The network organizes an annual online meeting for all its members and other interested persons. The meeting consists of three different formats:
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
