Name of the Year 2011

Cleveland Evans
2012 Names  
The seventh annual Name of the Year vote was held at the American Name Society meeting in Portland, Oregon on January 6, 2012. For 2010 we had twenty total nominees, tying the previous year's record. Seventeen nominations were made by email before the meeting, and three were nominated from the floor during the voting. There were originally five nominations for Trade Name of the Year. Arab Spring, the name of the pro-democracy movement in the Middle East, and Occupy Wall Street, the movement
more » ... ming to represent the 99 percent of non-wealthy Americans which began in New York City and spread to other places around the world, were two of the nominees. The group decided to remove these from the Trade Name designation and have a special vote on the "Political Event Name of the Year." Arab Spring won that title by one vote. The first of the three remaining Trade Name nominees was Aubagio, the name of a drug for multiple sclerosis marketed by Sanofi. The nominator said the name "epitomizes the growing trend among pharmaceutical brands for purely abstract names." 200 Stories Tall, the name of a production, direction, and editing firm in Chicago, was nominated because of the way it used visual imagery to imply the firm's towering ability to skillfully create stories for clients. Siri, the name of the voice-activated "digital assistant" on Apple's iPhone, was nominated for how this "exotic and enigmatic name" helped lead users to think of the technology's robotic female voice as a real woman. Siri won the prize as Trade Name of the Year with three-quarters of the votes. There were three nominees for Place Name of the Year. Fukushima, the site of the tsunami-crippled nuclear power plant in Japan, was nominated for its now iconic status alongside Chernobyl and Three Mile Island. Tahrir Square, the place in Cairo where demonstrations that led to the overthrow of the Mubarak regime were concentrated, and Zuccotti Park, the privately owned public space in lower Manhattan were Occupy Wall Street began, were the other two nominees. Fukushima won with 60 percent of the votes. Seven nominations for Personal Name of the Year had been received before the vote. These included Herman Cain, name of one of the Republican candidates for President; Casey Anthony, name of the defendant in a well-publicized murder trial; and Rebecca Black, the name of a singer whose YouTube rendition of the song "Friday" was widely derided by viewers. Steve Jobs, the name of the founder of Apple Computers who died in October, was nominated for the coincidental link
doi:10.1179/0027773812z.00000000016 fatcat:fwere345vna75aq3t7h6po6mze