Celebrate Your Name Week (CYNW) is a holiday established in 1997 by
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
onomatology hobbyist Jerry Hill. Hill prescribed the first full week in March as a week for everyone worldwide to embrace and celebrate his or her name. It's also a week for appreciating names in general, and to have fun getting to know more about names. CYNW is a week set aside to participate in names-related hobbies, activities, and to take part in entertaining and enlightening names-related events. It's a week to develop and celebrate a true fondness for, and genuine appreciation of, names. There are seven components that comprise CYNW: Name Tag Day, Namesake Day, Name Fun Facts Day, Unique Names Day, Learn What Your Name Means Day, Middle Name Pride Day, and Genealogy Day.
Jerry Hill Presents Names
In his childhood, Hill heard of a child who was killed in his city. The child was also named Jerry Hill. This and other occurrences made Hill increasingly curious about names, and Hill's intrigue with names grew as years passed. To celebrate an ever-developing interest in names, Hill established a website, Jerry Hill Presents Names (JHPN), which became very popular and was embraced by the Public Broadcasting Service. The website's popularity forced it to expand twice due to heavy bandwidth. That website and its mission inspired Hill to establish Celebrate Your Name Week, now included yearly in the international publication Chase's Calendar of Annual Events.
As JHPN's audience climbed to over a quarter million visits, Hill's desire to transform visitors into participants resulted in the establishment of the CYNW website with its many ideas for all interested parties to participate in various names-related events and activities.
Examples of name celebrations
“Name days” are a primarily European practice of affixing a name to days of the year. Each day is celebrated by the people for whom that day is named. In many cultures there are first names associated with the days of the year. The associations between the days and the names came about for many reasons, but is mostly attributable to church held festivals for saints of that name on any given day. In certain countries a person's name day is celebrated with as much dedication as one would celebrate a birthday, and may include gifts for the honoree.
Cultural celebrations of names include, for Hindus, celebrating Namkaran Samskar (Naming Ceremony).
Namakaran, naming of a child, is the first real ceremony held for the newborn Hindu child. The ceremony is usually held on the 12th day of the child's birth, although, according to one custom, it can be held on any day after the tenth day, and before the first birthday. In a land where cultures are based on the celebration of names of a million gods, the conscious choice and control over personal names and identities is as essential as breathing.
[{{Cite web, url=http://festivals.iloveindia.com/rituals/naamkaran.html, title=Namkaran Samskar, Hindu Naming Ceremony, Hindu Rituals Customs, Naamkaran, Hindu Traditions]
See also
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-onym
The suffix ''-onym'' (from grc, ὄνυμα / name) is a bound morpheme, that is attached to the end of a root word, thus forming a new compound word that designates a particular ''class'' of names. In linguistic terminology, compound words ...
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American Name Society
The American Name Society (ANS) is a non-profit organization founded in 1951 to promote onomastics, the study of names and naming practices, both in the United States and abroad. The organization investigates cultural insights, settlement history, ...
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International Council of Onomastic Sciences (ICOS)
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Maiden name
When a person (traditionally the wife in many cultures) assumes the family name of their spouse, in some countries that name replaces the person's previous surname, which in the case of the wife is called the maiden name ("birth name" is also used ...
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Middle name
In various cultures, a middle name is a portion of a personal name that is written between the person's first given name and their surname.
A middle name is often abbreviated and is then called middle initial or just initial.
A person may be ...
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Moniker
A nickname is a substitute for the proper name of a familiar person, place or thing. Commonly used to express affection, a form of endearment, and sometimes amusement, it can also be used to express defamation of character. As a concept, it is ...
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Name
A name is a term used for identification by an external observer. They can identify a class or category of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a given context. The entity identified by a name is called its referent. A personal ...
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Name day
In Christianity, a name day is a tradition in many countries of Europe and the Americas, among other parts of Christendom. It consists of celebrating a day of the year that is associated with one's baptismal name, which is normatively that of a ...
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Names
A name is a term used for identification by an external observer. They can identify a class or category of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a given context. The entity identified by a name is called its referent. A persona ...
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Naming
Naming is assigning a name to something.
Naming may refer to:
* Naming (parliamentary procedure), a procedure in certain parliamentary bodies
* Naming ceremony, an event at which an infant is named
* Product naming, the discipline of deciding wha ...
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Nickname
A nickname is a substitute for the proper name of a familiar person, place or thing. Commonly used to express affection, a form of endearment, and sometimes amusement, it can also be used to express defamation of character. As a concept, it is ...
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Nomenclature
Nomenclature (, ) is a system of names or terms, or the rules for forming these terms in a particular field of arts or sciences. The principles of naming vary from the relatively informal naming conventions, conventions of everyday speech to the i ...
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Onomatology
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Pen names
A pen is a common writing tool, writing instrument that applies ink to a surface, usually paper, for writing or drawing. Early pens such as reed pens, quill pens, dip pens and ruling pens held a small amount of ink on a Nib (pen), nib or in a sm ...
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Username
A user is a person who utilizes a computer or Computer network, network Service (systems architecture), service.
A user often has a user account and is identified to the system by a username (or user name). Other terms for username includ ...
References
Awareness weeks in the United States
Name days
March observances