The network organizes an annual online meeting for all its members and other interested persons. The meeting consists of three different formats:
by Cássio Morosini
On June 12, 2026, the International Network for Personal Names Research held its second online meeting. Our virtual event drew widespread international interest, welcoming academic participants from 30 countries to share, debate, and advance global research in onomastics.
The program was organized around three thematic sessions, featuring both lectures and short research pitches. The first session, called ‘Names and Identity in Social Change’, was opened by Birgit Eggert’s (Danmark) presentation, and followed by research pitches from Idowu Odebode (Nigeria) and Cássio Morosini (Brazil). The second session was entitled ‘Names in Communication, Translation and Concealment’, and it featured lectures from Irina Gvelesiani (Georgia) and Thomas Ditye (Austria), as well as a research pitch from Linnea Gustafsson (Sweden). Last but not least, there was the session ‘New Approaches in Anthroponomastics’, with a lecture from Fatemeh Akbari (Austria), Cameron Azimi (USA), and Eugen Schochenmaier (Germany), and another research pitch from Sweden by Katharina Leibring. In addition to the formal presentations, organizers utilized virtual breakout rooms to facilitate international networking and collaborative brainstorming between sessions.
Not only were we able to have interdisciplinary discussions, crossing anthroponomastics with fields such as psychology, forensic science and translation, but we could also see how many different approaches there are when it comes to investigating personal names. Following the success of this year's meeting, the network is already looking toward its 2027 agenda. Researchers, interested in joining the International Network for Personal Names Research or contributing to future sessions are encouraged to visit our website to learn how to get involved.
We would also like to extend a special thank you to Anna-Maria Balbach and Emilia Aldrin for their efforts in organizing and conducting this event, as well as to Birgit Eggert, who assisted with moderating. Thanks to them, we were able to bring our global research community a little closer together.
We look forward to seeing you!
Anna-Maria Balbach & Emilia Aldrin
by Lea Fritzenkötter
On Thursday, 12 June 2025, the International Network for Personal Names Research, founded in 2024, held its first online meeting. Participants from 24 different countries around the world joined from various time zones and contributed to the meeting's success.
The meeting offered a varied and stimulating programme: Three scientific presentations by Gerrit Bloothooft (Netherlands), Gergana Petkova (Bulgaria) and Maryann Parada (USA) opened the session, providing insights into current onomastic issues and research results. The programme can be viewed here. This was followed by three short research pitches, in which participants presented and discussed their current or planned research projects. The subsequent discussions were inspiring, provided valuable feedback, and opened opportunities for international cooperation.
All participants agreed that there is a need for a platform for the exchange of international name data. The network intends to provide such a platform. To begin with, a category has been set up for this on our network website: Name Data. This will be continuously expanded. In addition, a new shared literature database on Citavi was presented which currently contains over 800 titles. This database is available to all network members and can be expanded to include relevant literature. This will provide the network with a central tool for facilitating international knowledge transfer and improving collaboration in the future.
At the end of the event, there was time for informal networking, enabling all members to get to know each other beyond scientific matters and strengthen collaborations.
We are looking forward to the next meeting, which is planned for 2026.
Thank you to all the participants who made this first meeting so enriching with their presence, contributions and ideas. It was a pleasure to meet you and get to know you better!
Anna-Maria Balbach and Emilia Aldrin
