research paper on naming

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• Published: 18 November 2021

Recontextualising the style of naming in nomenclature

• Paul Rummy   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-8552-9848 1 , 2 , 3 &
• Jessica Thevamalar Rummy   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-5011-6816 4  

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume  8 , Article number:  283 ( 2021 ) Cite this article

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• Language and linguistics

In this paper, we brought compelling clarities as to why the current practices of binomial nomenclature should be revised and adjusted by the scientific governing bodies. We highlighted the current emphasis on Latinisation and Greek forms for scientific names has given fewer possibilities for the inclusion of cultural and native scientific names. With regard to zoological matters, we further pointed out that the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) has an obligation to rationalise the applicability and suitability of the existing Articles and Recommendations in the Code. The Code has been designed to assist scientists in naming an organism with its guidelines. However, the practicality of the Articles and Recommendations need to be further explained in order to reduce several misperceptions within the scientific community; which include the correct usage of Latinised and Greek language forms that can be quite confusing to those who are not well-versed in the structures. The discussion also underlined the novelty of having more localised and hybridised scientific names, and the necessity to avoid norms of abusive, offensive and colonising names since the Code did not emphasise enough on the level of integrity needed with the naming procedures. We further illustrated the magnitude of having a gender-neutral naming system in the world of nomenclature, as the current practices of Latinised and Greek forms are heavily navigated towards masculine naming styles. We also suggest that the non-compulsory Recommendation section of the Code to be made relevant, and perhaps mandatory in some cases, with an infinite approach to accentuate beyond inclusivity and diversity.

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Introduction.

Gilman and Wright ( 2020 ) have conclusively emphasised that it is time for the scientific community to begin a novel stance in how we observe the prominence of preserving cultural names and embracing species-epithets. The authors raised the possibilities to re-establish Indigenous names in nomenclature and include the participation of Indigenous scientists in the process of productive discussions and constructing collective decision makings when it comes to species naming. This is due to the fact that the current practices of nomenclature need to be more relevant and inclusive in the 2020s era, and not hold on to years of unchanged procedures by following the Latin and Greek formats. Furthermore, the contemporary principles and practices of nomenclature have always been a westernised pride that has overruled modern sciences with several colonising names, which only proves that the system is very much flawed and requires improvements. Thus, debates have been intensifying in the scientific community with these aforementioned issues, and placing the credibility of the supervision bodies for nomenclature in dire need of an overhaul. We also deem that the changes are inevitable with regard to global context, where equality on every level are being emphasised more than ever. Hence, this paper aims to discuss why the existing practices of nomenclature need to be more inclusive with the integration of cultural, native, localised and hybridised names; why integrity is needed for sensitivity, and also why the present gender bias naming should be revamped in order to create pathways for a more gender-neutral scientific terms. We posit that this discussion would be a motivating factor to gradually shift the traditional convictions among scientists as well. Furthermore, what makes a good solid science, if there is no chamber for enhancements and criticisms?

More so, the art of scientific naming has remained rigid for an extended duration of time. Naming is a vital tool for humans to communicate and convey information in order to help the sciences to grow, the community to flourish and live harmoniously, and reputable relationships to be established as well. Through the lenses of Tippo and Stearn ( 1977 ), names can be described as a guiding factor, historically linked and become ingrained in our daily lives. Also, the authors stated that names can initiate relevant groupings and positions for the intended subjects. Moreover, such a fundamental scientific pillar of nomenclature was even well understood by Lewis Carroll ( 1897 ), as he has portrayed his ideologies of names in the children’s fictional story book, Through the Looking Glass , which has been perceived to be a significant move that has entranced the sphere of classical literature and imagination. This illustrates that the practice of naming is also significant in the world of literature as well.

Nevertheless, as previously mentioned, despite the uniqueness that names possess, numerous traditional scientific scholars have revolved themselves around the custom of using Latinised and Greek forms, a practice that can be seen as a notion of linguistic imperialism with the classical European languages. However, in certain cases, several scientists have been breaking the narratives by utilising vernacular forms instead; to which those distinctive arrangements can be deemed to contain more substantial intrinsic values, due to the fact that they personify a sense of ethnicity, identity and belonging to their sociocultural symbols, local dynamics, indigenous familiarity, mystical myths and legends. These nonconformist scientists have been diligently constructing routes by becoming changing agents for unorthodox naming styles to be integrated and embraced, such as having localised, native or hybridised names that incorporate both the Latin and local languages, an act that is seen to heavily navigate towards cultural relevance and native language maintenance. Hence, this paper is asserting a grassroot outlook for more alternatives to be made in terms of species nomenclature.

Also, we cannot deny that the independence and autonomy to name species can actually permit scientists to be able to convey their linguistic expressions, personalities or honour a person. In this commentary, we are focusing on binomial nomenclature, or the Linnaean binomial system. Within the same context, it is important to highlight that gender agreement issues in scientific naming have also prevailed for a long time, a matter that can lead to unresolved and ceaseless biases and discriminations. In fact, Guenée ( 1857 ) pondered upon the scenario of having to alter names in favour of gender as being equivalent to nonchalantly immature and ignorant to the higher grounds of science, such as having to first understand what constitutes taxonomy and what defines a species level, while some are questioning if species levels really exist.

Notably, it is not our primary intention to evaluate and criticise the rulings in the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (Ride et al., 1999 ) [herein, to be referred to as the Code], which uses and facilitates Linnaean binomial system. Rather, we believe that it should be given a rigorous review if the usage of Latinised forms and gender-based styles are still relevant, practical and functional in the taxonomic field. We are also urging scientists to be able to bridge the linkage between communication and the sciences, and how these two variables could impact society’s transformation and mindsets. We greatly posit that the freedom to sensible naming will allow for more enhanced communication and connections, followed by reshaping the diplomacy within the multilingual and multicultural scientific societies.

A one size fits all policy for naming: Dilemma or superiority?

We acknowledge and vastly respect the fact that regulating bodies exist for a precise motive, and such institutions have supreme power in sustaining the present standard practices as scientific names have been designed to be distinguishable in their own distinctive manner for decades. However, it has been brought to our attention that not all protocols would appeal to every context. In fact, the current scientific naming system is creating divisions and distances, and has the potential to continue reinforcing inequality between scientific organisations across the world. In other words, the “one size fits all” policy needs to be stringently and uncompromisingly re-evaluated to allow for more possibilities of local inclusions and Indigenous rights. Also, it has been argued that binomial nomenclature has brought forward astounding confusions in many, not only in language aspects with the complex Latin and Greek grammar, but also in the level of integrity in some of its existence; to which several of them can be likened to as being remarkably offensive, insensitive and nonsensical. An example of an offensive name, which arguably is an inaccurate portrayal of a bird species is the Macronus gularis (Horsfield, 1822 ), or otherwise known as ‘striped tit-babbler’, to which the reasoning behind that name cannot be unravelled. The existence of such kinds of names is due to that fact that the Code did not place great emphasis on integrity in naming, but rather place the rules for integrity as a Recommendation (25C) to be followed. It is important to note that the Recommendation section in the Code has not been regarded as obligatory, but rather as mere guidance and suggestions to authors for a preferred way of reciprocal communication. For instance, the Recommendation Article 25C excerpt suggest:

‘Authors should exercise reasonable care and consideration in forming new names to ensure that they are chosen with their subsequent users in mind and that, as far as possible, they are appropriate, compact, euphonious, memorable, and do not cause offence’…

to which we question why can't the above act be made as mandatory? Isn’t our society is still very much governed by solidarity and formality? Having said that, we believe that it is time that certain relevant Recommendations be made compulsory as part of the Code, to which otherwise would remain largely ignored. Ultimately, we ask ourselves where do we draw the line between the act of conforming and non-conforming with the naming regimes? With that, it is noteworthy to declare that there are certain sociolinguistic rules that have to be observed for a polite acceptance that also function in a universally coherent style, which could then be successfully diffused cross-culturally. Meanwhile, it has been said that in the naming of nomenclature, the objectivity of using Latinised or Greek forms was to reduce the confusions with common names and to avoid the existence of synonyms, although at times synonym’s mistakes are inexorable as the library of new named species has been widely increasing throughout the years.

At present, we deem that scientific names should exist as one name, and synonyms or homonyms will cause issues and unwanted troubles. In the case of a venomous snake bite, searching for the right name of the snake genus may be crucial in administering anti-venom in order to save lives. However, the snake species name of Spracklandus (Hoser, 2009 ) for example is rarely used by taxonomists and is more commonly known as Afronaja (Wallach et al., 2009 ) instead, as mentioned by Jones ( 2017 ). Despite that as well, such a problem should not be a major concern in an era where giant corporations, institutions and individuals could spend billions of funding in technology, artificial intelligence and initiating the world’s next smart generation network of the 5G and 6G. Hence, the issues of synonyms can be potentially resolved by using online binomial nomenclature registration platforms such as the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (Guala, 2016 ) and other registering bodies, as it is just a matter of database management. In fact, Vlachos ( 2019 ) came up with an effective networking tool to help all levels of users to comprehend the Code in a much easier platform. In a logical perspective as well, most of the scientific research is being conducted and reported in the English language, which has been regarded as the lingua franca of the world. Since it is a burden for some scientists to work on longitudinal, tedious and time-sensitive research work, why place them in a complicated and multiplex position by having them face the task of utilising a language that barely exist in the modern times, just for the mere sake of naming a new taxa?

Also, in a more liberating angle, a dead language for Linnaeus was a non-complex notion. It has also been said that Linnaeus used the binomial method to honour his predecessors, however, there has been an occasion where he was presumed to have insulted a fellow friend with a Latin name after a quarrel. In light of such circumstances, it is very apparent that linguistic expressions can sometimes be menacing if used in ambiguous, colonising and abusive manners, or as means to ignite insultations and glorify racism and gender biases. There have been instances where Indigenous species found by western scientists have been named after prominent western Presidents, or white males that are considered to be of a priviledge position, an act that we call as parachute science. On the other hand, with the intentions of wanting to insult, some scientists throughout history have gone on to name newly discovered species after their fellow colleagues, not to honour but to make fun of them. Therefore, again we ask ourselves, where do we draw the lines between patronising the regulations and wanting to have the privileges of free expressions? We would also need to emphasise that the term ‘freedom’ is not to be largely used against the backdrops of human righteous behaviours, but more towards having the decency to be courteous and considerate of other beings.

Aligned with these thoughts as well, the Code could be regarded as being incapacitated as it does not synchronise when it is required, but remains stagnant and vague for most of the period, without any systemic solutions. Furthermore, if the ICZN is not being explicit about the regulations, there are certainly no boundaries to be followed upon, and neither are there restrictions to the so-called naming creativity. More significantly, Sommerer ( 2002 ) highlighted that there is a diverse range of taxonomists with different traditional groundings, therefore a structured repositioning outside of the Latin language has been noticed. Moreover, although there are certain scientists from other cultural heritage who are articulated in the classical language, the plot may not be admissible in the forthcoming decades because even scholars in the European context are having the least command with these dead languages. In fact, the usage of classic Greek is almost nowhere to be found among present day zoologists. Therefore, why limit oneself if there are no such rules? On a separate note, if such rulings have been compulsory, then it should be entirely up to the name givers to uphold the required respect and integrity.

A consideration of non-conformist style

In this section, we highlight several examples of localised and hybridised scientific names, where these names have been deem as relevant and relatable to local sociocultural dynamics with deep-meanings, but otherwise would not have been if the names were to be in Latinised or Greek forms. The examples highlighted below also indicate how localised and hybridised forms of scientific naming can be effectively used to overcome some of the limitations and constraints associated with the traditional systems of nomenclature.

Among the dinosaur species that were discovered in the Chinese regions, Mei long (Xu and Norell, 2004 ) , Banji long (Xu and Han, 2010 ) , Lingwulong shenqi (Xu et al., 2018 ) , Hexing qingyi (Jin et al., 2012 ) , Caihong juji (Hu et al., 2018 ) and Qijianglong quokr (Xing et al., 2015 ) are fully localised binomial nomenclatures that have been given by Chinese palaeontologists, which are all situated within the Code’s language regulations if one has understood the forms properly. Taking the Banji long for example, the name has been formed in an adjective–noun format (in accordance to the Code’s requirement) and long is the Mandarin term for dinosaurs, which is also another term for ‘dragon’ in the native language. Besides that, another fully localised name is Yi qi (Xu et al., 2015 ). The generic name Yi means ‘wing’ in Mandarin, and the specific name qi means ‘strange’. Also, Yi is notable for having the shortest generic name for any records of dinosaurs found, containing only two letters. Its binomial name, Yi qi , is also considerably the shortest under Articles 11.8.1 and 11.9.1 of the Code, at just four letters. Meanwhile, what we defined as a hybridised name is when one part is Latinised or in Greek, while the other part is localised. Beishanlong grandis (Makovicky et al., 2010 ) is an example of a hybridised name with the generic name being combined with references to ‘ Bei Shan ’, or the ‘north mountains’, followed by long and the Latin term for large, or grandis .

More significantly, we are also observing a trend in full Indigenous names being mobilised, such as the recently discovered orchid species in the Venezuelan territory, which was named as Epidendrum katarun-yariku (Hágsater and Wrazidlo, 2020 ). Hágsater and Wrazidlo ( 2020 ) stated that the ‘ katarun ’ refers to ‘high’, while the word ‘ yariku ’ points towards the ‘flower’, based on the Pemón Arekuna language. The name was chosen based on the geographical location of the orchids, which are commonly situated on elevated grounds in the region. On a separate note, there are some names that can be categorised as intriguing, random, humorous and cynical, or unexpected. Arnold Menke ( 1977 ) named an Australian wasp as Aha ha and it can be considered as one of the earliest forms of names that was not Latinised since the Code was first introduced. The name Aha ha was considered as a joke for Menke. There were also instances where a species has been named for conservation purposes, such as the GoldenPalace.com monkey in Bolivia, while Carmenelectra shechisme (Evenhuis, 2002 ) was a pure expression of peculiar creativity.

All the aforementioned names portray and illustrate the meanings that nonconformists wanted to convey, and these certainly gave a whole new dimension of being bona fide, although this is very much an individual preference, respectively. In spite of that, we understand that Latinisation and Greek forms were designed for stability and uniformity. However, when a species is something that is beyond explanation, we will have to learn to accept and exert it accordingly, because taxonomy is all about instability as cladistic relationship is a constant changing hypothesis (Dominguez and Wheeler, 1997 ). Above all, it is staggering to discover that names that have been deemed as ‘derogatory’ in a normal scenario are not solid enough to be revoked because there are no ordinances to overturn them in veto. In short, there are no specific guidelines to determine what constitutes a term as being ‘derogatory’ in the Code, which could easily be brushed away as just mere individual opinions. Imperatively, the present de-colonising movements in scientific research, or ‘de-colonising sciences’ are being taken seriously by relevant parties, and it would not be detrimental to break one or two menial rules and enrich the nomenclature world with more in-context vernacular, localised, hybridised and Indigenous names.

In addition, the act of parachute sciences should also be avoided. Instead, ethical habits must be cultivated at least to respect and recognise local culture and Indigenous knowledge, a collective mark that can be seen as reducing white supremacy, imperialism and authoritarian behaviours in sciences. Moreover, in a bold and decisive reminder, we should never abuse the opportunities given, to which some have termed this sort of practice as ‘taxonomy vandalism’ (Naish, 2013 ) and turn any new rulings into naming absolutism. Why we say so is because any alterations in taxonomy would become extremely difficult, due to the straightforward fact that once the names have been published, it is almost impossible to eliminate them.

Does gender really matter in the 2020s?

In this section, we will emphasise upon the importance of having gender equality in naming. Several critics have brought up the notion that gender subjects are constantly dominating. The Latin declensions for instance, is a great indicator on how genders are being displayed. Sommerer ( 2002 ) also stated that right till the first-quarter of the 19th century, Latin was the go to language for the scientific naming system, which is quite contradictory to the current context as the official functioning language for zoological nomenclature is now English. Sommerer emphasised that the adjectives in English language are not bound by gender for the nouns. The author mentioned that there are risk factors involved if taxonomists are not able to properly and accurately decode the gender agreements. Also, the Code is heavily oriented towards an automatic assumption of masculinity, unless clearly stated by the author that there is an assigned gender for the species. Therefore, do we really need to have genitives in naming? As interesting as it gets, we understood that Linnaeus first proposed this as he was naming plants, which consisted of male and female counterparts. We also understand that if patronym is practiced, there is some logical sense as to wanting to honour a particular person. However, giving a name on the sole purpose of wanting to fit the epithet of Latin grammar may very well be completely irrational, as we could only imagine if someone were to question in the case of a Tyrannosaurus rex (Osborn, 1905 ), would it be a he, she or neuter? Although in this scenario, rex means ‘king’ in Latin, which has been placed as a ‘he’. Nevertheless, one of the T. rex has a feminine nickname called ‘Sue’, and the reason behind it was to honour the person who founded it, which was Sue Hendrickson in 1990. However, it appears as the particular T. rex has a masculine and feminine name at the same time, and a genitive declension for it would have been extremely out of place.

Furthermore, the gender concerns not only exist in the nomenclature system, but also within the community itself. Heard ( 2020 ) also stated that the Aloe plant genus were found to have a total of 278 eponymous naming, and out of that, 87% have been oriented towards males, to which Darwin mentioned were predominantly westerners. We wonder if the existence of male gendered names are also due to the fact that the scientific world is run by mostly men. In fact, recent surveys have showcased that the scientific community is being largely dominated by men, as the number of women in scientific publications have recorded a bewildering minimal number, which has solely worsened at the protracted crisis withheld by the pandemic as women became more submerged in domestic matters. Furthermore, this has also extended to the scientific LGBTIQA+ communities, where a proclamation of lack in opportunities and discriminations in research have also been made. These bring us into the question that can the scientific world become completely gender neutral and unbiased? Perhaps this could be seen as something that has been blown out of proportions, however, there is no denying that gender disparities in society and languages can fabricate a hierarchical ranking that echoes status and power. Also, the fact that there are clear differences between male and female representations in the genitive naming could steer towards unequal gender functions in the scientific communities across the world as well. So, we ask how genitive or gender in species and humans would intermingle with social class and sciences? The answer for this question may just be quite intricate to explain, and challenging to be interpreted.

[Intermission: We have specifically mentioned that this commentary is not an assessment or evaluations of the current standard practices in nomenclature. Having said that, it is not our intention to submit any proposals for amendments. Rather, we are choosing to publicise how certain discourse and stylistic representations of the Code can be oscillating and unmodulated to the scientific community. We urge the governing bodies to have solitary measures to enhance the diplomacy of the Code, an act that will ensure diversity and inclusion with scientific names can be acheivable. The Code has gone through an evolution in a duration of 250 years (Dubois, 2011 ) and currently consist of 90 Articles, with 754 sub-Articles, 129 Recommendations and 129 Examples (Vlachos, 2019 ) . Despite that, the language and structure requirements of the Code when it comes to scientific naming procedures can be difficult for experts that are not familiar with the context, and become more harder with certain conditions applied (Dubois, 2011 ) . The subsequent paragraphs will examine four specific Articles and Recommendations in the Code that need to be given some considerations for alterations, mainly by using linguistics interpretations.]

Deconstructing the discourse of the four rules

I recommendation 11a.

‘ Recommendation 11A: Use of vernacular names : An unmodified vernacular word should not be used as a scientific name. Appropriate Latinisation is the preferred means of formation of names from vernacular words.’

As previously mentioned, the Recommendation section of the Code is not mandatory and this is when the confusion arises. The riveting question is, if such is just a recommendation, do scientists have a choice to not compel with this particular ruling? Will it be appropriate to give a vernacular name on one’s own terms and conditions then? Also, linguistically, the syntax of the sentence, when combined with the auxiliary verb ‘should not’ becomes a cryptic interpretation, indicating a gap in the context and pragmatics on whether it can be ‘should I?’ or ‘shouldn’t I?’. The uncertainties resume when it was declared that Latinisation of the vernacular forms is the ‘preferred’ one, a lexical term that is neither definite nor infinite. Therefore, when deconstructing the structure of Recommendation 11A, it is apparent that there is a contradicting element in the discourse, to which the auxiliary term ‘should not’ does not contest against the infinite, and with a rather ambiguous term of ‘preferred’, indicate that there is still an option. Without a doubt, the entire semantics of the Recommendation can be perplexing to those who do not see the relevance in it, and a more straightforward and conclusive approach should be employed in restructuring it.

II Recommendation 25C

‘ Recommendation 25C: Responsibility of authors forming new names : Authors should exercise reasonable care and consideration in forming new names to ensure that they are chosen with their subsequent users in mind and that, as far as possible, they are appropriate, compact, euphonious, memorable, and do not cause offence.’

We believe that Recommendation 25C should be ingrained as an Article, and not placed as a Recommendation in the Code. We highly deem that since the responsibility of naming is not being emphasised enough, it has created a space for impertinent and audacious attitudes. As a matter of fact, anyone can publish any names because it is just a recommendation to be courteous and polite, and once those names have been published, it cannot be taken down unless there is a case of synonyms being raised.

This has brought forward our attention to the ‘Principle of Priority’ in Article 23 of the Code, where it was stated that:

‘valid name of a taxon is the oldest available name applied to it’…

This indicates that anything that has been published first can be considered as valid, therefore, changing it is almost non-viable. In light of such syntax issues, if the ICZN chooses to verify the discourse, then we might be able to see a clearer notion in terms of naming ethics and the seniority involved.

III Article and Recommendation 30

‘ Article 30.2.3 : If no gender was specified, the name takes the gender indicated by its combination with one or more adjectival species-group names of the originally included nominal species [Article 67.2].’

‘ Article 30.2.4 : If no gender was specified or indicated, the name is to be treated as masculine, except that, if the name ends in -a the gender is feminine, and if it ends in -um, -on, or -u the gender is neuter.’

‘ Recommendation 30A : Gender and derivation to be made explicit. Authors should expressly state the gender and derivation of a new genus-group name when establishing it.’

‘ Recommendation 30B : Gender to be made self-evident. So that the gender of new genus-group names is self-evident, authors, when forming new names based on words that are not Latin or Greek and stating their genders, are advised to choose genders for them appropriate to their endings.’

We foresee that these Articles and Recommendations will become increasingly problematic in the coming future, as these are clearly steering towards an unbalanced dynamic in nomenclature, with more species names being propelled to be masculine if not specifically indicated. As a matter of fact, vernacular forms are recommended to follow such agreements if possible as self-proclamation, which should not be the case as certain languages are not bound by gender agreements, as compared to most of the European Languages.

IV Article 31

‘ Article 31.1.2 : A species-group name, if a noun in the genitive case (see Article 11.9.1.3) formed directly from a modern personal name, is to be formed by adding to the stem of that name -i if the personal name is that of a man, -orum if of men or of man (men) and woman (women) together, -ae if of a woman, and -arum if of women; the stem of such a name is determined by the action of the original author when forming the genitive.’

In contrast to Article 30, we deemed this act of being able to honour a person on the grounds of gender as being appropriate and respectful, and the author will have the choice to identify with their own gender when it comes to naming the species, although we would still highly suggest for a gender-neutral term to be used in future nomenclature.

Based on the premise that changes are inevitable, we have strived to sketch a picture and depict centuries of narratives that have to be relinquished. We cannot deny that the root of culture is language, and the root of communication is name. Hence, adaptation and assimilation are pivotal in the modern scientific community in order to generate necessary trails for efficacious communication in a timely manner. Also, language has always been a fundamental national identity attribution, an undeniable force of authenticity, to which no culture or civilisation can be sustainable without its existence. Therefore, it should be solicited with due respect and freedom of usage that can contribute to a sense of interconnectedness. Also, it seems like we are collectively facing issues with these current naming styles and therefore, how can we change this current system? Although there is such rich diversity in culture, languages and ethnicities in the world, why are we restricting ourselves to conform to one unanimous method? We uphold the notion that languages and linguistics’ applications in nomenclature naming should not be scrambled by stringent rules. In this commentary, we also took into account that having the consensus of everyone can be difficult to achieve as there is still a community of strong, hardcore traditionalists out there, respectfully. But, bearing in mind that all these could be seen as an act of isolation in the making, scientists should begin to be mindful by being accountable, while the governing bodies can most definitely compromise and improvise. With that, we are aware that the Linnaean binomial system is still essential for all scientists out there, but a progressive change can be beneficial. Well, Phylocode? We will have to spare it for another day!

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Acknowledgements

We truly appreciate X. Xu, Q. Zhao, C.-C. Liao, Z.-C. Qin, C.-Y. Yu, T.-T. Lim and K. Halaclar for the highly intellectual and productive discussions and debates on the issues of binomial nomenclature. Their constructive criticisms and valuable input have greatly set a remarkable mark and guidance on our ends, which have tremendously enabled us to boldly, courageously and decisively steer the direction of this manuscript. P. Rummy is supported by a scholarship from the University of Chinese Academic of Sciences and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant no. 41688103).

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Jessica Thevamalar Rummy

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Rummy, P., Rummy, J.T. Recontextualising the style of naming in nomenclature. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 8 , 283 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-021-00975-8

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1 Introduction

Carole Hough is Professor of Onomastics at the University of Glasgow. Her research interests include Scottish and English place-names and personal names, names in literature, and onomastic theory. She has around 300 publications on these and other topics. A former President of the International Council of Onomastic Sciences and Convener of the Scottish Place-Name Society, she is currently President of the International Society of Anglo-Saxonists, Vice-President of the Society for Name Studies in Britain and Ireland, and a Council Member of the English Place-Name Society.

• Published: 07 March 2016
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This volume covers the main branches of name studies, in roughly chronological order of emergence. Part I discusses the role of names in language, a key focus of investigation since Ancient Greece. Part II deals with place-names, with an opening chapter on methodology followed by chapters on different types of referents. Part III deals with personal names, with an overview of naming systems in different parts of the world followed by chapters on individual components of those systems. Part IV discusses the study of names in literature, with case studies from different languages and time periods. Part V introduces the field of socio-onomastics, with chapters relating to the names of people, places, and commercial products. Part VI outlines inter-disciplinary aspects of name studies. Finally, Part VII explores the naming strategies adopted for a selection of animate and inanimate referents.

1.1 Introduction

The study of names, known as ‘onomastics’, is both an old and a young discipline. Since Ancient Greece, names have been regarded as central to the study of language, throwing light on how humans communicate with each other and organize their world. Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and others were keenly interested in the relationship between names and referents, and this has continued to be a major theme of both philosophical and linguistic enquiry throughout the history of Western thought. The investigation of name origins, on the other hand, is more recent, not developing until the twentieth century in some areas, and being still today at a formative stage in others. Here the emphasis is on etymology, systematically tracing the derivation of individual names back through time, and the resulting data have provided a rich evidence base for the investigation of historical and linguistic topics. Relatively new is the study of names in society, which draws on techniques from sociolinguistics and has gradually been gathering momentum over the last few decades.

Whereas these approaches encompass names of all kinds, others prioritize particular types of names, such as place-names or personal names. A wide range of inter-disciplinary research bearing on archaeology, geography, and landscape studies focuses largely on the names of places, while research bearing on anthropology and genealogy focuses largely on the names of people. Fictional as well as real names repay attention, most obviously in the study of names in literature, but also in relation to areas such as commerce, law, psychology, and religion. Named entities are not limited to people and places, but extend to other living creatures, man-made objects, and celestial bodies, all reflecting different aspects of the interaction between humans and their surroundings.

Much research in the field begins at the level of the individual name, but only reaches full significance when the results are grouped together, allowing patterns to emerge. Comparative analysis of large datasets has been facilitated enormously by advances in technology, as some of the contributions to this volume explain. Also important is the sharing of knowledge through national and international collaboration. Many name scholars are closely involved in subject societies, whether focusing on names of a particular type or within a particular geographical area, and the over-arching organization, the International Congress of Onomastic Sciences, brings together research into names of all types throughout the world at its triennial conferences.

The structure of this volume reflects the emergence of the main branches of name studies, in roughly chronological order. First, a section on name theory outlines key issues about the role of names in language. Some of these will be revisited in later chapters, often from different viewpoints. Many aspects of the subject are controversial, and the volume does not aim to present a party line, but rather to reflect the rich diversity of scholarship. Part II deals with toponomastics, the study of place-names, with an opening chapter on methodology followed by chapters on different types of referents. Part III turns to anthroponomastics, the study of personal names, beginning with an overview of naming systems in different parts of the world, followed by chapters on the individual components of those systems. Part IV outlines contrasting approaches to the study of names in literature, otherwise known as literary onomastics, with case studies from different languages and time periods. Part V introduces a range of recent scholarship within the field of socio-onomastics, with chapters relating to the names of people, places, and commercial products. Part VI focuses on the inter-disciplinarity of name studies, outlining some of the ways in which other disciplines both draw on, and contribute to, this field of research. Finally, Part VII presents a selection of animate and inanimate referents, and explores the naming strategies adopted for them. Strikingly, each has distinctive naming patterns, some esoteric, some idiosyncratic, and some developed with great ingenuity according to a complex system.

1.2 Onomastic Theory

What are names, and how do they function in language? As Coates (2006e : 7) explains, name theory is ‘arguably the most ancient topic area in the whole of linguistics since it was first problematized by Plato in his Cratylus , and it is, notwithstanding its antiquity, one with foundational problems still to be resolved’. In the English-speaking world, names are traditionally regarded as a type of noun or noun phrase, sometimes referred to as ‘proper nouns’. Whether they are atypical or prototypical nouns has been hotly debated, and attempts have also been made to reclassify them as determinatives ( Anderson 2003 , 2004 , 2007 ). This volume therefore begins with the crucial issue of the definition of names—a definition which, like other key questions addressed in subsequent chapters, must be universally applicable rather than language-specific. To this end, Willy Van Langendonck and Mark Van de Velde advocate a cognitive approach, focusing on the pragmatic-semantic properties of names as distinct from language-specific grammatical categories. Drawing on data from a range of European and African languages, they argue that names are definite nouns with unique denotation, an inherent basic level sense, no defining sense, and optional connotative meanings.

In the following chapter, Staffan Nyström picks up on the issue of meaning, elaborating on the different types of meaning attributed to names by different scholars, and outlining the main arguments relating to this highly controversial area of name theory. Despite the influential view that absence of semantic meaning is a defining characteristic of a name, some theorists argue that names have certain types of semantic meaning, while many—perhaps all—accept that names have non-semantic meaning. This chapter too takes a cognitive approach, focusing particularly on the interface between lexical and proprial meaning, such that lexically transparent components of names may bring to mind their non-proprial meanings. Nyström also provides a cogent exposition of the range of potential presuppositional meanings, including categorical (basic level) meaning, associative (connotative) meaning, and emotive (affective) meaning. Like Van Langendonck and Van de Velde, who identify a ‘cline of nameworthiness’ from more to less typical types of names, he argues that ‘names and words should not be seen as completely isolated from each other but instead as two communicating and integrated parts of the total network, the mental lexicon’. Both chapters thus situate names within a language continuum, rather than proposing a cut-off point separating them from other linguistic items.

The third and final chapter in this section shifts the perspective from the internal properties of names to their uses in spoken language. Elwys De Stefani introduces the concept of interactional onomastics, applying techniques from conversation analysis to the study of names in discourse. Again pragmatic analysis is key to the investigation, but whereas traditional approaches to onomastic theory have been dominated by issues relating to the denotative function of names, this chapter raises broader questions about their social and cultural significance. In so doing, de Stefani introduces a number of themes that will be revisited in later sections of the volume, particularly in connection with anthropology and socio-onomastics.

1.3 Toponomastics

The study of place-names is known as ‘toponomastics’, the term recommended in the list of key onomastic terms produced by the International Congress of Onomastic Sciences ( ICOS 2011 ). An alternative term ‘toponymy’ is preferred by some scholars but is ambiguous, as it also refers to a corpus of place-names, otherwise known as ‘toponyms’. Much research in toponomastics is organized geographically, surveying the place-names of an area by compiling and analysing sequences of historical spellings in order to establish etymological origins. The opening chapter of Part II offers an introduction to sources and methodologies, focusing on the recently-inaugurated Survey of Scottish Place-Names. Simon Taylor draws on his extensive experience of place-name research to discuss key issues relating to the collection, organization, storage, analysis, and presentation of data, including evidence from both written and oral sources. Although Scotland is a small country, its toponymy draws on an unusually wide range of languages including both Celtic and Germanic strata, and hence the examples presented here have a much broader relevance.

The following chapters deal with the names of different types of geographical entities, including both the natural and the built environment. The prototypical place-name is that of a human settlement such as a town, city, or village, and there are many parallels between those found in different parts of the world. Some parallels result from similar naming strategies being applied independently by unrelated groups of speakers; others result from names being transferred directly from one area to another. Carole Hough outlines the main structures of settlement names, grouped broadly into descriptive and non-descriptive names. The former tend to predominate in Indo-European languages, whereas the latter, which include commemorative, transferred, and incident names, are characteristic not only of some non-Indo-European languages but of the names created by European settlers in the African, American, and Australian continents during the Age of Exploration. The second part of Hough’s chapter discusses some of the evidence preserved in both groups, particularly for settlement patterns, settlement chronologies and historical linguistics. Examples are mostly from the mainland of Britain, but again the underlying principles have a broader relevance.

The most ancient toponyms are those of large geographical features. The names of major rivers are among the earliest evidence for language and population movement, with some dating back two millennia or more. Svante Strandberg analyses the linguistic and chronological strata reflected in different types of formations, as well as the implications of identical or related river names in areas of Britain and continental Europe. His chapter includes a discussion of some of the most common roots in European river names, alongside semantic and morphological factors. A controversial area is the stratigraphy of ‘Old European’ hydronymy, a system of river naming dating back to a period before the emergence of individual branches of Indo-European. This has been a major focus of scholarship throughout the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, and the chapter traces the development of the debate.

Other large geographical features include hills and mountains, whose names are the subject of Peter Drummond’s chapter. These tend to be recorded later than the names of settlements and of rivers, a factor attributed to their economic marginality. It is also more common for more than one name to be attached to a single feature, partly due to lack of communication between rural societies on different sides of a single mountain. Something similar accounts for the fact that the names of ranges tend to be later than those of individual hills, since the concept of a local hill being part of a larger group depends on a degree of mobility. Changes over time are also relatively common in hill names, as are uncertainties regarding the precise referent, which may comprise the whole massif, its main or subsidiary summit, a shoulder, or another prominent part. Alongside such issues, Drummond gives an account of research into the defining elements or ‘generics’ of mountain names in Scotland, Ireland, Switzerland, and France, followed by a discussion of selected types of qualifying elements or ‘specifics’, focusing in particular on the application of personal names to summits in the former European colonies, the USA, and Europe.

The naming strategies of the European colonizers are also reflected in many island names, since islands are often among the first places to be settled and named by new groups of incomers. For the same reason, they provide unique evidence for language history and migration patterns. Peder Gammeltoft explores these and other issues, with particular attention to the mindsets of the namers. Case studies include island names of Scandinavian origin in the British Isles, and island names from Polynesian motu ‘island’ in the Pacific Ocean. Both illustrate the central role of island names in tracing the spread of people and their languages throughout the world.

Julia Kuhn deals with a more disparate set of entities, linked by being ‘uninhabited, delimited objects in rural settings and surroundings’. Her chapter on rural names covers the names of fields, meadows, forests, single trees, and so on, many of which are associated with the agricultural exploitation of land. Changes in farming practices are leading to the loss of such names, so there is a real urgency to the task of documenting and studying them. Their main purpose is orientation and the identification of areas within small and limited units, and they provide fine-grained evidence for local conditions and dialects. Kuhn offers a detailed analysis of semantic and morphological patterns, followed by an outline of methods of collection and interpretation. Many examples are from Romance and Germanic languages, and the chapter demonstrates the value and importance of this often neglected group of toponyms.

Whereas rural names serve to organize uninhabited space, street names fulfil the corresponding purpose in towns and cities. There are, however, marked contrasts, not least in that whereas rural names are gradually diminishing in use, street names represent the most productive area of the present-day toponymicon. Bertie Neethling begins by outlining the characteristic structures of street names, and moves on to examine their functions, both referential and symbolic. His chapter focuses particularly on the renaming of streets, with case studies from South Africa. The high emotive value of commemorative names is strikingly illustrated, reinforcing the key role of such formations in the naming environments treated in previous chapters.

The final chapter in this section deals not with a type of referent but with a type of naming strategy, touched on in previous chapters but here brought centre-stage. Stefan Brink presents an in-depth treatment of place-name transfers, including different ways of adapting existing names, and the importance of analogy and patterning in name formation. Many examples are from Scandinavia; others from Polynesia and the European colonies.

1.4 Anthroponomastics

Also referred to as ‘anthroponymy’, anthroponomastics encompasses the study of names given to individuals or to groups of people. As in toponomastics, etymological investigation is a major thrust of investigation, but there is in addition a greater emphasis on the historical development of naming patterns and on synchronic research into name choices. This section outlines the development and uses of different kinds of personal names, and concludes by discussing links with related areas of research.

Unlike place-names, where there are different naming strategies for different referents, personal names all refer to the same type of referent—people—but the system itself comprises different types of names, including given names, family names, nicknames, and so on. The various components of the personal naming system are selected and combined in different ways in different cultures, and the opening chapter in this section presents a comparative analysis of fifteen languages across the world. Edwin D. Lawson assembles a range of specialists to outline the naming practices in their language of expertise, and then correlates the data in order to identify shared features. The results show that naming practices in the UK have the most overlap with others, followed respectively by those found in Greek, German, Dutch, the USA, French, Portuguese, Hungarian, Polish, Chinese, Maltese, Jewish, Zulu, Māori, and the Bible.

The following chapter by Katharina Leibring focuses on given names, otherwise known as first names. After defining and categorizing given names both morphologically and semantically, she presents a diachronic survey of their evolution and selection in a wide range of European naming systems from pre-Christian times to the present day. Despite differences between countries and regions, a number of common features are identified, including a bias towards male, upper class names in the extant records. Changes in naming practices are linked to historical developments, and the survey concludes with a discussion of the current trend in many European countries for individualization in given names, through such strategies as unorthodox spellings and the creation of new, innovatory names.

In many naming systems, one or more given names are followed by a surname, otherwise known as a family name since its function is to identify an individual as a member of a family. Patrick Hanks and Harry Parkin address the origins and typology of hereditary surnames in different parts of the UK, drawing both on previous scholarship and on examples from the ongoing Family Names of Britain and Ireland research project at the University of the West of England. They also discuss the influence of migration on the world’s family-name stocks, such that, for instance, present-day surnames in the UK reflect origins in languages as diverse as Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Gaelic, Hebrew, Indian, Latin, Persian, Turkish, and Yiddish. The chapter goes on to present an account of scholarship in continental Europe, Asia, and the Indian subcontinent, and concludes by drawing attention to the potential of large surname databases to underpin further research in the field.

As Hanks and Parkin explain, an intermediate stage before the development of hereditary family names was the use of non-hereditary bynames. These, alongside nicknames, are the focus of the next chapter by Eva Brylla. She begins by defining the terms, before turning to issues relating to function, syntax, semantics, and morphology. Coverage extends to the names both of individuals and of groups such as football clubs, and there is also a brief analysis of internet names, to which the next section will return. Similarly, the concluding discussion of bynames as a mirror of society raises issues that will be addressed in further detail within Part V.

The names of ethnic groups are known as ‘ethnonyms’, and Adrian Koopman discusses the relationship between the names themselves and a range of factors often linked to ethnicity, including race, nationality, geographical area, language, and religion. Case studies focus on Scottish and Zulu clan names, and the chapter addresses theoretical issues concerning the linguistic status of ethnonyms.

The remaining two chapters in this section deal with areas of research which both draw on and contribute to anthroponomastics. Ellen S. Bramwell outlines the role of names within anthropological frameworks, with examples from different parts of the world. Examining the close connection between names and the cultural contexts in which they appear, she argues that despite some existing cross-over between the two disciplines through, for instance, the use of ethnographic fieldwork methods, there is potential for much closer theoretical engagement. Finally, George Redmonds explores the key role of personal naming patterns in tracing ancestry. While the significance of surnames for genealogy has long been recognized, he argues that the importance of given names in this connection has been undervalued. His chapter presents a compelling analysis of patterns of distribution, showing how they can be used not only to reveal the origins of individual names, but also to trace migration, whether between countries or between counties. The complexities associated with the development of surname variants, abbreviations, and contractions are illustrated by a wealth of examples, and the chapter emphasizes the role of the genealogist as contributor to, as well as beneficiary from, name research.

1.5 Literary Onomastics

Despite an exponential growth of publications on literary onomastics in recent decades, the development of methodologies for the study of names in literature is at a much earlier stage than for the study of either toponomastics or anthroponomastics. This section discusses the theoretical basis of literary onomastics and offers a survey of different kinds of approaches.

The opening chapter by Grant W. Smith takes as its starting point the philosophical debate concerning the meaning of names, and provides a magisterial survey of competing theories. Supporting the semiotic approach advocated by C. S. Peirce, he analyses literary uses of names in terms of iconic associations, indexical associations, and symbolic associations. The chapter concludes by emphasizing the importance of systematic analysis.

In contrast to this broad theoretical approach, Bertie Neethling presents a comparative analysis of uses of names in two songs from the late twentieth century: Billy Joel’s We Didn’t Start The Fire and Christopher Torr’s Hot Gates . Both are remarkable for the sheer number of names included in the lyrics. Torr uses place-names exclusively, while Joel brings in a variety of place-names, personal names, brand names, and others. Particular significance is attached to connotative meanings, bringing out the ways in which they enrich the artistic experience.

Some uses of names are genre-specific, so a number of literary onomastic studies approach names through groups of texts related by genre. Birgit Falck-Kjällquist outlines previous research in connection with a variety of genres, including nineteenth-century novels, twentieth-century detective fiction, sequels, comics, fantasy literature, drama, films, heroic poetry, medieval romance, and parodies. The main focus is on English and German literature.

Advances in technology are transforming many branches of name studies, not least in this field. Karina van Dalen-Oskam outlines the development of literary onomastic scholarship from the qualitative analysis of selected names to the quantitative analysis of the entire ‘onymic landscape’, an approach facilitated by the availability of electronic databases. As yet, only relatively small text corpora are available for this kind of study, but the chapter demonstrates the immense potential of a computational approach.

Paul Cavill’s chapter on language-based approaches to names in literature traces the history of literary onomastics from the earliest written traditions to the present day. It relates literary names to contemporary naming practices, showing how and why they sometimes differ. There is a particular focus on Old and Middle English literature, Shakespeare, and later modern novelists.

1.6 Socio-onomastics

The emerging subdiscipline of socio-onomastics offers new approaches to names of all kinds, including both personal names and place-names. As Terhi Ainiala explains, this branch of onomastics examines names in society, focusing particularly on name variation. Names vary according to the social, cultural, and situational fields in which they are used, and socio-onomastics draws on techniques from sociolinguistics in order to trace and to analyse this phenomenon. Ainiala’s chapter offers a state-of-the-art account of the field, and concludes by presenting folk onomastics as a sub-category of socio-onomastics.

The role of names is key to the construction of identity and to notions of selfhood, but has only recently begun to be critically examined. Emilia Aldrin gives an overview of theoretical and methodological tools, and outlines current trends and gaps within the field. Her chapter focuses mainly on contemporary names, primarily those of individuals.

Turning from personal names to place-names, Guy Puzey introduces linguistic landscape research, an approach that has emerged in recent years to reflect issues relating to the language(s) used on public signs (e.g. roads, railway stations, shops) in areas occupied by different speech communities. These issues are crucial to the field of language planning. Puzey details major theoretical and methodological developments here and in the related fields of geosemiotics and semiotic landscapes. He then turns to the onomastic potential, including opportunities to apply linguistic landscape fieldwork techniques to study observable onomastic practice, to facilitate the collection of names, and to study names in relation to language policy.

Recent work on place attachment (comprising place identity and place dependence) has led to a new theory of ‘Toponymic attachment’, with particular relevance to areas of the world with both indigenous and immigrant populations. Toponymic attachment is defined as a positive or negative association made by individuals and groups with real or imagined place-names. It was developed by Laura Kostanski, whose chapter makes comparisons between existing geographical-domain-based theories and potential new avenues for exploration, while also investigating and explaining the sub-domains of ‘Toponymic identity’ and ‘Toponymyic dependence’. Most examples are from the Grampians National Park in Australia.

The names used to address a person may not be the names used to refer to him or her, and may indeed vary substantially in different situations and social environments. As much if not more than names themselves, forms of address reflect changing cultural values and attitudes both synchronically and diachronically. As Irma Taavitsainen and Andreas H. Jucker explain, address terms are used by speakers to appeal to their hearer(s) and to convey both interpersonal and expressive meanings, with a scale extending from endearment to deference and to terms of abuse. Their chapter outlines alternative semantic classifications, and presents a diachronic overview of changes in both the frequency and the semantic types of address terms. The focus is on English, but there is also some consideration of developments in other languages.

Unlike personal names and nicknames, which are generally bestowed by other people, and also unlike surnames, which are inherited, pseudonyms are chosen by the individual, and hence offer specific insights into naming and self-presentation. Katarzyna Aleksiejuk introduces pseudonyms as a category of names, and describes practices of use from various angles. She goes on to outline the historical development of scholarly approaches to anonymity and pseudonymity, and the functions of pseudonyms in different contexts, including literature, entertainment, politics, religion, and selected non-European traditions. Her chapter also discusses the recent phenomenon of internet usernames, and puts forward a proposed typology.

Another area of naming that has come to prominence in recent years is commercial nomenclature, often but not always referring to businesses and products. Paula Sjöblom explores the increasing commercialization of the Western way of life and its impact on names. Her chapter casts light on the history of commercial naming and introduces different approaches to linguistic analysis. There is a particular focus on the semantics and functions of names, and Sjöblom explains how English, as the global language of business, is pervasive in commercial names throughout the world.

1.7 Onomastics and Other Disciplines

Onomastics is essentially inter-disciplinary, and it might be difficult to identify any major subject area to which it is completely unrelated. The chapters in this section explore some of the most prominent connections between name studies and other fields of research, but are by no means exhaustive. Their number could easily have been multiplied, and readers will no doubt be able to think of other topics that could have been included.

First, Richard Jones discusses names and archaeology, explaining how place-names and field names can be used to locate sites of archaeological interest, while examination of material culture can contribute to the understanding of when and why places were named. The emergence of cognitive approaches has also led to place-names being used as evidence for the mental world of past communities.

Cognitive approaches are also central to Serge Brédart’s chapter on names and cognitive psychology. He begins by summarizing empirical evidence demonstrating that personal names are both more difficult to retrieve than other biographical information about people, and more difficult to retrieve than other words. Then he outlines competing hypotheses that attempt to explain these difficulties, respectively on the grounds that personal names lack descriptiveness, that person naming requires the retrieval of one specific label, that the set size of plausible phonology is larger for personal names, and that the frequency of personal name usage is relatively low. The conclusion is that a combination of factors makes personal names hard to recall.

Maggie Scott’s chapter on names and dialectology explores the relationship between the study of language varieties and the study of names, taking account of historical developments in theory and methodology. The oral corpus of local names is usually more detailed than that represented on maps, and such ‘unofficial’ names can provide a range of insights into the sociolinguistic and pragmatic functions of non-standard, slang, and dialectal terminology. Place-names also preserve important evidence for dialect geography, and Scott draws on Nicolaisen’s concept of the onomastic dialect to provide an explanatory framework for instances where onomastic isoglosses do not parallel their lexical counterparts.

Peder Gammeltoft also focuses largely on place-names for his chapter on names and geography. A challenge in using place-names in this connection is to establish when a name was established and the significance of the naming focus. In addition, later onomastic developments may create a mismatch between the current denotation and the original place-name meaning. These and other issues are explored here, alongside a discussion of the role of Geographical Information Systems and geospatial databases in both onomastic research and geography.

Turning to names and history, Gillian Fellows-Jensen outlines the various linguistic layers of place-names in England in reverse chronological order. She moves from names of French origin to those from Norse, Anglo-Saxon, and Celtic languages, tracing the principal areas where each group is found, and also touching on river names of Old European origin.

Richard Coates’s chapter on historical linguistics looks at names as evidence for the nature and progress of linguistic change, and for prehistoric languages which have since disappeared. The relationship between names and other vocabulary items is also addressed, and the chapter concludes with a description and evaluation of the practice of the etymological study of names.

As Berit Sandnes explains, place-names are easily borrowed in language contact situations, probably because sharing a place-name is the easiest way to point out a specific location. Loan names are regularly adapted to the sound system of the recipient language, and adaptations occur sporadically on other linguistic levels, including grammar and syntax. Elements may be translated or substituted by similar-sounding words in the new language. Sandnes also draws attention to the key role of the speaker in contact onomastics, as processes such as translations, replacement of elements, and syntactic adaptations can only be explained as the result of a speaker’s interpretation and adaptation.

Personal names feature prominently in Andreas Teutsch’s chapter on names and law, since they are closely connected with personal rights. Teutsch presents an overview of legal regulations concerning personal names in different countries, but also attempts to define universal tendencies and to discuss the challenge of legal harmonization on an international level. Since law regulates social interaction, it can also be a decisive institution for conflicts relating to other types of names, including those of places, streets, undertakings, and commercial products.

Alison Grant charts the increasing use of onomastic source material in English lexicography, from its marginal consideration in the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary to the much more inclusive policy of the ongoing third edition. In Scotland, the situation is less well advanced, and name evidence is used unsystematically in the major dictionaries of Scots, a language for which reliable onomastic source material is also less readily available. However, toponymic and anthroponymic evidence can provide valuable ante-datings and reinterpretations for existing dictionary entries, as well as providing new additions to the lexicon.

Kay Muhr discusses the interface between names and religion, focusing particularly on place-names in Ireland. Her chapter presents some place-name elements from Ireland illustrating the sacredness of water, hills, and burial and assembly sites. She analyses problematic terms such as findabair, temair , the Otherworld dwelling síd , the pagan grave fert , and the human house tech , as well as ecclesiastical terminology borrowed from Latin: domnach, cell, dísert, aireagal, martar , and reilic .

1.8 Other Names

Names are given to many animate and inanimate referents, with distinctive patterns even for apparently similar referents such as boats and ships, locomotives and trains, or pets and farm animals. The shorter chapters in this section explore some of these patterns. Again, their number could have been expanded exponentially, but the aim is to provide a representative cross-section, illustrating a variety of naming strategies.

Guy Puzey covers aircraft names, presenting an outline history of approaches to naming British military aircraft types. Civil aircraft naming practices are illustrated with the example of the Boeing Company’s 700-series of airliners, and the chapter also discusses aircraft naming in international development projects. Finally, examples are given of names and nicknames for individual machines.

Two of the chapters in Part I drew attention to similarities between personal names and pet names, and Katharina Leibring now treats the names of domestic animals in fuller detail both diachronically and synchronically. She focuses on the names of production animals and companion animals in European countries from the eighteenth century onwards, but also includes some coverage of African and Arctic animal names. Changes in the name stock for different species are related to changes in agriculture, and differences between the names of male and female animals are also addressed.

Marc Alexander introduces the study of astronomical naming practices, showing how they relate to scientific and general culture. His chapter focuses on constellation names, star names, and planet names, and addresses both the historical background and the complex modern conventions.

Adrian Koopman discusses the names of private dwellings, outlining the various semantic categories and levels of meaning. He focuses particularly on the functions and meanings of Zulu homestead names, with an emphasis on their use to communicate messages aimed at relieving tension and conflict.

The two remaining chapters deal with land and sea transport. Richard Coates describes the history of the names of steam locomotives, showing a progression from attributive to arbitrary names. He also more briefly considers the names of trains. Finally, Malcolm Jones discusses the names given to ships from the earliest records to the present day. Political and religious motivations for the giving and changing of names are illustrated from the English, French, and Russian Revolutions. Categories of name are illustrated from medieval and early modern English and Spanish fleets, and modern navies, merchantmen, and cruise-lines.

1.9 Conclusion

As well as outlining the current state of name studies in its various branches, the chapters in this volume show the discipline continuing to expand and to develop into new areas. To mention a few examples from different sections, de Stefani introduces the concept of interactional onomastics, Neethling argues for song lyrics as a legitimate area of investigation for literary onomastics, Sandnes introduces contact onomastics as a branch of contact linguistics, and some of the legal cases cited by Teutsch show changes still in progress through ongoing rulings with a binding effect. Research within name studies is vigorous, vibrant, and innovative, and if this volume had been produced twenty or even ten years ago, many of the chapters would have been radically different or even absent. We can be confident that a similar undertaking in another ten or twenty years would be as different again.

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Names and Naming

Multicultural Aspects

• © 2021
• Oliviu Felecan 0 ,
• Alina Bugheșiu 1

Faculty of Letters, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, North University Centre of Baia Mare, Baia Mare, Romania

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Takes an interdisciplinary approach to politics, religion, ethnicity, culture and language

Explores the intersection of multiculturalism with toponymy, anthroponymy, commercial names, religious names and names in literature

Examines contexts defined by multiculturalism and cultural contact in Europe, America, Africa and Asia

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Table of contents (30 chapters)

Front matter, introduction.

Oliviu Felecan, Alina Bugheșiu

Naming Policies, Trends and Practices in the Context of Multiculturalism

Multicultural aspects of names and naming in the united states.

• Frank Nuessel

Hamburguesas and Enchiritos: How Multicultural Are American Fast-Food Names?

• Laurel Sutton

Policy of Name and Naming: Multicultural Aspects

• Justyna B. Walkowiak

Multicultural Aspects of Names and Naming in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church: The Thematic Group “the Names of New Saints”

• Halyna Matsyuk

Multicultural Aspects of Name and Naming in Russian Post-Soviet Streetscapes

• Marina Golomidova

Multicultural and National Anthroponymicon: Orthodox Name Versus Neo-pagan Pseudonym

• Sergey Goryaev, Olga Olshvang

Multicultural Influences on Russian Nicknaming Practices

• Anna Tsepkova

Multicultural Patronymic Landscapes of Naming in Russia, France, Germany, Great Britain and Romania

• Eugen Schochenmaier

Transylvania—An Anthroponymic Perspective

• Oliviu Felecan

Multicultural Aspects of Names and Naming in Hungarian Anthroponymy

• Mariann Slíz

Multicultural Aspects of Name and Naming in Pre-conquest Times and Catholic and Protestant Churches from Hungary: A Comparative Perspective

• Andrea Bölcskei

Multicultural Features in Scandinavian Toponymy

• Staffan Nyström

Multicultural Aspects of Name and Naming in Contemporary Italian Anthroponymy

• Davide Astori

Multicultural Aspects of Name and Naming in a Postcolonial World

• Marie A. Rieger

Onomastic Multiculturalism: Anthroponymy and Toponymy in South Africa

• Bertie Neethling

Multicultural Aspects of Names and Naming in the Arab World

• Wafa Abu Hatab

The Formation of a Multicultural Society in Japan: An Observation of the Names of Shops and Signboards

• Kazuko Tanabe, Yuan Jiang
• socio-onomastics
• critical toponymy
• place names
• brand names
• anthroponymy
• multilingualism
• globalization

About this book

This edited book examines names and naming policies, trends and practices in a variety of multicultural contexts across America, Europe, Africa and Asia. In the first part of the book, the authors take theoretical and practical approaches to the study of names and naming in these settings, exploring legal, societal, political and other factors. In the second part of the book, the authors explore ways in which names mirror and contribute to the construction of identity in areas defined by multiculturalism. The book takes an interdisciplinary approach to onomastics, and it will be of interest to scholars working across a number of fields, including linguistics, sociology, anthropology, politics, geography, history, religion and cultural studies. 

“This volume is a focused collection of papers by scholars from a wide range of countries and disciplinary backgrounds, all addressing the questions of how stable naming practices are maintained and yet open to transformation. The book is timely and rich. The uniting concept of multiculturalism is politically controversial, and this diverse collection does justice to the complexity of the issues surrounding it in a world problematizing the legacy and the continuing influence of Romantic nationalism on the one hand and internationalism and globality on the other.” (Richard Coates, Bristol Centre for Linguistics, University of the West of England, UK) 

“The editors are well-known onomastic scholars, who have achieved a lot during their relatively short scientific career. The contributors come from 17 countries all over the world, and are the best-known specialists in the field, with world-renowned achievements. Their studies offer an interdisciplinary and multicultural perspective on the research of name and naming in various geographical spaces and cultural and historical contexts.” (Milan Harvalík, Ľ. Štúr Institute of Linguistics of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Slovakia) 

“The book projects the comprehensive concept of multiculturalism onto various name categories and exemplifies this relation by most impressive case studies. A group of outstanding onomasticians succeeds in demonstrating that in multicultural situations the general role of names as markers of personal and group identity becomes even more significant. The book considerably augments not only onomastics, but cultural studies in general.” (Peter Jordan, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Co-chair, Joint ICA/IGU Commission on Toponymy)

Editors and Affiliations

About the editors.

​Oliviu Felecan  is a Professor in the Faculty of Letters at the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

Alina Bugheșiu  is a Lecturer in the Faculty of Letters at the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

Bibliographic Information

Book Title : Names and Naming

Book Subtitle : Multicultural Aspects

Editors : Oliviu Felecan, Alina Bugheșiu

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-73186-1

Publisher : Palgrave Macmillan Cham

eBook Packages : Social Sciences , Social Sciences (R0)

Copyright Information : The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2021

Hardcover ISBN : 978-3-030-73185-4 Published: 20 August 2021

Softcover ISBN : 978-3-030-73188-5 Published: 21 August 2022

eBook ISBN : 978-3-030-73186-1 Published: 19 August 2021

Edition Number : 1

Number of Pages : XXX, 490

Number of Illustrations : 27 b/w illustrations

Topics : Sociolinguistics , Social Anthropology , Social History , Cultural Geography , Political Science

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The cognitive psychology and neuroscience of naming people

Affiliation.

• 1 Psychology and Neuroscience of Cognition Research Unit, University of Liège, 4000 Liège, Belgium. Electronic address: [email protected].
• PMID: 29038031
• DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2017.10.008

The use of proper names enables us to designate entities, including people, at a very specific level of categorization: the unique entity or the individual. The paper presents a general overview of psychological/cognitive and neuroscientific studies that have compared the production of proper names, in particular people's names, with the production of common nouns during the last thirty years. The search for specific brain correlates of proper naming included single-case and group studies of patients with brain lesions, and studies utilizing functional neuroimaging or brain electrical stimulation with healthy participants. These studies have led neuroscientists to hypothesize that the recall of proper names involves a rather complex network including mainly left frontal and temporal regions. Behavioural evidence supports the view that proper names are more difficult to recall than common names, and scientists have proposed different explanations for this relative difficulty. Finally, several new directions for future research are proposed to improve our understanding of both cognitive processes and their brain correlates involved during proper name recall.

Keywords: Left temporal pole; Person memory; Proper names; Unique entities.

Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Publication types

• Brain / physiology*
• Linguistics
• Neurosciences*
• Psychology*

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Naming - Culture - Identity. The Semantic Structure of Names.

2020, Naming, Identity and Tourism

Proper names are primarily linguistic elements with an identifying role. Such a function is based on the linguistic and conceptual knowledge of the name and the object denoted by it. Beyond their identifying role, however, the semantic structure and function of proper names have other important elements also. Of these, my paper addresses the cultural and identitydenoting functions of names in more detail. The cultural meaning, cultural function derives from the fact that the individuals become familiar with names as part of culture, during their social-linguistic socialization. As a result of this, name competence emerges that includes the most fundamental cultural, pragmatic, semantic, and morphological knowledge on names. Thus in relation to names, rich and diverse knowledge is accumulated about the world, society, other people, and ourselves alike. Language and culture also play a fundamental role in the definition of human (individual and collective) identity. Names that exhibit linguistic and cultural constraints also play an important role in this identity formation. Thus the identitydenoting and identity-building roles of proper names are closely associated with the cultural meaning of names.

Related Papers

Niyi Akinnaso

Meike Watzlawik

Paper presented at the 10th World Congress of Semiotics, La Coruna, Spain. Names can be considered (semantic) labels which both identify and distinguish an individual from other individuals. These labels and the process with which they are given vary widely from culture to culture. Whereas in today's Western societies children are mostly named based on parents' personal criteria, usually choosing a name from a more or less established cultural heritage, following specific rules is more prevalent in other societies. These rules can be related to facts such as: the totems and families trees, the date and time of birth, or events that happened during or after pregnancy. Anthropologists have investigated these naming systems and naming in general for a long time and in much more detail than psychologists have. For psychologists, one interesting subject to investigate is the link between a person’s name and his or her identity. Names stand for the person (object) and trigger associations with that person. Names can thus be interpreted as signs in the semiotic context. On the one hand, these signs have a long established meaning expected to define or somehow impregnate the person carrying them – even if they are created ad hoc, since these creations also follow a conventional system. On the other hand, the new object the sign stands for will in turn enrich or transform the sign itself. In some cases, however, the person might not at all identify with the sign and its established meaning, so that he or she chooses to alter the sign. We assume that differences in the naming process followed by different families in different cultures influence the degree with which individuals identify with their first names. With the help of an online questionnaire that was translated in Chinese, Korean, German, Portuguese, Spanish, and English, we will test this and further assumptions and present first results at the conference. In the discussion, we will try to link identification processes to semiotic processes in which the name, as described above, is considered a sign that is recognized and interpreted by the person and his or her environment.

In: Names in daily life. Proceedings of the XXIV ICOS International congress of onomastic sciences. September 5–9, 2011, Barcelona, Spain.

Emilia Aldrin

Psychology in Society

Danilo Silva Guimarães

Names can be considered (semantic) labels which both identify and distinguish an individual from other individuals. These labels and the process with which they are given vary widely from culture to culture. For psychologists, one interesting subject to investigate is the link between a person’s name and his or her identity. Names stand for the person (object) and trigger associations with that person. Names can thus be interpreted as signs in the semiotic context. With the help of an online survey, we examined whether differences in the naming process followed by different families in different countries (South Korea, Brazil, Germany) influence the degree with which individuals identify with their first names. Results show that this is the case, and that also the nicknames serve different functions in the three countries examined. Possible explanations for the differences between the three subsamples are discussed.

Tamás Farkas

The existence of the category of proper names is as old as human language, and it can be considered a linguistic and anthropological universal. Names can play several important roles in the life of society, the givers, bearers and users of names. One of these functions is to create and express personal identity. Using names also expresses the naming community's knowledge about the world, familiarity instead of strangeness, the existence of personal connections. Name giving can be an act of humanising, or expressing ownership over the human environment. Names can be given to anybody and anything who/that can be identified and differentiated as an individual, and is considered important in any way for humans. However, there are more and less typical categories of named entities. Namelessness (or anonymity) can primarily (but not exclusively) also be looked at through these considerations. The questions listed here are illustrated in the paper by a wide range of examples for using and giving (or not giving) proper names, in a way that also portrays humans as homo nominans.

Names can be considered (semantic) labels which both identify and distinguish an individual from other individuals. These labels and the process with which they are given vary widely from culture to culture. For psychologists, one interesting subject to investigate is the link between a person's name and his or her identity. Names stand for the person (object) and trigger associations with that person. Names can thus be interpreted as signs in the semiotic context. With the help of an online survey, we examined whether differences in the naming process followed by different families in different countries (South Korea, Brazil, Germany) influence the degree with which individuals identify with their first names. Results show that this is the case, and that also the nicknames serve different functions in the three countries examined. Possible explanations for the differences between the three subsamples are discussed.

Ebowusum Chinedu Nwachinemere

ABSTRACT Languages are those words or signs through which people express or communicate their thoughts and feelings to each other, hence the saying "from the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks". It is one of the veritable and effective means of communications. The advancement of man to enlightenment was immensely assisted when he discovered or developed the art of communicating his thoughts through words and signs. Through language, man was able to define himself or, at least, describe things. There are different naming systems or cultures among people. Igbo people basically are known for naming their children according to circumstances such as birth, prayer, well wishes, blood hood, heroism, celebration, politics, appreciation, religion, strength, courage, hope, love, beauty, joy, suffering or tribulation, faith, relevance and so on. That is why they have names that communicate one or more of these messages. There is a deep connection between naming cultures, identity, self esteem, value, personality on the one hand and racism, pride, poverty on the other hand. Racism is a preference for one's race over others. It is a feeling of proud or perception of one's race as superior to others. It is a belief in one's values and identity as superior to others. Racism is strongly connected with values, identity and psychological self esteem. Values are the worth of something. Identities value or special qualities that distinguishes something from another. Personality is those qualities or characteristics (traits) that defines a person. Self esteem is confident in one's self drawn from his special qualities and values. Proud is an egoistic projection of one's values. There are thin lines differentiating racism,self esteem,value, identity,proud and personality. Self esteem, value, identity, race and personality interrelates such that one you lack one, you lack all. The greatest manifestation of these is found in language and naming system. Language is a medium of communication of one's feelings, perception, personality, value identity and self esteem. Naming system is the cultural pattern of assigning values and identities through names. In African traditions, names have cultural meanings which are deeply rooted in values and identities. It communicates qualities and circumstances surrounding one's birth such as heroism, prayer, contrition, hope, despair, acceptance, rejection, heritage, dynasty, wisdom, philosophy, justice, equality, beauty etc. When you lack value, identity, personality and self esteem, you become worthless. There is a saying that people are addressed how they dressed. In this world nobody will respect you the respect you give yourself. For example, the concept bastard is associated with someone who doesn't have a verifiable root (father). Black people have become the bastard who has lost verifiable roots. There lack of identity and self esteem is the reason other races look down on them like bastards. If a black man finds himself in Europe, he tries to become more European than Europeans. If he learns English, he tries to be more English than English people. He prefers alien things to native things. This article is underscores some of the identical crisis of black people as regards identity and self preservation through an understanding of naming system and the cultural significance.

RESEARCH REVIEW International Journal of Multidisciplinary

suresh kumar

Every human being on earth is designated with a name. This eventually means that the crores of people comprising both men and women have their own names, and put together it is an endless number. With such a multitude of names, compiling a vast repository is rather impossible to conceive. Among the enormous variations, there are resemblances although very few are exactly the same in all respects. Although used as a practice to establish identity since time immemorial, one could see some emerging patterns that distinguish traditional names from modern names. What is most astonishing is that names have meanings. These meanings signify certain objects, characters, features, or symbolic representations of notions. This points to the need for an effort to bring out the basis of such vast nomenclature. Naming looks simple but it evolves out of a careful choice and complex process involving search, screening, selection and rejection, acceptance and approval, and finally decision on suitability. This happens slowly and silently. Name is assigned at the babyhood or early childhood. It becomes a person's lasting identity never to be erased by time. The thesaurus of nomenclature opens up a voracious glossary of names. It may be country-specific or region-specific, religion-specific or culturespecific. It has linkages with the educational and occupational class, ancestry and lineage, culture of the group, kinship, fashion, auspicious, or fantasy. Names that are universal transcend the boundaries of region and religion. This study is an attempt to examine the process of nomenclature as a universally accepted practice based on an extensive sample of over two thousand names spread over three generations from among the Hindu population of Kerala. The paper also aims to delineate various typologies by attempting a classification. Although the study was conducted among the Hindus in Kerala, the findings largely apply to the whole of the country.

Mark Tschaepe

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13.1 Formatting a Research Paper

Learning objectives.

• Identify the major components of a research paper written using American Psychological Association (APA) style.
• Apply general APA style and formatting conventions in a research paper.

In this chapter, you will learn how to use APA style , the documentation and formatting style followed by the American Psychological Association, as well as MLA style , from the Modern Language Association. There are a few major formatting styles used in academic texts, including AMA, Chicago, and Turabian:

• AMA (American Medical Association) for medicine, health, and biological sciences
• APA (American Psychological Association) for education, psychology, and the social sciences
• Chicago—a common style used in everyday publications like magazines, newspapers, and books
• MLA (Modern Language Association) for English, literature, arts, and humanities
• Turabian—another common style designed for its universal application across all subjects and disciplines

While all the formatting and citation styles have their own use and applications, in this chapter we focus our attention on the two styles you are most likely to use in your academic studies: APA and MLA.

If you find that the rules of proper source documentation are difficult to keep straight, you are not alone. Writing a good research paper is, in and of itself, a major intellectual challenge. Having to follow detailed citation and formatting guidelines as well may seem like just one more task to add to an already-too-long list of requirements.

Following these guidelines, however, serves several important purposes. First, it signals to your readers that your paper should be taken seriously as a student’s contribution to a given academic or professional field; it is the literary equivalent of wearing a tailored suit to a job interview. Second, it shows that you respect other people’s work enough to give them proper credit for it. Finally, it helps your reader find additional materials if he or she wishes to learn more about your topic.

Furthermore, producing a letter-perfect APA-style paper need not be burdensome. Yes, it requires careful attention to detail. However, you can simplify the process if you keep these broad guidelines in mind:

• Work ahead whenever you can. Chapter 11 “Writing from Research: What Will I Learn?” includes tips for keeping track of your sources early in the research process, which will save time later on.
• Get it right the first time. Apply APA guidelines as you write, so you will not have much to correct during the editing stage. Again, putting in a little extra time early on can save time later.
• Use the resources available to you. In addition to the guidelines provided in this chapter, you may wish to consult the APA website at http://www.apa.org or the Purdue University Online Writing lab at http://owl.english.purdue.edu , which regularly updates its online style guidelines.

General Formatting Guidelines

This chapter provides detailed guidelines for using the citation and formatting conventions developed by the American Psychological Association, or APA. Writers in disciplines as diverse as astrophysics, biology, psychology, and education follow APA style. The major components of a paper written in APA style are listed in the following box.

These are the major components of an APA-style paper:

Body, which includes the following:

• Headings and, if necessary, subheadings to organize the content
• In-text citations of research sources
• References page

All these components must be saved in one document, not as separate documents.

The title page of your paper includes the following information:

• Title of the paper
• Author’s name
• Name of the institution with which the author is affiliated
• Header at the top of the page with the paper title (in capital letters) and the page number (If the title is lengthy, you may use a shortened form of it in the header.)

List the first three elements in the order given in the previous list, centered about one third of the way down from the top of the page. Use the headers and footers tool of your word-processing program to add the header, with the title text at the left and the page number in the upper-right corner. Your title page should look like the following example.

The next page of your paper provides an abstract , or brief summary of your findings. An abstract does not need to be provided in every paper, but an abstract should be used in papers that include a hypothesis. A good abstract is concise—about one hundred fifty to two hundred fifty words—and is written in an objective, impersonal style. Your writing voice will not be as apparent here as in the body of your paper. When writing the abstract, take a just-the-facts approach, and summarize your research question and your findings in a few sentences.

In Chapter 12 “Writing a Research Paper” , you read a paper written by a student named Jorge, who researched the effectiveness of low-carbohydrate diets. Read Jorge’s abstract. Note how it sums up the major ideas in his paper without going into excessive detail.

Write an abstract summarizing your paper. Briefly introduce the topic, state your findings, and sum up what conclusions you can draw from your research. Use the word count feature of your word-processing program to make sure your abstract does not exceed one hundred fifty words.

Depending on your field of study, you may sometimes write research papers that present extensive primary research, such as your own experiment or survey. In your abstract, summarize your research question and your findings, and briefly indicate how your study relates to prior research in the field.

Margins, Pagination, and Headings

APA style requirements also address specific formatting concerns, such as margins, pagination, and heading styles, within the body of the paper. Review the following APA guidelines.

Use these general guidelines to format the paper:

• Set the top, bottom, and side margins of your paper at 1 inch.
• Use double-spaced text throughout your paper.
• Use a standard font, such as Times New Roman or Arial, in a legible size (10- to 12-point).
• Use continuous pagination throughout the paper, including the title page and the references section. Page numbers appear flush right within your header.
• Section headings and subsection headings within the body of your paper use different types of formatting depending on the level of information you are presenting. Additional details from Jorge’s paper are provided.

Begin formatting the final draft of your paper according to APA guidelines. You may work with an existing document or set up a new document if you choose. Include the following:

• Your title page
• The abstract you created in Note 13.8 “Exercise 1”
• Correct headers and page numbers for your title page and abstract

APA style uses section headings to organize information, making it easy for the reader to follow the writer’s train of thought and to know immediately what major topics are covered. Depending on the length and complexity of the paper, its major sections may also be divided into subsections, sub-subsections, and so on. These smaller sections, in turn, use different heading styles to indicate different levels of information. In essence, you are using headings to create a hierarchy of information.

The following heading styles used in APA formatting are listed in order of greatest to least importance:

• Section headings use centered, boldface type. Headings use title case, with important words in the heading capitalized.
• Subsection headings use left-aligned, boldface type. Headings use title case.
• The third level uses left-aligned, indented, boldface type. Headings use a capital letter only for the first word, and they end in a period.
• The fourth level follows the same style used for the previous level, but the headings are boldfaced and italicized.
• The fifth level follows the same style used for the previous level, but the headings are italicized and not boldfaced.

Visually, the hierarchy of information is organized as indicated in Table 13.1 “Section Headings” .

Table 13.1 Section Headings

A college research paper may not use all the heading levels shown in Table 13.1 “Section Headings” , but you are likely to encounter them in academic journal articles that use APA style. For a brief paper, you may find that level 1 headings suffice. Longer or more complex papers may need level 2 headings or other lower-level headings to organize information clearly. Use your outline to craft your major section headings and determine whether any subtopics are substantial enough to require additional levels of headings.

Working with the document you developed in Note 13.11 “Exercise 2” , begin setting up the heading structure of the final draft of your research paper according to APA guidelines. Include your title and at least two to three major section headings, and follow the formatting guidelines provided above. If your major sections should be broken into subsections, add those headings as well. Use your outline to help you.

Because Jorge used only level 1 headings, his Exercise 3 would look like the following:

Citation Guidelines

In-text citations.

Throughout the body of your paper, include a citation whenever you quote or paraphrase material from your research sources. As you learned in Chapter 11 “Writing from Research: What Will I Learn?” , the purpose of citations is twofold: to give credit to others for their ideas and to allow your reader to follow up and learn more about the topic if desired. Your in-text citations provide basic information about your source; each source you cite will have a longer entry in the references section that provides more detailed information.

In-text citations must provide the name of the author or authors and the year the source was published. (When a given source does not list an individual author, you may provide the source title or the name of the organization that published the material instead.) When directly quoting a source, it is also required that you include the page number where the quote appears in your citation.

This information may be included within the sentence or in a parenthetical reference at the end of the sentence, as in these examples.

Epstein (2010) points out that “junk food cannot be considered addictive in the same way that we think of psychoactive drugs as addictive” (p. 137).

Here, the writer names the source author when introducing the quote and provides the publication date in parentheses after the author’s name. The page number appears in parentheses after the closing quotation marks and before the period that ends the sentence.

Addiction researchers caution that “junk food cannot be considered addictive in the same way that we think of psychoactive drugs as addictive” (Epstein, 2010, p. 137).

Here, the writer provides a parenthetical citation at the end of the sentence that includes the author’s name, the year of publication, and the page number separated by commas. Again, the parenthetical citation is placed after the closing quotation marks and before the period at the end of the sentence.

As noted in the book Junk Food, Junk Science (Epstein, 2010, p. 137), “junk food cannot be considered addictive in the same way that we think of psychoactive drugs as addictive.”

Here, the writer chose to mention the source title in the sentence (an optional piece of information to include) and followed the title with a parenthetical citation. Note that the parenthetical citation is placed before the comma that signals the end of the introductory phrase.

David Epstein’s book Junk Food, Junk Science (2010) pointed out that “junk food cannot be considered addictive in the same way that we think of psychoactive drugs as addictive” (p. 137).

Another variation is to introduce the author and the source title in your sentence and include the publication date and page number in parentheses within the sentence or at the end of the sentence. As long as you have included the essential information, you can choose the option that works best for that particular sentence and source.

Citing a book with a single author is usually a straightforward task. Of course, your research may require that you cite many other types of sources, such as books or articles with more than one author or sources with no individual author listed. You may also need to cite sources available in both print and online and nonprint sources, such as websites and personal interviews. Chapter 13 “APA and MLA Documentation and Formatting” , Section 13.2 “Citing and Referencing Techniques” and Section 13.3 “Creating a References Section” provide extensive guidelines for citing a variety of source types.

Writing at Work

APA is just one of several different styles with its own guidelines for documentation, formatting, and language usage. Depending on your field of interest, you may be exposed to additional styles, such as the following:

• MLA style. Determined by the Modern Languages Association and used for papers in literature, languages, and other disciplines in the humanities.
• Chicago style. Outlined in the Chicago Manual of Style and sometimes used for papers in the humanities and the sciences; many professional organizations use this style for publications as well.
• Associated Press (AP) style. Used by professional journalists.

References List

The brief citations included in the body of your paper correspond to the more detailed citations provided at the end of the paper in the references section. In-text citations provide basic information—the author’s name, the publication date, and the page number if necessary—while the references section provides more extensive bibliographical information. Again, this information allows your reader to follow up on the sources you cited and do additional reading about the topic if desired.

The specific format of entries in the list of references varies slightly for different source types, but the entries generally include the following information:

• The name(s) of the author(s) or institution that wrote the source
• The year of publication and, where applicable, the exact date of publication
• The full title of the source
• For books, the city of publication
• For articles or essays, the name of the periodical or book in which the article or essay appears
• For magazine and journal articles, the volume number, issue number, and pages where the article appears
• For sources on the web, the URL where the source is located

The references page is double spaced and lists entries in alphabetical order by the author’s last name. If an entry continues for more than one line, the second line and each subsequent line are indented five spaces. Review the following example. ( Chapter 13 “APA and MLA Documentation and Formatting” , Section 13.3 “Creating a References Section” provides extensive guidelines for formatting reference entries for different types of sources.)

In APA style, book and article titles are formatted in sentence case, not title case. Sentence case means that only the first word is capitalized, along with any proper nouns.

Key Takeaways

• Following proper citation and formatting guidelines helps writers ensure that their work will be taken seriously, give proper credit to other authors for their work, and provide valuable information to readers.
• Working ahead and taking care to cite sources correctly the first time are ways writers can save time during the editing stage of writing a research paper.
• APA papers usually include an abstract that concisely summarizes the paper.
• APA papers use a specific headings structure to provide a clear hierarchy of information.
• In APA papers, in-text citations usually include the name(s) of the author(s) and the year of publication.
• In-text citations correspond to entries in the references section, which provide detailed bibliographical information about a source.

Writing for Success Copyright © 2015 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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How to Make a Research Paper Title with Examples

What is a research paper title and why does it matter?

A research paper title summarizes the aim and purpose of your research study. Making a title for your research is one of the most important decisions when writing an article to publish in journals. The research title is the first thing that journal editors and reviewers see when they look at your paper and the only piece of information that fellow researchers will see in a database or search engine query. Good titles that are concise and contain all the relevant terms have been shown to increase citation counts and Altmetric scores .

Therefore, when you title research work, make sure it captures all of the relevant aspects of your study, including the specific topic and problem being investigated. It also should present these elements in a way that is accessible and will captivate readers. Follow these steps to learn how to make a good research title for your work.

How to Make a Research Paper Title in 5 Steps

You might wonder how you are supposed to pick a title from all the content that your manuscript contains—how are you supposed to choose? What will make your research paper title come up in search engines and what will make the people in your field read it? 

In a nutshell, your research title should accurately capture what you have done, it should sound interesting to the people who work on the same or a similar topic, and it should contain the important title keywords that other researchers use when looking for literature in databases. To make the title writing process as simple as possible, we have broken it down into 5 simple steps.

Step 1: Answer some key questions about your research paper

What does your paper seek to answer and what does it accomplish? Try to answer these questions as briefly as possible. You can create these questions by going through each section of your paper and finding the MOST relevant information to make a research title.

Step 2: Identify research study keywords

Now that you have answers to your research questions, find the most important parts of these responses and make these your study keywords. Note that you should only choose the most important terms for your keywords–journals usually request anywhere from 3 to 8 keywords maximum.

Step 3: Research title writing: use these keywords

“We employed a case study of 60 liver transplant patients around the US aged 20-50 years to assess how waiting list volume affects the outcomes of liver transplantation in patients; results indicate a positive correlation between increased waiting list volume and negative prognosis after the transplant procedure.”

The sentence above is clearly much too long for a research paper title. This is why you will trim and polish your title in the next two steps.

Step 4: Create a working research paper title

To create a working title, remove elements that make it a complete “sentence” but keep everything that is important to what the study is about. Delete all unnecessary and redundant words that are not central to the study or that researchers would most likely not use in a database search.

“ We employed a case study of 60 liver transplant patients around the US aged 20-50 years to assess how the waiting list volume affects the outcome of liver transplantation in patients ; results indicate a positive correlation between increased waiting list volume and a negative prognosis after transplant procedure ”

Now shift some words around for proper syntax and rephrase it a bit to shorten the length and make it leaner and more natural. What you are left with is:

“A case study of 60 liver transplant patients around the US aged 20-50 years assessing the impact of waiting list volume on outcome of transplantation and showing a positive correlation between increased waiting list volume and a negative prognosis” (Word Count: 38)

This text is getting closer to what we want in a research title, which is just the most important information. But note that the word count for this working title is still 38 words, whereas the average length of published journal article titles is 16 words or fewer. Therefore, we should eliminate some words and phrases that are not essential to this title.

Step 5: Remove any nonessential words and phrases from your title

Because the number of patients studied and the exact outcome are not the most essential parts of this paper, remove these elements first:

 “A case study of 60 liver transplant patients around the US aged 20-50 years assessing the impact of waiting list volume on outcomes of transplantation and showing a positive correlation between increased waiting list volume and a negative prognosis” (Word Count: 19)

In addition, the methods used in a study are not usually the most searched-for keywords in databases and represent additional details that you may want to remove to make your title leaner. So what is left is:

“Assessing the impact of waiting list volume on outcome and prognosis in liver transplantation patients” (Word Count: 15)

In this final version of the title, one can immediately recognize the subject and what objectives the study aims to achieve. Note that the most important terms appear at the beginning and end of the title: “Assessing,” which is the main action of the study, is placed at the beginning; and “liver transplantation patients,” the specific subject of the study, is placed at the end.

This will aid significantly in your research paper title being found in search engines and database queries, which means that a lot more researchers will be able to locate your article once it is published. In fact, a 2014 review of more than 150,000 papers submitted to the UK’s Research Excellence Framework (REF) database found the style of a paper’s title impacted the number of citations it would typically receive. In most disciplines, articles with shorter, more concise titles yielded more citations.

Adding a Research Paper Subtitle

If your title might require a subtitle to provide more immediate details about your methodology or sample, you can do this by adding this information after a colon:

“ : a case study of US adult patients ages 20-25”

If we abide strictly by our word count rule this may not be necessary or recommended. But every journal has its own standard formatting and style guidelines for research paper titles, so it is a good idea to be aware of the specific journal author instructions , not just when you write the manuscript but also to decide how to create a good title for it.

Research Paper Title Examples

The title examples in the following table illustrate how a title can be interesting but incomplete, complete by uninteresting, complete and interesting but too informal in tone, or some other combination of these. A good research paper title should meet all the requirements in the four columns below.

Tips on Formulating a Good Research Paper Title

In addition to the steps given above, there are a few other important things you want to keep in mind when it comes to how to write a research paper title, regarding formatting, word count, and content:

• Write the title after you’ve written your paper and abstract
• Include all of the essential terms in your paper
• Keep it short and to the point (~16 words or fewer)
• Avoid unnecessary jargon and abbreviations
• Use keywords that capture the content of your paper
• Never include a period at the end—your title is NOT a sentence

Research Paper Writing Resources

We hope this article has been helpful in teaching you how to craft your research paper title. But you might still want to dig deeper into different journal title formats and categories that might be more suitable for specific article types or need help with writing a cover letter for your manuscript submission.

In addition to getting English proofreading services , including paper editing services , before submission to journals, be sure to visit our academic resources papers. Here you can find dozens of articles on manuscript writing, from drafting an outline to finding a target journal to submit to.

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Research Paper Title – Writing Guide and Example

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Research Paper Title

Research Paper Title is the name or heading that summarizes the main theme or topic of a research paper . It serves as the first point of contact between the reader and the paper, providing an initial impression of the content, purpose, and scope of the research . A well-crafted research paper title should be concise, informative, and engaging, accurately reflecting the key elements of the study while also capturing the reader’s attention and interest. The title should be clear and easy to understand, and it should accurately convey the main focus and scope of the research paper.

Examples of Research Paper Title

Here are some Good Examples of Research Paper Title:

• “Investigating the Relationship Between Sleep Duration and Academic Performance Among College Students”
• “The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Employment: A Systematic Review”
• “The Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Interventions for Anxiety: A Meta-Analysis”
• “Exploring the Effects of Social Support on Mental Health in Patients with Chronic Illness”
• “Assessing the Effectiveness of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Depression: A Randomized Controlled Trial”
• “The Impact of Social Media Influencers on Consumer Behavior: A Systematic Review”
• “Investigating the Link Between Personality Traits and Leadership Effectiveness”
• “The Effect of Parental Incarceration on Child Development: A Longitudinal Study”
• “Exploring the Relationship Between Cultural Intelligence and Cross-Cultural Adaptation: A Meta-Analysis”
• “Assessing the Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for Chronic Pain Management”.
• “The Effects of Social Media on Mental Health: A Meta-Analysis”
• “The Impact of Climate Change on Global Crop Yields: A Longitudinal Study”
• “Exploring the Relationship between Parental Involvement and Academic Achievement in Elementary School Students”
• “The Ethics of Genetic Editing: A Review of Current Research and Implications for Society”
• “Understanding the Role of Gender in Leadership: A Comparative Study of Male and Female CEOs”
• “The Effect of Exercise on Cognitive Function in Older Adults: A Randomized Controlled Trial”
• “The Impacts of COVID-19 on Mental Health: A Cross-Cultural Comparison”
• “Assessing the Effectiveness of Online Learning Platforms: A Case Study of Coursera”
• “Exploring the Link between Employee Engagement and Organizational Performance”
• “The Effects of Income Inequality on Social Mobility: A Comparative Analysis of OECD Countries”
• “Exploring the Relationship Between Social Media Use and Mental Health in Adolescents”
• “The Impact of Climate Change on Crop Yield: A Case Study of Maize Production in Sub-Saharan Africa”
• “Examining the Effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Anxiety Disorders: A Meta-Analysis”
• “An Analysis of the Relationship Between Employee Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment”
• “Assessing the Impacts of Wilderness Areas on Local Economies: A Case Study of Yellowstone National Park”
• “The Role of Parental Involvement in Early Childhood Education: A Review of the Literature”
• “Investigating the Effects of Technology on Learning in Higher Education”
• “The Use of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare: Opportunities and Challenges”
• “A Study of the Relationship Between Personality Traits and Leadership Styles in Business Organizations”.

How to choose Research Paper Title

Choosing a research paper title is an important step in the research process. A good title can attract readers and convey the essence of your research in a concise and clear manner. Here are some tips on how to choose a research paper title:

• Be clear and concise: A good title should convey the main idea of your research in a clear and concise manner. Avoid using jargon or technical language that may be confusing to readers.
• Use keywords: Including keywords in your title can help readers find your paper when searching for related topics. Use specific, descriptive terms that accurately describe your research.
• Be descriptive: A descriptive title can help readers understand what your research is about. Use adjectives and adverbs to convey the main ideas of your research.
• Consider the audience : Think about the audience for your paper and choose a title that will appeal to them. If your paper is aimed at a specialized audience, you may want to use technical terms or jargon in your title.
• Avoid being too general or too specific : A title that is too general may not convey the specific focus of your research, while a title that is too specific may not be of interest to a broader audience. Strive for a title that accurately reflects the focus of your research without being too narrow or too broad.
• Make it interesting : A title that is interesting or provocative can capture the attention of readers and draw them into your research. Use humor, wordplay, or other creative techniques to make your title stand out.
• Seek feedback: Ask colleagues or advisors for feedback on your title. They may be able to offer suggestions or identify potential problems that you hadn’t considered.

Purpose of Research Paper Title

The research paper title serves several important purposes, including:

• Identifying the subject matter : The title of a research paper should clearly and accurately identify the topic or subject matter that the paper addresses. This helps readers quickly understand what the paper is about.
• Catching the reader’s attention : A well-crafted title can grab the reader’s attention and make them interested in reading the paper. This is particularly important in academic settings where there may be many papers on the same topic.
• Providing context: The title can provide important context for the research paper by indicating the specific area of study, the research methods used, or the key findings.
• Communicating the scope of the paper: A good title can give readers an idea of the scope and depth of the research paper. This can help them decide if the paper is relevant to their interests or research.
• Indicating the research question or hypothesis : The title can often indicate the research question or hypothesis that the paper addresses, which can help readers understand the focus of the research and the main argument or conclusion of the paper.

Advantages of Research Paper Title

The title of a research paper is an important component that can have several advantages, including:

• Capturing the reader’s attention : A well-crafted research paper title can grab the reader’s attention and encourage them to read further. A captivating title can also increase the visibility of the paper and attract more readers.
• Providing a clear indication of the paper’s focus: A well-written research paper title should clearly convey the main focus and purpose of the study. This helps potential readers quickly determine whether the paper is relevant to their interests.
• Improving discoverability: A descriptive title that includes relevant keywords can improve the discoverability of the research paper in search engines and academic databases, making it easier for other researchers to find and cite.
• Enhancing credibility : A clear and concise title can enhance the credibility of the research and the author. A title that accurately reflects the content of the paper can increase the confidence readers have in the research findings.
• Facilitating communication: A well-written research paper title can facilitate communication among researchers, enabling them to quickly and easily identify relevant studies and engage in discussions related to the topic.
• Making the paper easier to remember : An engaging and memorable research paper title can help readers remember the paper and its findings. This can be especially important in fields where researchers are constantly inundated with new information and need to quickly recall important studies.
• Setting expectations: A good research paper title can set expectations for the reader and help them understand what the paper will cover. This can be especially important for readers who are unfamiliar with the topic or the research area.
• Guiding research: A well-crafted research paper title can also guide future research by highlighting gaps in the current literature or suggesting new areas for investigation.
• Demonstrating creativity: A creative research paper title can demonstrate the author’s creativity and originality, which can be appealing to readers and other researchers.

About the author

Muhammad Hassan

Researcher, Academic Writer, Web developer

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Empirical Tests of the Green Paradox for Climate Legislation

The Green Paradox posits that fossil fuel markets respond to changing expectations about climate legislation, which limits future consumption, by shifting consumption to the present through lower present-day prices. We demonstrate that oil futures responded negatively to daily changes in the prediction market's expectations that the Waxman-Markey bill — the US climate bill discussed in 2009-2010 — would pass. This effect is consistent across various maturities as the proposed legislation would reset the entire price and consumption path, unlike temporary supply or demand shocks that phase out over time. The bill’s passage would have increased current global oil consumption by 2-4%. Furthermore, a strengthening of climate policy, as measured by monthly variations in media salience regarding climate policy over the last four decades, and two court rulings signaling limited future fossil fuel use, were associated with negative abnormal oil future returns. Taken together, our findings confirm that restricting future fossil fuel use will accelerate current-day consumption.

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Title: kan: kolmogorov-arnold networks.

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