéral au Concours des langues étrangères

Je suis très fier de partager que mes élèves de 10e année de la Freie Evangelische Schule Lahr ont reçu cette année une double distinction. Ils ont remporté le premier prix régional du Concours fédéral des langues étrangères en Bade-Wurtemberg, ce qui leur a permis de se qualifier pour le Sprachenfest 2026, la finale nationale du concours à Dachau et Munich. Ils y ont affronté les meilleures équipes linguistiques d’Allemagne ainsi que des écoles allemandes à l’étranger, et ont obtenu un troisième prix fédéral.

Leur projet primé est un film trilingue intitulé « Time Switch: Une leçon à travers les siècles ». Dans ce film, une classe de Lahr trouve un téléphone portable mystérieux et voyage accidentellement à travers différentes époques : d’abord en 1826, puis dans l’Antiquité romaine, et enfin dans un avenir sombre en 2226. Les élèves découvrent ainsi à quel point l’école pouvait autrefois être stricte, injuste ou même dangereuse, et combien un futur technicisé, sans liberté, sans vie privée et sans véritable plurilinguisme, pourrait être inquiétant.

En tant que professeur accompagnateur, ce qui me rend particulièrement fier, ce n’est pas seulement le prix, mais l’engagement, la créativité et l’esprit d’équipe des élèves. Ils ont élaboré ensemble leurs idées, appris des textes en plusieurs langues, travaillé la prononciation et le jeu théâtral, créé des scènes et des costumes, et transformé l’apprentissage des langues en une expérience vivante. Voir ce travail récompensé d’abord au niveau régional, puis au niveau fédéral, est une magnifique reconnaissance de leur investissement.

Stolz auf meine Schüler: 1er Landespreis und 3er Bundespreis beim Fremdsprachenwettbewerb

Ich bin sehr stolz, teilen zu dürfen, dass meine Schülerinnen und Schüler der G10 der Freien Evangelischen Schule Lahr in diesem Schuljahr gleich doppelt ausgezeichnet wurden: Sie erhielten den ersten Landespreis beim Bundeswettbewerb Fremdsprachen in Baden-Württemberg und qualifizierten sich damit für das Sprachenfest 2026, das Bundesfinale des Wettbewerbs in Dachau und München. Dort traten sie gegen die besten Sprachenteams aus ganz Deutschland sowie von deutschen Auslandsschulen an und wurden zusätzlich mit einem dritten Bundespreis ausgezeichnet.

Ausgezeichnet wurde unser dreisprachiger Film „Time Switch: Une leçon à travers les siècles“, in dem eine Klasse aus Lahr ein geheimnisvolles Handy findet und versehentlich durch verschiedene Zeiten reist: zuerst ins Jahr 1826, dann in die römische Antike und schließlich in eine düstere Zukunft des Jahres 2226. Dabei erleben die Jugendlichen, wie streng, ungerecht oder gefährlich Schule früher sein konnte und wie beängstigend eine technisierte Zukunft ohne Freiheit, Privatsphäre und echte Mehrsprachigkeit wäre.

Für mich als betreuenden Lehrer war das Wichtigste nicht allein der Preis, sondern zu sehen, mit welcher Kreativität, Verantwortung und Begeisterung die Schülerinnen und Schüler gearbeitet haben. Sie entwickelten gemeinsam Ideen, lernten Texte in verschiedenen Sprachen, arbeiteten an Aussprache und Schauspiel, gestalteten Szenen, Kostüme und Medienarbeit - und machten Sprache dadurch lebendig. Dass diese Arbeit zuerst auf Landesebene und anschließend sogar auf Bundesebene ausgezeichnet wurde, ist eine wunderbare Anerkennung ihres Einsatzes. 

Я горжусь своими студентами: первое место в земле Баден-Вюртемберг и третье место по всей Германии на Олимпиаде иностранных языков

Я с большой гордостью хочу поделиться тем, что мои ученики 10 класса Freie Evangelische Schule Lahr в этом учебном году получили сразу две важные награды. Они завоевали первую земельную премию на Федеральном конкурсе иностранных языков в Баден-Вюртемберге, благодаря чему прошли в Sprachenfest 2026, федеральный финал конкурса в Дахау и Мюнхене. Там они соревновались с лучшими языковыми командами со всей Германии, а также с немецкими школами за рубежом, и получили третью федеральную премию.

Награду получил их трёхъязычный фильм «Time Switch: Une leçon à travers les siècles». В фильме класс из Лара находит загадочный мобильный телефон и случайно путешествует по разным эпохам: сначала в 1826 год, затем в римскую античность и, наконец, в мрачное будущее 2226 года. Во время этих путешествий ученики узнают, насколько строгой, несправедливой или даже опасной могла быть школа в прошлом, и насколько пугающим может быть технологизированное будущее без свободы, частной жизни и настоящего многоязычия.

Как учитель, сопровождавший этот проект, я особенно горжусь не только самой наградой, но и тем, с какой ответственностью, творчеством и увлечением работали ученики. Они вместе разрабатывали идеи, учили тексты на разных языках, работали над произношением и актёрской игрой, создавали сцены и костюмы, соединяя изучение языков с историей, юмором, медиа и размышлениями о будущем. То, что эта работа была отмечена сначала на земельном, а затем и на федеральном уровне, - прекрасное признание их труда. 

De discipulis meis gloriari possum: praemium regionale et praemium foederale in Certamine Linguarum Exterarum

Magno gaudio et superbia nuntio discipulos meos classis decimae Scholae FES Lahr hoc anno duplici honore ornatos esse. Primum praemium regionale in Certamine Foederali Linguarum Exterarum in Badenia-Virtembergia acceperunt atque ita ad Festum Linguarum anni 2026, certamen finale foederale Dacoviae et Monachii, admissi sunt. Ibi cum optimis gregibus linguisticis totius Germaniae necnon scholarum Germanicarum transmarinarum certaverunt et tertium praemium foederale consecuti sunt.

Praemio affecta est pellicula trilinguis “Time Switch: Une leçon à travers les siècles.” In hac pellicula classis Lahrae telephonum mobile mysteriosum invenit atque casu per diversa tempora iter facit: primum ad annum 1826, deinde in antiquitatem Romanam, postremo in futurum obscurum anni 2226. Discipuli discipulaeque ibi experiuntur quam severa, iniusta vel etiam periculosa olim schola esse potuerit, atque quam terribile futurum technicis rebus dominatum esse possit, si libertas, vita privata et vera multilinguitas paene evanescant.

Ut magister huius operis curator, maxime gaudeo non solum de praemiis, sed etiam de studio, inventione et communi labore discipulorum. Ipsi consilia excogitaverunt, textus variis linguis didicerunt, pronuntiationem et artem agendi exercuerunt, scaenas et vestes paraverunt atque linguas vivas in opere creativo fecerunt. Quod hic labor primum in regione, deinde etiam in toto foedere agnitus est, praeclara aestimatio laboris eorum est.

Noms 25 (2026): A Catalan Onomastic Window onto Toponymy, Anthroponymy, Literature, and Fieldwork

 The new issue of Noms: Revista de la Societat d’Onomàstica, no. 25 / 2026, offers a rich panorama of current Catalan and wider Romance onomastic activity. The journal presents itself as a dissemination magazine of the Societat d’Onomàstica, open to contributions on theory, methodology, fieldwork, reviews, bibliographical news, archival materials, and images of onomastic value. The issue is edited by Rosa Maria Anglès, Andreu Beltran, Jesús Bernat, Assumpció Rehues, and Sílvia Veà, with Jesús Bernat and Assumpció Rehues as coordinators. Its cover photograph, by Jesús Bernat, shows the Pic dels Llacs from the Coll de la Botella in Andorra, already signalling one of the issue’s central motifs: mountain toponymy.

The opening “Presentació” [“Presentation”], by Jesús Bernat and Assumpció Rehues, situates the issue in the context of the 51st Colloquium of the Societat d’Onomàstica, held in Encamp, Andorra, from 8 to 10 May 2026. The colloquium’s initial theme was “Toponímia i antroponímia pirinenca, relleu positiu i hidronímia” [“Pyrenean Toponymy and Anthroponymy, Positive Relief and Hydronymy”]. The editors emphasize not only the thematic diversity of the meeting, but also its dialectal and geographical breadth, ranging across the Catalan-speaking lands.

The issue includes a long “Notícies” [“News”] section that functions almost as an onomastic chronicle of the first half of 2026. It gathers press items and announcements on street naming, official toponymy, Catalan Sign Language toponymy, surname history, meteorological naming, contested place-name forms, and the politics of public names in Catalonia, Valencia, the Balearic Islands, Andorra, Galicia, the Basque Country, Asturias, Aragon, and beyond. This makes the issue especially useful not only as a scholarly resource but also as a record of living public debates around names.

The bibliographical section, “Novetats bibliogràfiques” [“Bibliographical News”], is particularly valuable. It lists recent books, articles, journals, and maps relevant to onomastics, ranging from Catalan and Occitan toponymy to Galician, Basque, Arabic, literary, genealogical, and international naming studies. Among the books highlighted are works on Toponímia i antroponímia en terres de cruïlla [“Toponymy and Anthroponymy in Crossroads Lands”], Estudis de toponímia catalana i occitana [“Studies in Catalan and Occitan Toponymy”], La memòria d’un paisatge: la toponímia de Fageca [“The Memory of a Landscape: The Toponymy of Fageca”], and numerous other regional and comparative contributions.

The review section contains four main reviews. Ferran Guardiola Noguera reviews the edited volume by Albert Aragonès Salvat, Carles M. Castellà Espuny, and Andreu Subirats Aleixandri, Toponímia i antroponímia en terres de cruïlla. Qüestions d’onomàstica en el subdialecte tortosí [“Toponymy and Anthroponymy in Crossroads Lands: Questions of Onomastics in the Tortosí Subdialect”]. The review presents the volume as the outcome of the Tortosa onomastic meetings and highlights its work on river culture, the Ebro Delta, augmentative suffixes in toponymy, local street-name practices, and historical place-name material.

Eugeni Perea Simón reviews Jordi Manent i Tomàs, Els noms populars dels nivolats, boires i vents de Menorca [“The Popular Names of Cloud Formations, Fogs and Winds of Menorca”]. This review is one of the most evocative pieces in the issue. It presents Manent’s work as a major contribution to popular meteorological onomastics, noting its 261 entries for clouds and fogs and 56 for winds, many of them absent from the DCVB. The review frames this lexical material as fragile intangible heritage, where local names preserve environmental knowledge, agriculture, fishing culture, religion, and popular imagination.

Joan Bell-lloc reviews Robert Pocklington’s edited volume Pautas para el estudio de la toponimia árabe hispánica [“Guidelines for the Study of Hispanic Arabic Toponymy”]. The review emphasizes the methodological importance of the book: Pocklington builds a large corpus of Latin and Arabic etyma and proposes both “positive” and “inverse” paths for reconstructing the evolution of Hispano-Arabic and Romance place names. This is presented as a major tool for researchers dealing with the often difficult phonetic and graphic transmission of Arabic and Arabized Hispanic toponyms.

Rosa M. Anglès reviews a set of works by Jaume Ventura Nualart, including Noms de les cases del nostre poble [“Names of the Houses of Our Village”] and the multi-volume photographic series Temps era temps [“Once Upon a Time”], devoted to Palau-solità i Plegamans. The review stresses the onomastic value of photographic and local-history collections: even when they are not conceived as strict onomastic monographs, they preserve house names, surnames, nicknames, local place names, and the social memory of a municipality transformed by demographic and urban change.

The literary section, “Onomàstica i literatura” [“Onomastics and Literature”], offers a passage from Carmelina Sánchez-Cutillas, Matèria de Bretanya [“Matter of Brittany”]. The excerpt is a beautiful example of literary toponymy: la Punta de l’Albir, el Morro de Toix, l’Olla, la Illeta, l’Illot, l’Aitana, el Puigcampana, Bèrnia, el Coll del Mascarat, and la Vall de Tàrbena become part of a poetic geography where names structure landscape, memory, and affect.

The issue’s research articles are varied but strongly connected by historical-toponymic method. Cosme Aguiló, in “Rectificacions sobre un topònim tunisenc de la cartografia antiga” [“Corrections concerning a Tunisian Toponym in Ancient Cartography”], revisits an earlier interpretation from his own work on Bartomeu Olives’ atlas. By comparing medieval nautical charts, he corrects the reading and interpretation of a Tunisian maritime toponym, arguing that forms such as due seror / doe soror / doe solor point to “two sisters,” later obscured and replaced or paralleled by masculine forms such as frares.

Ventura Castellvell, in “Puigtinyós (Alt Camp) i Puègtinhós (Aude)” [“Puigtinyós (Alt Camp) and Puègtinhós (Aude)”], compares a Catalan and an Occitan toponym formed with puig / puèg plus an adjective related to tinyós / tinhós. The article explains the 1917 replacement of the village name Puigtinyós by Montferri, motivated by the negative social associations of tinyós, while also showing that the adjective could originally have had an orographic or descriptive meaning connected with rocky, reddish, or vegetation-marked terrain.

Jordi Mir contributes “Pau Vila, un estel en el record” [“Pau Vila, a Star in Memory”], a memorial essay rather than a conventional research article. It recalls the geographer Pau Vila through the author’s personal memory of excursionist culture, the continuity of Catalan geography, and a remarkable 1976 outing to the Montseny. Its onomastic value lies in the way personal memory, landscape names, mountain culture, and national geography are interwoven.

Finally, Plàcid Pérez Pastor and Jaume Deyà Miró publish “Toponímia de la Serra de Tramuntana de Mallorca: del districte andalusí d’al-Yībal al terme de les Muntanyes (1)” [“Toponymy of the Serra de Tramuntana of Mallorca: from the Andalusi District of al-Yībal to the District of the Mountains (1)”]. This substantial article combines historical documentation, Arabic and Romance toponymy, archaeology, and territorial reconstruction. It examines names such as Turixant, Almallutx, Cúber, Bini, Lofra, and others, showing how the Islamic and feudal layers of Mallorca’s mountain landscape can be reconstructed through toponymy.

A final visual section presents the 51st Colloquium of the Societat d’Onomàstica in Encamp through photographs by Jesús Bernat Agut and Llorenç Roviras Sampere. The map and photo report list nineteen communications, including work by Xavier Planas, Albert Pujal, Joan Peytaví, Carlos Ángel Rizos, Josep Maria Vigo, Victor Sabaté, Josep Canals, Jesús Burgueño, Ferran Lozano, Agustí López, Carles Gascón, Joan Tort, Quim Valera, Carlos Fernández, Enric Ribes, Joan Camps, Josep M. Bertran, Martí Huguet, Rosa M. Anglès, Ernestina Vallverdú, Josep Quer, Jesús Bernat, Ferran Guardiola, Victor Agulló, Dayana Arteta, Ricard Sentandreu, Fèlix Bruguera, Albert Turull, and Emili Casanova.

Academically, Noms 25 is not a narrowly specialized journal issue in the conventional research-article sense. It is closer to a living bulletin of onomastic culture: news, bibliography, reviews, literary illustration, research notes, local history, and colloquium documentation coexist. This mixed format is also its strength. It shows onomastics not as an isolated academic discipline, but as a field connecting archives, oral tradition, maps, meteorology, mountain knowledge, local politics, literature, and memory. One small point of caution is that some sections are necessarily heterogeneous: bibliographical lists, reviews, and research articles are not separated by the same degree of scholarly apparatus. But for a society magazine devoted to dissemination, this is not a weakness; it is part of the genre. The issue’s deeper unity lies in its persistent concern with names as cultural evidence.

---

en català

Noms 25 (2026): una finestra onomàstica sobre la toponímia, l’antroponímia, la literatura i el treball de camp

El número 25 / 2026 de Noms: Revista de la Societat d’Onomàstica ofereix una panoràmica molt rica de l’activitat onomàstica actual, sobretot en l’àmbit català i romànic. La revista es presenta com una publicació de divulgació de la Societat d’Onomàstica, oberta a aportacions sobre teoria, metodologia, treball de camp, ressenyes, novetats bibliogràfiques, documents d’arxiu i imatges amb valor onomàstic. L’equip de redacció és format per Rosa Maria Anglès, Andreu Beltran, Jesús Bernat, Assumpció Rehues i Sílvia Veà, amb Jesús Bernat i Assumpció Rehues com a coordinadors. La fotografia de portada, obra de Jesús Bernat, mostra el pic dels Llacs des del coll de la Botella, a Andorra, i anticipa un dels grans eixos del número: la toponímia de muntanya.

La “Presentació” [“Presentation”], signada per Jesús Bernat i Assumpció Rehues, situa el número en el marc del 51è Col·loqui de la Societat d’Onomàstica, celebrat a Encamp, Andorra, els dies 8, 9 i 10 de maig de 2026. L’eix inicial del col·loqui fou “Toponímia i antroponímia pirinenca, relleu positiu i hidronímia” [“Pyrenean Toponymy and Anthroponymy, Positive Relief and Hydronymy”]. Els coordinadors remarquen tant la diversitat temàtica com la diversitat dialectal i geogràfica de les intervencions.

La secció “Notícies” [“News”] és gairebé una crònica onomàstica del primer semestre de 2026. Hi trobem notícies sobre nomenclàtors urbans, toponímia oficial, toponímia en llengua de signes catalana, història dels cognoms, noms de borrasques, polèmiques sobre la castellanització de topònims, canvis de noms de carrers i debats públics sobre la memòria inscrita en l’espai. La revista mostra així que l’onomàstica no és només una disciplina erudita, sinó també un camp viu de política lingüística, patrimoni i vida quotidiana.

La secció “Novetats bibliogràfiques” [“Bibliographical News”] és una eina de gran utilitat per als investigadors. Recull llibres, articles, revistes i mapes relacionats amb l’onomàstica catalana, occitana, gallega, basca, àrab, literària, genealògica i internacional. Entre les obres destacades hi ha Toponímia i antroponímia en terres de cruïlla [“Toponymy and Anthroponymy in Crossroads Lands”], Estudis de toponímia catalana i occitana [“Studies in Catalan and Occitan Toponymy”], La memòria d’un paisatge: la toponímia de Fageca [“The Memory of a Landscape: The Toponymy of Fageca”], i moltes altres aportacions territorials i comparatives.

La secció de “Ressenyes” [“Reviews”] inclou quatre ressenyes principals. Ferran Guardiola Noguera ressenya el volum editat per Albert Aragonès Salvat, Carles M. Castellà Espuny i Andreu Subirats Aleixandri, Toponímia i antroponímia en terres de cruïlla. Qüestions d’onomàstica en el subdialecte tortosí [“Toponymy and Anthroponymy in Crossroads Lands: Questions of Onomastics in the Tortosí Subdialect”]. La ressenya presenta el volum com a resultat de les Jornades d’Onomàstica de Tortosa i en destaca l’interès per la cultura fluvial, el delta de l’Ebre, els augmentatius toponímics, la retolació urbana i la documentació històrica.

Eugeni Perea Simón ressenya l’obra de Jordi Manent i Tomàs, Els noms populars dels nivolats, boires i vents de Menorca [“The Popular Names of Cloud Formations, Fogs and Winds of Menorca”]. La ressenya subratlla el valor d’aquest recull de nefonímia i meteorologia popular, amb 261 entrades de noms de núvols i boires i 56 de vents, moltes de les quals no apareixen al DCVB. L’obra és presentada com una aportació a la preservació d’un patrimoni immaterial especialment fràgil: els noms amb què pagesos, pescadors i habitants de Menorca han llegit el cel i el temps.

Joan Bell-lloc ressenya el volum editat per Robert Pocklington, Pautas para el estudio de la toponimia árabe hispánica [“Guidelines for the Study of Hispanic Arabic Toponymy”]. La ressenya posa l’accent en la dimensió metodològica de l’obra: Pocklington parteix d’un corpus ampli d’ètims llatins i àrabs i proposa una doble via d’anàlisi, l’evolució positiva i l’evolució inversa, per estudiar la transformació dels topònims àrabs, arabitzats i romànics de la península Ibèrica.

Rosa M. Anglès ressenya diverses obres de Jaume Ventura Nualart, entre les quals Noms de les cases del nostre poble [“Names of the Houses of Our Village”] i la sèrie fotogràfica Temps era temps [“Once Upon a Time”], centrades en Palau-solità i Plegamans. La ressenya mostra com aquests llibres, tot i no ser monografies onomàstiques estrictes, conserven una gran quantitat de noms de casa, cognoms, renoms, topònims locals i memòria social d’un municipi transformat pel creixement demogràfic i urbanístic.

La secció “Onomàstica i literatura” [“Onomastics and Literature”] recull un fragment de Carmelina Sánchez-Cutillas, Matèria de Bretanya [“Matter of Brittany”]. El text és un exemple magnífic de toponímia literària: la Punta de l’Albir, el Morro de Toix, l’Olla, la Illeta, l’Illot, l’Aitana, el Puigcampana, Bèrnia, el Coll del Mascarat i la Vall de Tàrbena no són simples referències geogràfiques, sinó una manera de construir memòria, paisatge i identitat.

Els articles del número ofereixen una mostra variada de metodologia toponímica. Cosme Aguiló, a “Rectificacions sobre un topònim tunisenc de la cartografia antiga” [“Corrections concerning a Tunisian Toponym in Ancient Cartography”], revisa una interpretació anterior pròpia a partir de cartes nàutiques medievals. L’autor mostra com les formes due seror / doe soror / doe solor apunten probablement a la idea de “dues germanes”, després opacitzada i transformada en formes masculines com frares.

Ventura Castellvell, a “Puigtinyós (Alt Camp) i Puègtinhós (Aude)” [“Puigtinyós (Alt Camp) and Puègtinhós (Aude)”], compara un topònim català i un d’occità formats amb puig / puèg i un adjectiu relacionat amb tinyós / tinhós. L’article explica el canvi oficial de Puigtinyós a Montferri l’any 1917, provocat per les connotacions negatives de tinyós, però també mostra que l’adjectiu podia tenir un valor descriptiu orogràfic, relacionat amb clapes rocoses, colors ferruginosos o vegetació rogenca.

Jordi Mir, a “Pau Vila, un estel en el record” [“Pau Vila, a Star in Memory”], ofereix un text memorialístic dedicat al geògraf Pau Vila. L’article combina memòria personal, excursionisme, geografia catalana i noms de lloc, especialment a partir d’una excursió al Montseny l’any 1976. És una peça menys analítica en sentit estricte, però molt significativa per entendre com el coneixement del territori es transmet també a través de la conversa, l’excursió i la memòria dels mestres.

Finalment, Plàcid Pérez Pastor i Jaume Deyà Miró publiquen “Toponímia de la Serra de Tramuntana de Mallorca: del districte andalusí d’al-Yībal al terme de les Muntanyes (1)” [“Toponymy of the Serra de Tramuntana of Mallorca: from the Andalusi District of al-Yībal to the District of the Mountains (1)”]. L’article combina documentació medieval, toponímia àrab i romànica, arqueologia i reconstrucció territorial. Noms com Turixant, Almallutx, Cúber, Bini o Lofra permeten llegir les capes andalusines i feudals del paisatge de la muntanya mallorquina.

El número es clou amb una mostra gràfica del 51è Col·loqui de la Societat d’Onomàstica a Encamp, amb fotografies de Jesús Bernat Agut i Llorenç Roviras Sampere. El reportatge enumera dinou comunicacions, amb aportacions de Xavier Planas, Albert Pujal, Joan Peytaví, Carlos Ángel Rizos, Josep Maria Vigo, Victor Sabaté, Josep Canals, Jesús Burgueño, Ferran Lozano, Agustí López, Carles Gascón, Joan Tort, Quim Valera, Carlos Fernández, Enric Ribes, Joan Camps, Josep M. Bertran, Martí Huguet, Rosa M. Anglès, Ernestina Vallverdú, Josep Quer, Jesús Bernat, Ferran Guardiola, Victor Agulló, Dayana Arteta, Ricard Sentandreu, Fèlix Bruguera, Albert Turull i Emili Casanova.

Des d’un punt de vista acadèmic, Noms 25 no és un número monogràfic en el sentit estricte, ni tampoc una revista formada exclusivament per articles de recerca. És més aviat un espai viu de cultura onomàstica: notícies, bibliografia, ressenyes, literatura, articles, memòria local i crònica de col·loqui hi conviuen. Aquesta heterogeneïtat pot semblar desigual si s’hi busca una estructura estrictament acadèmica, però és precisament el que dona valor al número com a publicació de societat científica. La seva unitat profunda no és formal, sinó temàtica: tots els materials mostren que els noms són documents culturals, rastres històrics, eines de memòria i instruments de lectura del territori.

New Book: "Gender in Japanese Names Today" by Ivona Barešová and Francis Bond

 

A new book of major relevance to contemporary onomastics has appeared: Ivona Barešová and Francis Bond’s Gender in Japanese Names Today, published by Palacký University Olomouc in 2026. The volume is available as an online iPDF and carries the DOI 10.5507/ff.26.24465500. It was supported by the Czech Science Foundation and reviewed by James Breen and Giancarla Unser-Schutz.

The book examines how gender is expressed in Japanese given names today, with particular attention to the rise and character of gender-neutral names. It is not merely a list of names, but a broad linguistic and sociocultural study of how Japanese naming practices have changed across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The authors combine several kinds of evidence: baby-name rankings, historical naming patterns, online name-selection narratives, and large-scale datasets, including data from Baby Calendar, Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Company, and the Heisei Namae Jiten.

A central strength of the book is its careful distinction between the phonological form of a Japanese name - how it is read or pronounced - and its graphic form - how it is written. This distinction is essential in Japanese because the same written name may have several possible readings, and the same pronunciation may be written with different kanji, hiragana, or katakana. The authors explicitly state that they refer to pronunciation as the phonological form and written representation as the graphic form.

The study shows that Japanese names have become increasingly diverse. Contemporary parents often seek names that sound original, beautiful, meaningful, or globally suitable. This has weakened older, more rigid naming patterns. For much of the twentieth century, many women’s names were strongly marked by the suffix -ko 子, while many men’s names followed recognizable masculine patterns. Today, however, gender is expressed in more varied and often subtler ways.

One of the book’s most interesting findings is that gender-neutral names in Japan are not always chosen explicitly as ideological statements about gender. In many cases, gender neutrality emerges indirectly: parents may choose a name because of its sound, kanji meaning, originality, aesthetic appeal, or personal symbolism, and the name happens to be usable for both boys and girls. The authors argue that gender-neutral names therefore reflect not only changing attitudes toward gender, but also broader transformations in Japanese naming culture.

The book also shows an asymmetry in the development of gender-neutral names. Rather than boys’ and girls’ names moving equally toward a shared middle ground, the evidence suggests that more boys’ names are acquiring features formerly associated with girls’ names than the reverse. In other words, the softening of masculine naming patterns appears especially important in contemporary Japan.

Another important contribution is the book’s treatment of Japanese names as multilayered signs. A name may sound relatively gender-neutral but become more feminine or masculine through its kanji. The authors give the example of Mizuki, which can be gender-neutral in pronunciation but acquire a more feminine impression when written with a kanji meaning “princess.” This layered relationship between sound, script, and meaning is one of the specifically Japanese features of gender expression in names.

The book’s comparative chapter places Japan in a wider international context. It notes that rising name diversity and increased interest in gender-neutral names are not unique to Japan, but are also visible in countries such as the United States, the Netherlands, England and Wales, and Canada. At the same time, Japan remains distinctive because kanji allow gender to be encoded visually and semantically in ways that are not easily comparable to alphabetic naming systems.

Overall, Gender in Japanese Names Today is an important contribution to the study of names, gender, and social change. It will be useful not only for specialists in Japanese linguistics, but also for scholars of onomastics, sociolinguistics, gender studies, writing systems, and digital humanities. Its greatest value lies in showing that names do not simply reflect society: they participate in the subtle, everyday reshaping of social categories.

---

日本語ブログ記事

新刊紹介：Ivona Barešová・Francis Bond 著『Gender in Japanese Names Today』

日本の名前研究、ジェンダー研究、そして現代社会における命名文化に関心をもつ読者にとって、注目すべき新刊が刊行されました。Ivona Barešová と Francis Bond による Gender in Japanese Names Today です。本書は Palacký University Olomouc から2026年に刊行され、DOI は 10.5507/ff.26.24465500 です。チェコ科学財団の支援を受けた研究成果であり、James Breen と Giancarla Unser-Schutz によって査読されています。

本書の中心テーマは、現代日本の名づけにおいて ジェンダーがどのように表現されているのか、そして近年注目される ジェンダー・ニュートラルな名前 がどのような特徴をもつのか、という問題です。本書は単なる名前リストではなく、言語学、社会言語学、ジェンダー研究、書記体系研究を横断する本格的な分析です。

著者たちは、Baby Calendar、明治安田生命の名前ランキング、そして Heisei Namae Jiten など、複数のデータソースを組み合わせています。日本では出生児全体の名前データに自由にアクセスすることが難しいため、本書は複数の資料を慎重に組み合わせることで、現代日本の命名傾向を立体的に描き出そうとしています。

本書で特に重要なのは、日本語の名前における 音韻形式 と 表記形式 の区別です。つまり、名前がどのように読まれるかという問題と、どの漢字・ひらがな・カタカナで書かれるかという問題は、必ずしも一致しません。著者たちは、名前の発音を phonological form、書かれた形を graphic form と呼び、この二つを区別しながら分析しています。

本書によれば、現代日本の名前は、過去数十年のあいだに大きく多様化しました。かつては、女性名における -子、男性名における特定の語尾や構造など、比較的明確なジェンダー標識が存在していました。しかし現在では、音の響き、漢字の意味、独自性、国際性、親の願いなどが複雑に組み合わさり、名前によるジェンダー表現はより柔軟で多層的になっています。

本書の興味深い結論の一つは、ジェンダー・ニュートラルな名前が、必ずしも親の明確なジェンダー意識や思想的選択によって選ばれているわけではない、という点です。むしろ、多くの場合、親は響きの美しさ、漢字の意味、個性、象徴性などを重視して名前を選び、その結果として、その名前が男児にも女児にも用いられる可能性をもつようになります。つまり、ジェンダー・ニュートラル化は、しばしば命名文化全体の変化の副産物として現れているのです。

さらに著者たちは、この変化が完全に対称的ではないことを指摘しています。男児名と女児名が同じように中間化しているというよりも、男児名の側が、従来は女性的とされた特徴をより多く取り入れる方向に動いているように見えます。つまり、現代日本では、男性名の「柔らかさ」が増していることが、ジェンダー境界のゆるやかな変化を理解する上で重要な手がかりになります。

日本語名の特徴は、音だけでなく、漢字によってジェンダー印象が変化しうる点にもあります。たとえば、Mizuki という音韻形式は比較的ジェンダー・ニュートラルでありうる一方、そこに「姫」を含む漢字表記が用いられると、より女性的な印象を帯びることがあります。このように、音・文字・意味が重なり合ってジェンダーを表現する点は、日本語の名前研究における重要な特徴です。

本書はまた、日本の事例を国際的な文脈にも位置づけています。アメリカ、オランダ、イングランドとウェールズ、カナダなどでも、ジェンダー・ニュートラルな名前や多様な名前への関心が高まっています。しかし、日本の場合には、漢字という表意的・視覚的な要素が加わるため、アルファベット圏とは異なる独自の構造をもっています。

総じて、Gender in Japanese Names Today は、日本語名研究にとどまらず、名前とジェンダー、名前と社会変化、名前と書記体系の関係を考える上で非常に重要な一冊です。名前は社会をただ映すだけではありません。名前は、家族、個性、ジェンダー、文化的価値を日常的に形づくる、小さくも強力な社会的記号なのです。

Conférence Onomastics Online sur les anthroponymes incas dans la toponymie du Pérou

 

Marc-Alexandre Beaulieu donnera une conférence Onomastics Online sur les anthroponymes incas dans la toponymie du Pérou

La série Onomastics Online, organisée par The International Council of Onomastic Sciences, accueillera prochainement Marc-Alexandre Beaulieu pour une conférence consacrée au rôle des anthroponymes incas dans la toponymie du Pérou.

La conférence aura lieu le 13 août 2026 à 17h00 UTC+2 et portera le titre suivant :

« Le rôle des anthroponymes incas dans la toponymie du Pérou »

Cette intervention abordera une question importante pour l’onomastique andine : les cultures andines ne distinguaient pas toujours systématiquement les anthroponymes, c’est-à-dire les noms de personnes, et les toponymes, c’est-à-dire les noms de lieux. Cette situation permet d’observer des phénomènes de transonymie, lorsque des noms circulent d’une catégorie onomastique à une autre. L’analyse de ces transferts peut contribuer à mieux comprendre certaines données historiques liées au Pérou, à l’Équateur et plus largement aux Andes.

Marc-Alexandre Beaulieu possède une formation interdisciplinaire. Il a obtenu une maîtrise en biologie médicale ainsi qu’une maîtrise en terminologie et traduction à l’Université Laval. Il termine actuellement un doctorat en linguistique historique et en langues autochtones d’Amérique du Sud à l’Université de Leyde, aux Pays-Bas. Ses recherches portent notamment sur la toponymie de la Colombie, de l’Équateur et du Pérou du XVIe siècle. Il a publié plusieurs articles dans le domaine de l’onomastique et développe actuellement des recherches sur l’onomastique paléohispanique.

La série Onomastics Online propose des conférences en ligne sur des sujets actuels liés aux noms propres et à la dénomination. Elle met en valeur la dimension internationale, historique, linguistique et culturelle des études onomastiques.

Inscription :
https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/981f3535-a55e-4f21-b37d-728ca69ac120@8efc1bb9-b90f-4a48-bf6c-ba0686193b80

Marc-Alexandre Beaulieu to Speak at Onomastics Online on Inca Anthroponyms in the Toponymy of Peru

The International Council of Onomastic Sciences will host a new lecture in its Onomastics Online series, featuring Marc-Alexandre Beaulieu. The lecture will take place on 13 August 2026 at 17:00 UTC+2.

The title of the lecture is:

“Le rôle des anthroponymes incas dans la toponymie du Pérou”
“The Role of Inca Anthroponyms in the Toponymy of Peru”

The talk will explore an important aspect of Andean onomastics: Andean cultures did not always make a systematic distinction between anthroponyms, or personal names, and toponyms, or place names. This opens the way to the study of transonymy, the movement of names from one onomastic category to another. By examining this phenomenon, the lecture will ask how such name transfers can help illuminate historical data and contribute to our understanding of the Andean past.

Marc-Alexandre Beaulieu has an interdisciplinary academic background. He holds a master’s degree in medical biology as well as a master’s degree in terminology and translation from Université Laval. He is currently completing a PhD in historical linguistics and Indigenous languages of South America at Leiden University in the Netherlands. His research focuses especially on the toponymy of Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru in the sixteenth century. He has published several articles on onomastics and is also developing future research on Paleohispanic onomastics.

Onomastics Online is a lecture series devoted to current topics in the study of proper names and naming. The series highlights the multidisciplinary nature of onomastic research and brings together scholars working across languages, cultures, and historical periods.

Register here:
https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/981f3535-a55e-4f21-b37d-728ca69ac120@8efc1bb9-b90f-4a48-bf6c-ba0686193b80

SNSBI Essay Prize 2025: Street Names, Heritage, and Bilingual Urban Memory

AI-generated poster, illustration only

 The Society for Name Studies in Britain and Ireland has announced two joint winners of the 2025 SNSBI Essay Prize. Congratulations go to Alina Brust of the University of Glasgow for “Reflections of Gaelic Heritage in the Street Names of Girvan” and Xiang Lin of The University of Edinburgh for “Structure and Formation of bilingual Hong Kong street-names.”

The prize recognises emerging work in name studies, a field that connects language, history, geography, identity, and cultural memory. This is very much in line with SNSBI’s broader mission: the Society, founded in 1991, promotes the study of place-names, personal names, and other names, and brings together both academic researchers and wider name enthusiasts.

What is especially striking about the 2025 result is that both winning essays focus on street names. This is no coincidence. Street names are among the most visible forms of everyday onomastics. They appear on signs, maps, addresses, official documents, and digital navigation systems. Yet they also preserve older layers of language, power, settlement, memory, and identity.

Alina Brust’s essay on Gaelic heritage in the street names of Girvan points to an important question in Scottish toponymy: how do urban and local names reflect older linguistic landscapes? Scottish Gaelic is no longer dominant in much of lowland or south-western Scotland, but Gaelic and Celtic elements can remain embedded in place-names long after everyday language use has shifted. Modern Gaelic place-name work also shows how Gaelic forms continue to matter in contemporary naming practice, including the creation of new Gaelic street names where appropriate. Historical sources such as the Ayrshire Ordnance Survey Name Books are particularly valuable here, since they preserve nineteenth-century evidence for names in the parish of Girvan and their local interpretation.

Xiang Lin’s essay on bilingual Hong Kong street-names opens a different but equally important onomastic world. Hong Kong’s street-name system is shaped by English and Chinese forms that do not always correspond in a simple one-to-one way. Recent research on Hong Kong street names has shown that English and Chinese names may have different semantic origins; for example, one official form may refer to a structure or colonial figure, while the other encodes a local descriptive or cultural meaning. This makes Hong Kong a particularly rich case for studying bilingual naming, translation, colonial history, urban planning, and linguistic landscape.

Together, the two prize-winning essays demonstrate the strength of contemporary student research in onomastics. One looks at the traces of Gaelic heritage in a Scottish town; the other examines the structure of bilingual naming in one of the world’s most complex urban landscapes. Both remind us that street names are never merely practical labels. They are small public texts through which communities organise space, remember the past, negotiate identity, and make language visible.

The SNSBI Essay Prize has previously recognised work on topics such as suburban house signs, Anglo-Saxon personal names, public-house names, and the street names of St Andrews, showing the wide range of subjects that can be approached through name studies. The 2025 joint winners continue this tradition beautifully: they show that even the names we pass every day can tell larger stories about heritage, bilingualism, and the cultural life of places.

Congratulations to Alina Brust and Xiang Lin on their joint success in the 2025 SNSBI Essay Prize.

Call for Papers "Academics on Fire: Controversies over (Re)Naming Educational Institutions"

AI-generated poster, non official illustration

 

The American Name Society invites proposals for an organized session at the 2027 Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America, to be held in San Francisco, California, from 6–9 January 2027.

The session, titled “Academics on Fire: Controversies over (Re)Naming Educational Institutions,” will explore one of the most visible and politically charged areas of contemporary onomastics: the naming and renaming of educational spaces.

Names of universities, schools, buildings, campuses, halls, memorials, scholarships, academic programs, fraternities, sororities, and honor societies are never neutral labels. They communicate institutional history, cultural memory, social values, and political orientation. At the same time, they may preserve older hierarchies, controversial commemorations, or contested narratives. For this reason, decisions to retain, remove, reinterpret, or replace institutional names often become catalysts for public debate.

The proposed session seeks papers examining how naming and renaming shape institutional identity in educational contexts. Possible topics include the history of institutional namesakes, controversies over eponyms, strategies for deciding whether names should be retained or changed, demographic patterns in institutional naming, and diachronic or synchronic variation in the naming practices of educational bodies.

The call is open to a wide range of approaches. There are no restrictions regarding period, language, country, methodology, theoretical framework, or level of educational institution. Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-method studies are all welcome, provided that the analysis is clearly focused on names and naming. Any use of artificial intelligence should be disclosed at the end of the proposal.

Proposals should include the presenter’s name and affiliation, the title of the proposed paper, and an abstract of up to 250 words. Submissions should be sent to abstracts@americannamesociety.org with “LSA2027” in the subject line.

The deadline for abstracts is 31 August 2026. Notifications of acceptance will be sent by 15 September 2026. Accepted presenters must be current members of the American Name Society and register for the LSA Annual Meeting.

This session promises to be a timely contribution to the study of names as instruments of memory, identity, authority, and public controversy in academic life.

300 forms and variants of the name Dimitri by Vasil Drvošanov

 

The video presents Macedonian linguist and onomastician Vasil Drvošanov, author of the personal-name dictionary Onomastikon, and explores the remarkable 300 forms and variants of the name Dimitri.

Видеото го претставува македонскиот лингвист и ономастичар Васил Дрвошанов, автор на речникот на лични имиња Ономастикон, и открива неверојатни 300 форми и варијанти на името Димитрија.

Abstract Submission Opens for ICOS 2027 in Vienna

 Abstract submission is now open for the XXIX International Congress of Onomastic Sciences (ICOS 2027), to be held in Vienna, Austria, from 16 to 20 August 2027.

Organised by the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the Austrian Geographical Society under the auspices of ICOS, the congress will bring together scholars from across the world to discuss the latest research in names and naming.

The congress theme, “Names as Condensed Narratives,” invites participants to explore how names can preserve and communicate stories about people, places, languages, identities, histories, and cultural perspectives. At the same time, proposals on the full range of onomastic research are welcome, including personal names, place names, commercial names, minority and Indigenous names, name changes, urban toponymy, naming in literature, name standardisation, names in social media, and many other topics.

Researchers may submit proposals for papers or posters of 200–300 words. Workshop and session proposals are also part of the congress programme.

The Vienna congress will be conducted in English and will include keynote lectures, parallel paper and poster sessions, excursions, a reception, and a social dinner. The venue will be the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna’s historic centre.

The deadline for paper and poster abstracts is scheduled for the end of October 2026.

Further information and abstract submission are available on the official congress website: ICOS 2027 Vienna

15 English Surnames: DNA Reveals Your Connection to the Norman Conquerors

 

Your last name might be the last surviving proof of the most consequential invasion in English history — and most people carry it across centuries without ever suspecting that it marks something ancient, aristocratic, and extraordinary sealed inside their own blood. Certain English surnames aren't just names, they're genetic conquest markers — and thanks to recent breakthroughs in DNA genealogy, researchers have now confirmed what Domesday Book entries, heraldic rolls, and centuries of Norman-English chronicle tradition always recorded: that certain bloodlines descend directly from the Norman conquerors who crossed the Channel in 1066, shattered the Anglo-Saxon world at Hastings, and rewrote the entire social, linguistic, and genetic fabric of England in a single generation. If you carry one of these 15 surnames, your ancestry may be more continental, more aristocratic, and more consequential than anything your family ever thought to claim.

UNGEGN Workshop in Santiago Advances Geographical-Names Interoperability

 Geographical names are far more than labels on a map. They link people, places, languages, cultural memory, public administration, statistics, emergency response, and increasingly also digital technologies and artificial intelligence.

The United Nations Statistics Division, through the Secretariat of the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN), recently convened a regional workshop in Santiago, Chile, on interoperability standards for the management of geographical names.

Experts from Latin America and the Caribbean exchanged national experiences and discussed how authoritative geographical-names data can support sustainable development, official cartography, public services, disaster management, cultural heritage, and geospatial integration. Contributions from Argentina, Barbados, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Jamaica, Mexico, and Uruguay illustrated the diversity of national approaches.

Some countries are strengthening legal and institutional frameworks; others are developing national gazetteers, documenting Indigenous and historical names, improving data models, or creating digital platforms for public access and reuse.

A central message emerged clearly: geographical-names systems should be authoritative, interoperable, multilingual, culturally grounded, and reusable across government. Gazetteers must be understood not simply as lists of names, but as reliable data products connecting places, identifiers, statistics, services, and cultural knowledge.

The workshop also addressed linked data, SKOS/SKOS-XL, SHACL validation, persistent identifiers, and the preservation of multilingual and Indigenous toponymy. It provided an opportunity to pilot Zenith, a new tool developed in support of national priorities and the UNData initiative.

The discussions in Santiago confirmed the importance of continued regional cooperation through UNGEGN, its Divisions, and Working Groups. Sharing practical national experience remains essential for building geographical-names infrastructures that are both nationally authoritative and globally interoperable.

Further information is available here.

Balade onomastique à Laguépie : sur les traces des noms occitans

Le vendredi 10 juillet 2026 à 10 h, Laguépie accueillera une balade onomastique consacrée aux noms de lieux et au patrimoine linguistique occitan.

Guidée par Christian-Pierre Bedel, ancien président de l’Institut d’Études Occitanes de l’Aveyron et auteur de la collection Al Canton en Aveyron et Tarn-et-Garonne, cette promenade permettra de découvrir La Guépia à travers les mots occitans liés à l’environnement naturel, au bâti et à l’histoire locale.

De nombreux toponymes de la région, parfois plus ou moins francisés, restent en effet de précieux témoins de la langue occitane et des paysages culturels qu’elle a contribué à façonner. Cette balade invitera les participants à lire autrement le territoire : non seulement à travers ses chemins, ses maisons et ses reliefs, mais aussi à travers les noms qui en gardent la mémoire.

L’événement est organisé par l’association Lenga Viva dans le cadre de l’Université occitane de Laguépie, qui se déroulera du 8 au 12 juillet 2026.

Date : vendredi 10 juillet 2026, 10 h
Lieu : Laguépie, 82250
Réservation : aucune réservation nécessaire

Survey: How organizations are currently using AI in toponymy

UNGEGN is inviting inputs through a short survey exploring how organizations are currently using Artificial Intelligence in toponymy, including:

• standardization of names
• transliteration and transcription
• extraction of names from documents and maps
• geocoding
• pronunciation and audio generation
• cultural sensitivities, Indigenous naming rights and ethical considerations
• costs, resources and future opportunities

Your experience will help build a clearer picture of current practice, emerging challenges and where guidance may be needed.

Please share your organization perspective here: https://lnkd.in/gkRARwaY