"The 1938 Onomastics Revolution: Why the Name Researchers Needed a Congress and Its 8 Lasting Impacts"
Paris, July 1938. As Europe teetered on the brink of war, 148 scholars from 21 countries gathered for the First International Congress of Toponymy and Anthroponymy. But according to one of its organizers, the atmosphere was "charged" with something far more sinister than scholarly debate.
The congress passed eight revolutionary resolutions that would shape the field of onomastics for decades. A second congress was immediately planned. But what was happening beneath the surface of scholarly collaboration? And why did that second congress never take place?
Read the Full Story to Answer the Questions That Haunt Onomastic History:
Why and where did they decide to organize the 1st Congress?
Who might have been the first President of the Congress? Hint: before Albert Dauzat.
Who exactly were these suspected spies among the onomasticians?
Why was a second congress planned for Munich in August 1941 and which influential German name researchers were supposed to host it?
What happened when the congress tried to reconvene three years later?
What did they eat and drink at the closing banquet?
Discover the complete story of scholarship and suspicion, of visionary academics working under the threat of catastrophe, and of how the study of names became intertwined with questions of cultural survival - and espionage.
Because sometimes, the most interesting stories in academic history are the ones that haven't been fully told.
Onoma Vol. 60 (2025), pp. 309–322
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