News

Updates, events, new publications and more

On this page you will find news about personal names research. If you have something you would like us to announce here, please send an e-mail to Dr. Anna-Maria Balbach.

Call for abstracts!

NoSo: Nordic Journal of Socio-Onomastics is now open for submissions aiming at the 2027-volume which will be an open volume with broad scope. We encourage members of the network to submit! The journal welcomes articles in English or Scandinavian languages concerning any topic on the role of names and naming in relation to societal issues or social interaction, that is of international (and Nordic) interest. Empirical, theoretical, contemporary, and historical analyses are welcome. Submission deadline: August 15th 2026. For more information, visit the journal website.

NoSo is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the Royal Gustavus Adolphus Academy for Swedish Folk Culture. It appears online with full Open Access (CC BY 4.0). Listed in DOAJ and Crossref. Publishing free of charge.

Call for Paper: Onomastics and Toponymy as Reflections of Our World

Canadian Society for the Study of Names (CSSN)
60th Annual Meeting, held virtually
June 6–7, 2026

The Canadian Society for the Study of Names (CSSN) will held his 60th Annual Meeting virtually from Saturday, June 6 to Sunday, June 7, 2026. 

The theme of the Conference is Onomastics and Toponymy as reflections of our World, but papers on any onomastic or toponymic topic are welcome.

For more information, please review the call and visit CSSN’s 2026 Annual Meeting webpage.

You can email your abstract, written in English or French, to Marie (Aurélie) Thériault, Ph.D., at marie.theriault@umontreal.ca and Grace Gomashie, Ph.D., at ggomashi@uwo.ca by February 21, 2026, 11:59 PM ET.

CfP: Onomastics in the digital age. 

Deadline: January 23, 2025

Annual Conference of the „Gesellschaft für Namenforschung (GfN)“ (Society for Name Research), 

September 28 to 30, 2026, University of Bremen

Organization: Barbara Aehnlich, Andreas Jäger, Anna Mattfeldt, and Andreas Rothenhöfer

Please find the CfP and further information about the conference at this link.

New publications on the topic of „Names and Migration"!

As a result of an onomastic workshop at the University of Münster in 2023, various articles on the topic of names and migration have now been published. The volume is entitled:

Namen und Migration. Onymische Indizes hybrider sozialer Zugehörigkeiten (Names and Migration: Onymic Indices of Hybrid Social Affiliations)

and is available online.

You can find the articles at the University of Bologna at the following links:

Latest issue of ONOMA online

© Onoma

 

You can find the latest issue of ONOMA on the topic of

The politics of toponymy in Europe

online at the following link. Enjoy reading!

Link

Workshop “Baby names for modelling cultural and linguistic change” (online and in person)

 

Day: December 12, 2025 (Friday)
Time: 13:00-17:15
Room: The Uppsala University Main Building (Sw. Universitetshuset), room VIII

Online: Registration necessary only if you want to get a Zoom link. Registration link is available on the workshop’s webpage

You are cordially welcome to the workshop "Baby names for modelling cultural and linguistic change" on 12 December at 13:00-17:45. The workshop is organized by the CIRCUS project Swedish Baby Names for Data-driven Modelling of Cultural Change, Namnforum and SPHINX, sponsored by Faculty of Languages/UU & SPHINX. The final program can be downloaded here.

 

Call for papers for: The Seventh International Conference on Onomastics “Name and Naming”. Baia Mare, September 9-11, 2026. Names and Humour. 

 

Detailed information can be found on the conference website, more information about the call for papers under the section “Style sheet.” The deadline is October 10, 2026.

Presentation of our network at the Mainz conference
“Migration onomastics: Personal names in the context of migration movements”

At the end of September, Anna-Maria Balbach presented the International Network for Personal Names Research at the 10th Mainz Name Conference. The network received a great deal of interest, and it was particularly gratifying to meet many members at the conference and exchange ideas in person. 

The following photos give a small impression of the conference and the network presentation. 

A big thank you goes to our network members Theresa Schweden and Anne Rosar, who organized the successful conference! THANK YOU!

© Balbach
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Call for Papers for NORNA 51
Symposium on the topic: Names and Cultural heritage

The symposium will take place in Reykjavik, May 19-21, 2026. The abstract deadline is: 31 October 2025. More information at:  https://arnastofnun.is/is/norna-2026

Registration open and Program online: 
10th Conference on Names in Mainz (Germany)
"Migration Onomastics: Personal Names in the Context of Migration Movements“

Free registration for the conference from September 29 to 30, 2025, at the Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz is available at this link: https://www.namenforschung.net/tagungen/migrationsonomastik-personennamen-im-kontext-von-wanderbewegungen/?L=0

The program can be downloaded here: https://www.namenforschung.net/fileadmin/user_upload/Programm.pdf 

What’s in a name? 

Interesting blog article by Kevin Schurer in The Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure:

Link here.

© UTP

New Publication!

We are pleased to announce that the special issue 

"Dis/Continuity in the Representation of Gender in Names Across Cultures” 

has now been published in Sociolinguistic Studies (Vol. 19, 1–2)!

Several members of our network contributed to this issue, which was organized following the last network conference under the leadership of Jane Pilcher and Ivona Barešová. You can find the issue here ( link: https://utppublishing.com/toc/ss/19/1-2). 

Enjoy reading!

 

Call for Papers for the 10th Mainz Names Conference: 

Migration Onomastics: Personal Names in the Context of Migration Movements

Dear colleagues,

We would like to draw your attention to the Call for Papers for the 10th Mainz Names Conference “Migrationsonomastik”, which will take place from September 29 to October 1, 2025 at the Academy of Sciences and Literature Mainz, Germany. The aim is to examine anthroponyms in connection with language biographies and migration processes. The focus will be on grammatical adaptation processes, transliteration, situational-pragmatic variation or the change of call, family or full names.

We invite all those who deal with personal names and/or migration to submit proposals for contributions (30 minutes + 10 minutes discussion) by March 31, 2025 to migrationsonomastik@adwmainz.de 

For further information, please refer to the attached Call for Papers (German) or (English) and the conference website.

Kind regards

Anne Rosar and Theresa Schweden

The 18th Nordic NORNA-Congress: Names, norms and norm breakages


The Nordic cooperative committee for onomastic research (NORNA) will hold its’ 18th congress in Halmstad, Sweden during 21–23 May 2025 and gather onomastic researchers from all over the Nordic region (and beyond). This year’s topic is Names, norms and norm breakages. Registration without paper (or with poster presentation) can still be made via the conference website: https://www.hh.se/4.27f5742b19206ce9255305ef.html
For further information, please contact norna2025@hh.se