Personified Columbia, from a World War I patriotic poster.

Columbia ( /kəˈlʌmbiə/; kə-LUM-bee-ə) is a historical and poetic name used for the United States of America and is also the name of its female personification. It has inspired the names of many persons, places, objects, institutions, and companies --such as the District of Columbia, the site of the national capital, and Columbia University. Columbia was largely displaced as the female symbol of the U.S. by the Statue of Liberty after about 1920.

Etymology[link]

Columbia is a New Latin toponym, combining a stem Columb- based on the surname of the explorer Christopher Columbus and an ending -ia, common in Latin names of countries (e.g. Britannia "Britain", Gallia "Gaul"). The meaning is therefore "Land of Columbus."

History[link]

Columbia wearing a warship bearing the words "World Power" as her "Easter bonnet" (cover of "Puck", April 6, 1901).

The name Columbia for "America" (in the sense of "European colonies in the New World") first appeared in 1738^[1][2] in the weekly publication of the debates of the British Parliament in Edward Cave's The Gentleman's Magazine. Publication of Parliamentary debates was technically illegal, so the debates were issued under the thin disguise of Reports of the Debates of the Senate of Lilliput, and fictitious names were used for most individuals and placenames found in the record. Most of these were transparent anagrams or similar distortions of the real names; some few were taken directly from Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels; and a few others were classical or neoclassical in style. Such were Ierne for Ireland, Iberia for Spain, Noveborac for New York (from Eboracum, the Roman name for York), and Columbia for America—at the time used in the sense of "European colonies in the New World".^[3]

The name appears to have been coined by Samuel Johnson, thought to have been the author of an introductory essay (in which "Columbia" already appears) which explained the conceit of substituting "Lilliputian" for English names; Johnson also wrote down the Debates from 1740 to 1743. The name continued to appear in The Gentleman's Magazine until December 1746. Columbia is an obvious calque on America, substituting the base of the surname of the discoverer Christopher Columbus for the base of the given name of the somewhat less well-known Americus Vespucius.

As the debates of Parliament, many of whose decisions directly affected the colonies, were distributed and closely followed in the British colonies in America, the name "Columbia" would have been familiar to the United States' founding generation.

In the second half of the 18th century, the American colonists were beginning to acquire a sense of having an identity distinct from that of their British cousins on the other side of the ocean. At that time, it was common for European countries to use a Latin name in formal or poetical contexts to confer an additional degree of respectability on the country concerned.^[4] In many cases, these nations were personified as pseudo-classical goddesses named with these Latin names. The use of "Columbia" was, in effect, the closest which the Americans, located in a continent unknown to and unnamed by the Romans, could come to emulating this custom.

By the time of the Revolution, the name Columbia had lost the comic overtone of its "Lilliputian" origins and had become established as an alternative, or poetic name for America. While the name America is necessarily scanned with four syllables, according to 18th-century rules of English versification Columbia was normally scanned with three, which is often more metrically convenient. The name appears, for instance, in a collection of complimentary poems written by Harvard graduates in 1761, on the occasion of the marriage and coronation of King George III.^[5]

Behold, Britannia! in thy favour'd Isle;

At distance, thou, Columbia! view thy Prince,

For ancestors renowned, for virtues more;^[6]

The name "Columbia" rapidly came to be applied to a variety of items reflecting American identity. A ship built in Massachusetts in 1773, received the name Columbia; it later became famous as an exploring ship, and lent its name to new "Columbias."

No serious consideration was given to using the name Columbia as an official name for the independent United States,^{[citation needed]} but with independence the name became popular and was given to many counties, townships, and towns, as well as other institutions, e.g.:

• In 1784, the former King's College in New York City had its name changed to Columbia College, which became the nucleus of the present-day Columbia University.
• In 1786, just before the United States' Constitutional Convention, South Carolina gave the name "Columbia" to its new capital city. Columbia is also the name of at least nineteen other towns in the United States.
• In 1791, three commissioners appointed by President Washington named the area destined for the seat of the U.S. government "the Territory of Columbia"; it was subsequently (1801) organized as the District of Columbia.
• In 1792, the Columbia Rediviva sailing ship gave its name to the Columbia River in the American Northwest.
• In 1798, Joseph Hopkinson wrote lyrics for Philip Phile's 1789 inaugural "President's March" under the new title of "Hail, Columbia." Once used as de facto national anthem of the United States, it is now used as the entrance march of the Vice President of the United States.

In part, the more frequent usage of the name Columbia reflected a rising American neoclassicism, exemplified in the tendency to use Roman terms and symbols. The selection of the eagle as the national bird, the use of the term Senate to describe the upper house of Congress, and the naming of Capitol Hill and the Capitol building were all conscious evocations of Roman precedents.

The adjective Columbian has been used to mean "of or from the United States of America", for instance in the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, held in Chicago, Illinois. Occasionally proposed as an alternative word for "American", Columbian in this sense has not re-entered general English use; rather, the meaning of Columbian was fixed as pertaining to the South American country of this name.

Columbian should not be confused with the adjective "Pre-Columbian", referring to a time period before the arrival of Christopher Columbus and other European explorers in the Americas.

After the World Wars, the personification of Columbia fell out of use, and she has largely been replaced by Lady Liberty as a feminine allegory of the United States. It is noteworthy that when Columbia Pictures adopted Columbia as its logo in 1924, she was (and still is) depicted as bearing a torch - similar to the Statue of Liberty, and unlike 19th Century depictions of Columbia.

Personification[link]

Personification of Columbia, from a Columbia Records phonograph cylinder package.

As a quasi-mythical figure, Columbia first appears in the poetry of African-American Phillis Wheatley starting in 1776 during the revolutionary war:

One century scarce perform'd its destined round,

When Gallic powers Columbia's fury found;

And so may you, whoever dares disgrace

The land of freedom's heaven-defended race!

Fix'd are the eyes of nations on the scales,

For in their hopes Columbia's arm prevails.^[7]

Especially in the 19th century, Columbia would be visualized as a goddess-like female national personification of the United States, comparable to the British Britannia, the Italian Italia Turrita and the French Marianne, often seen in political cartoons of the 19th-early 20th century. This personification was sometimes called "Lady Columbia" or "Miss Columbia".

The image of the personified Columbia was never fixed, but she was most often presented as a woman between youth and middle age, wearing classically draped garments decorated with the stars and stripes; a popular version gave her a red-and-white striped dress and a blue blouse, shawl, or sash spangled with white stars. Her headdress varied; sometimes it included feathers reminiscent of a Native American headdress, sometimes it was a laurel wreath, but most often it was a cap of liberty.

Statues of the personified Columbia may be found in the following places:

• The 1863 Statue of Freedom atop the United States Capitol building, though not actually called "Columbia", shares many of her iconic characteristics.
• Atop Philadelphia's Memorial Hall, built 1876
• The replica Statue of the Republic ("Golden Lady") in Chicago's Jackson Park is often understood to be Columbia. It is one of the remaining icons of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition.
• In the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, dedicated 1949.

Modern appearances[link]

Political cartoon from 1860 depicting Stephen A. Douglas receiving a spanking from Columbia as Uncle Sam looks on approvingly.

Since 1800, the name Columbia has been used for a wide variety of items:

• Columbia University, a university in the New York City, which first adopted the name 'Columbia College' in 1784.
• The song "Columbia, Gem of the Ocean" (1843) commemorates the United States under the name Columbia.
• Columbia Records, founded in 1888, took its name from its headquarters in the District of Columbia.
• Columbia Pictures, named in 1924, uses a version of the personified Columbia as its logo.
• CBS's former legal name was the Columbia Broadcasting System, first used in 1928. The name derived from an investor, the Columbia Phonographic Manufacturing Company, owner of Columbia Records.
• The Command Module of the Apollo 11 spacecraft, the first manned mission to land on the Moon, was called Columbia (1969).
• The Space Shuttle Columbia, built 1975-1979, was named for the exploring ship Columbia.
• A personified Columbia appears in Uncle Sam, a graphic novel about American history (1997).
• A character called Columbia (named after Columbia Pictures) appears in stage musical The Rocky Horror Show.
• Video game BioShock Infinite (2012) developed by Irrational Games is set in the fictional flying city of Columbia.

See also[link]

In this painting (circa 1872) by John Gast, called American Progress, Columbia, in the implementation of Manifest Destiny, leads civilization westward with American settlers; the book is a school book, not a Bible.^{[citation needed]}

• The goddess Liberty
• Britannia, the equivalent symbol for Britain
• Goddess of Democracy
• Marianne, the equivalent symbol for France¨
• Our Lady of Guadalupe, a similar symbol for Mexico
• Germania, The equivalent symbol for Germany
• Statue of Liberty
• Uncle Sam
• World's Columbian Exposition
• National personification

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Columbia

Notes[link]

References[link]

• George R. Stewart. Names on the Land. Houghton Mifflin Company: Boston (1967).

External links[link]

• Where Have You Gone, Miss Columbia?

Look up columbia in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Columbia may refer to:

Places[link]

• British Columbia, Canada
• Columbia (name), a poetic name for the Americas, and the feminine personification of the United States of America
• District of Columbia, the federal district in which the capital of the United States is located
• Columbia (supercontinent)
• Columbia River, in Canada and the United States
• Columbia City (disambiguation)
• Columbia County (disambiguation)
• Columbia Island (disambiguation), in New York and the District of Columbia
• Columbia Mall (disambiguation)
• Columbia Township (disambiguation)
• Columbia (electoral district), a provincial electoral district in British Columbia
• Columbia, San Diego, California, a neighborhood
• 327 Columbia, an asteroid
• Camp Columbia, a United States Army post in Australia during World War II

Towns and cities in the United States[link]

• Columbia, Alabama
• Columbia, California
• Columbia, Connecticut
• Columbia, Illinois
• Columbia, Fayette County, Indiana
• Columbia, Iowa
• Columbia, Kentucky
• Columbia, Louisiana
• Columbia, Maine
• Columbia, Maryland
• Columbia, Mississippi
• Columbia, Missouri
  • Columbia, Missouri Metropolitan Area
• Columbia, New Hampshire
• Columbia, New Jersey
• Columbia, New York
• Columbia, North Carolina
• Columbia, Pennsylvania
• Columbia, South Carolina, the largest city on this list.
  • Columbia, South Carolina Metropolitan Area
• Columbia, South Dakota
• Columbia, Tennessee
• Columbia, Virginia
• Columbia, Wisconsin
• Columbia, former name of Romney, Indiana
• Columbia, former name of Etna, New York

Companies[link]

Music and entertainment[link]

• Columbia Records, an American record label founded in 1888, now owned by Sony Music Entertainment
  • Columbia Symphony Orchestra, a former part of the Columbia Records company
• Columbia Graphophone Company, a now-defunct British record company and label
• Columbia Music Entertainment, a Japanese record company
• Columbia Pictures
  • Columbia Pictures Television
    • CBS Columbia Square, in Hollywood, California, West Coast home of CBS radio and television
    • Columbia TriStar Television
• Columbia Broadcasting System, CBS radio and television networks
  • Columbia Artists Management

Other[link]

• Columbia Aircraft, taken over by Cessna
• Columbia Aircraft Corp, originally Columbia Air Liners Inc.
• Columbia Bicycles of Hartford, Connecticut
  • Columbia Automobile Company (1899–1913), originally expanded from the bicycle line
• Columbia Brewery in Canada
• Columbia Comics
• Columbia Data Products
• Columbia Forest Products
• Columbia Games
• Columbia Gas Transmission, a gas pipeline between the U.S. Gulf Coast and New York
• Columbia Helicopters, based in Aurora, Oregon
• Columbia Industries
• Columbia Insurance Group
• Columbia Management Group
• Columbia Motors of Detroit, Michigan (1917–1924)
• Columbia Power Corporation, Canada
• Columbia Railway, historic Washington, D.C. streetcar company
• Columbia Sportswear, formerly the Columbia Hat Company
  • Team Columbia, a professional cycling team sponsored by Columbia Sportswear
• Columbia Transit, bus company serving Columbia, Missouri
• Columbia University Press, affiliated with Columbia University and publisher of Columbia Encyclopedia

Music[link]

• "Columbia", a song on the 1994 Oasis album Definitely Maybe
• "Columbia", a song by Paul van Dyk on the 2000 album Out There and Back
• "Columbia", a song on Bloom
• Columbia: Live at Missouri University, a 1993 live album by American power pop group Big Star
• "Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean", an American patriotic song
• "Hail, Columbia", an American patriotic song and unofficial national anthem until 1931

People[link]

• Al Columbia, American artist, writer and cartoonist
• Columbia Lancaster (1803–1893), a delegate from the Territory of Washington
• Columbia, a fictional character in The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Schools[link]

• Columbia University, New York City
• Columbia International University, Columbia, South Carolina
• Columbia College (disambiguation)
• Columbia Bible College (Abbotsford, British Columbia)
• Columbia Theological Seminary, formerly in Columbia, now in Decatur, Georgia
• Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School, New York City
• Columbia High School (disambiguation)
• Columbia Independent School, Columbia, Missouri
• Columbia Middle School in Grovetown, Georgia
• Columbia University, a former name of the University of Portland

School districts[link]

• Columbia Elementary School District, Redding, California
• Columbia School District (Mississippi)
• Columbia Public Schools, Columbia, Missouri

Transportation[link]

Ships[link]

• Columbia (Arrow Lakes sternwheeler)
• Columbia (barque), in the service of the Hudson's Bay Company on the Columbia River and Pacific Northwest coast
• USS Columbia, any of several ships of the US Navy
• Columbia class cruiser, a group of two protected cruisers used by the United States Navy, 1890–91
• CSS Columbia, a Confederate (and later U.S. Navy) ironclad ram during the Civil War
• HMCS Columbia, any of several commissioned vessels of the Canadian Navy
• Lightship Columbia, the first lightship on the Pacific coast of the United States, docked in Astoria, Oregon
• MV Columbia, a large passenger and automobile ferry in the Alaska Marine Highway System fleet
• SS Columbia, a historic excursion steamer docked in Ecorse, Michigan, United States
• Columbia Rediviva, a ship under Captain Robert Gray, best known for going to the Pacific Northwest of America

Winners of the America's Cup[link]

• Columbia (1871 yacht), the 1871 America's Cup winner
• Columbia (1899 yacht), the 1899 and 1901 America's Cup winner
• Columbia (1958 yacht), the 1958 America's Cup winner

Other[link]

• Space Shuttle Columbia
  • Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster
• Columbia, the Command/Service Module for the Apollo 11 mission
• Columbia JL, a large amphibian aircraft built only as three prototypes
• Wright-Bellanca WB-2 Columbia, the airplane piloted by Clarence Duncan Chamberlin, the second person to fly solo across the Atlantic
• Columbia, another name for the 2-4-2 classification of steam locomotives, named for an early locomotive of this type called Columbia

In fiction[link]

• Columbia (Star Trek), a fictional starship in the series Star Trek: Enterprise
• Columbia, a fictional battlestar from both versions of the Battlestar Galactica TV series

Publications[link]

• Columbia Encyclopedia, one-volume encyclopedia published by Columbia University Press
• Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art, annual literary journal founded in 1977 and published by Columbia University

Other uses[link]

• Columbia (sheep), an American breed of sheep
• Columbia (supercomputer), named for the space shuttle
• Columbia Carousel, carousels in amusement parks
• Columbia Lions, the athletic program of Columbia University
• Sailing Ship Columbia, a themed ride at Disneyland in California
• Columbia (BioShock), a fictional location in the video game BioShock Infinite

See also[link]

• All pages with titles containing "Columbia"
• Colombia (disambiguation)
• Colombian (disambiguation)
• Colombiana (disambiguation)
• Columba (disambiguation)
• Columbiad, a type of large-caliber cannon from the 19th century
• Columbian (disambiguation)
• Columbiana (disambiguation)
• Columbus (disambiguation)
• Saint Columba
• Saint Columbanus
• Columbium, former name for the element Niobium

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

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Ceremonies, such as baptism, can be used to give names.

A name is a word or term used for identification. Names can identify a class or category of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a given context. A personal name identifies a specific unique and identifiable individual person, and may or may not include a middle name. The name of a specific entity is sometimes called a proper name (although that term has a philosophical meaning also) and is a proper noun. Other nouns are sometimes, more loosely, called names; an older term for them, now obsolete, is "general names".

The use of personal names is not unique to humans. Dolphins also use symbolic names, as has been shown by recent research.^[1] Individual dolphins have distinctive whistles, to which they will respond even when there is no other information to clarify which dolphin is being referred to.

Caution must be exercised when translating, for there are ways that one language may prefer one type of name over another. A feudal naming habit is used sometimes in other languages: the French sometimes refer to Aristotle as "le Stagirite" from one spelling of his place of birth, and English speakers often refer to Shakespeare as "The Bard", recognizing him as a paragon writer of the language. Finally, claims to preference or authority can be refuted: the British did not refer to Louis-Napoleon as Napoleon III during his rule.

Etymology[link]

The word "name" comes from Old English nama; akin to Old High German (OHG) and Sanskrit नामस् (naamas), Latin nomen, and Greek ὄνομα (onoma),^[2] possbly from the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) *nomn-.^[3]

In mythology[link]

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In Arthurian mythology, part of the code of honor and chivalry practiced by knights was that a knight who lost a duel must reveal his name to the victor. It was considered a breach of honor or decorum to reveal one's name before combat. A frequent topos in the legends is that a defeated knight would, after revealing his name, ask the victor what his name was: if the victor turned out to be a much stronger and more famous knight (e.g. one of Arthur's knights) the loser actually saved face, because he was beaten by a knight already held to be stronger than him, and thus there was no shame in defeat. However, if a strong and powerful knight was defeated, and the victor turned out to be a relatively unknown and not particularly strong knight, it was a grave humiliation.

As a result of this pattern, it was considered extremely odd within the rules of Arthurian society when a knight refused to take off his helmet or reveal his identity, even after he had won a duel. Sometimes this happened because the victorious knight simply did not know his own name, as was the case with Lancelot and Percival during their early careers. This inability to reveal their own names even in victory led many to assume incorrectly that they were trying to insult the vanquished.

A major exception to the rule was Sir Gawain: Gawain considered himself to be the greatest of his uncle Arthur's knights; he felt that his honor was so great that he did not need to hide his name before a duel. Thus at the opening of any duel Gawain would openly announce "I am Gawain", as he expected never to be defeated and so it would not diminish his honor to reveal his name.

In religious thought[link]

In the ancient world, particularly in the ancient near-east (Israel, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Persia) names were thought to be extremely powerful and to act, in some ways, as a separate manifestation of a person or deity.^[4] This viewpoint is responsible both for the reluctance to use the proper name of God in Hebrew writing or speech, as well as the common understanding in ancient magic that magical rituals had to be carried out "in [someone's] name". By invoking a god or spirit by name, one was thought to be able to summon that spirit's power for some kind of miracle or magic (see Luke 9:49, in which the disciples claim to have seen a man driving out demons using the name of Jesus.) This understanding passed into later religious tradition, for example the stipulation in Catholic exorcism that the demon cannot be expelled until the exorcist has forced it to give up its name, at which point the name may be used in a stern command which will drive the demon away.

Biblical names[link]

In the Old Testament, the names of individuals are meaningful; for example, Adam is named after the "earth" (Adamah) from which he was created. (Genesis 2)

A change of name indicates a change of status. For example, the patriarch Abram and his wife Sarai are renamed "Abraham" and "Sarah" when they are told they will be the father and mother of many nations (Genesis 17:4, 17:15). Simon was renamed Peter when he was given the Keys of Heaven. (Gospel of Matthew 16).

Throughout the Bible, characters are given names at birth that reflect something of significance or describe the course of their lives. For example: Solomon meant peace, and the king with that name was the first whose reign was without warfare. Likewise, Joseph named his firstborn son Manasseh (Hebrew: "causing to forget") as a gesture of forgiveness to his brothers for selling him into slavery.

Biblical Jewish people did not have surnames which were passed from generation to generation. However, they were typically known as the child of their father. For example: דוד בן ישי (David ben Yishay) meaning, David, son of Jesse. In a sense, they used their fathers' first names as their own last names, a practice done by most Muslims today. Similar to Jewish names, the "ben" is in place by "bin" or "ibn" for males, "binte", "binti" or "ibnu" for females to Muslims. Sometimes, names include "Al-", "Ali-", "-allah", "-lah/-llah" or "-ullah" as it means "a servant to God" or "God's servant". They would sometimes indicate the place they or their child live in.

Talmudic attitudes[link]

The Babylonian Talmud maintains that names exert a mystical influence over their bearers, and a change of name is one of four actions that can avert an evil heavenly decree, that would lead to punishment after one's death. Rabbinical commentators differ as to whether the name's influence is metaphysical, connecting a person to their soul, or bio-socio-psychological, where the connection affects his personality, appearance and social capacities. The Talmud also states that all those who descend to Gehenna will rise in the time of Messiah. However, there are three exceptions, one of which is he who calls another by a derisive nickname.

Technical names for names[link]

Naming convention[link]

For Wikipedia's own naming conventions see Wikipedia:Article titles

A naming convention is an attempt to systematize names in a field so they unambiguously convey similar information in a similar manner.

Several major naming conventions include:

• In astronomy, planetary nomenclature
• In classics, Roman naming conventions
• In computer programming, identifier naming conventions
• In computer networking, computer naming schemes
• In the sciences, systematic names for a variety of things

Naming conventions are useful in many aspects of everyday life, enabling the casual user to understand larger structures.

Street names within a city may follow a naming convention; some examples include:

• In Manhattan, roads that cross the island from east to west are called "Streets". Those that run the length of the island (North-South) are called "Avenues". Manhattan streets and avenues are numbered, with "1st Street" being near the southern end of the island, and "219th Street" being near the northern end, while "1st Avenue" is near the eastern edge of the island and "12th Avenue" near the western edge.
• In Ontario, numbered concession roads are East-West whereas "lines" are North-South routes.
• In San Francisco at least three series of parallel streets are alphabetically named, e.g. Irving, Judah, Kirkham, Lawton, Moraga, Noriega, Ortega, Pacheco, Quintara, Rivera, Santiago, Taraval, Ulloa, Vicente, Wawona.
• The same tendency is seen in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, where Arlington Street is followed by roads to the west running parallel to it and named Berkeley, Clarendon, Dartmouth, Exeter, Fairfield, Gloucester, and Hereford.
• In Washington, DC, East Capitol Street runs east-west through the Capitol. East-west streets moving away from Capitol Street toward both the south (toward the Potomac River) and the north are lettered A, B, C,..., omitting J to avoid confusion on street signs and addresses, but after these are exhausted to the north, the streets are named with simple words in alphabetical order, omitting a few letters such as "x". The first cycle of names consists all of one-syllable words; then followed by a cycle of two-syllable words; then followed by a cycle of three-syllable words, and before these are exhausted, Maryland is reached. (Washington has north-south streets that are numbered, increasing to either side of North Capitol which likewise runs through the Capitol.) Suffixes (NE, SW, etc.) are used to distinguish between (up to four) duplicate addresses. For example 140 D Street SW, to indicate the 140 D Street location southwest of the Capitol
• In Montgomery, Alabama, the old major avenues are named for the Presidents of the United States, in their order of entering office, omitting John Quincy Adams. Hence, these streets are Washington Ave., Adams Ave., Jefferson Ave., Madison Ave., Monroe Ave., Jackson Ave., but not much farther than that. This was just the old plan from a long time ago, and it was eventually dropped. For example, there is not a Buchanan Ave., a Lincoln Ave., or a Johnson Ave.
• In Brampton, Ontario, different sections of town all have streets starting with the same letter and the alphabetical order reflects chronology.
• In Phoenix, Arizona, roads east of Central Avenue are termed streets while those west are avenues. A similar system applies in Nashville, Tennessee, but only to the numbered avenues and streets, west and east of the Cumberland River respectively, all of which run roughly north-south.

Large corporate, university, or government campuses may follow a naming convention for rooms within the buildings to help orient tenants and visitors. Otherwise, rooms may be numbered in some kind of a rational scheme.

Parents may follow a naming convention when selecting names for their children. Some have chosen alphabetical names by birth order. In some East Asian cultures, it is common for one syllable in a two syllable given name to be a generation name which is the same for immediate siblings. In many cultures it is common for the son to be named after the father or a grandfather. In certain African cultures, such as in Cameroon, the eldest son gets the family name for his given name, also, giving names such as "Thomas Thomas" (but the names are not European names like this one).

In other cultures, the name may include the place of residence, or the place of birth. The Roman naming convention denotes social rank.

Products may follow a naming convention. Automobiles typically have a binomial name, a "make" (manufacturer) and a "model", in addition to a model year, such as a 2007 Chevrolet Corvette. Sometimes there is a name for the car's "decoration level" or "trim line" as well: e.g., Cadillac Escalade EXT Platinum, after the precious metal. Computers often have increasing numbers in their names to signify the next generation.

Courses at schools typically follow a naming convention: an abbreviation for the subject area and then a number ordered by increasing level of difficulty.

Many numbers (e.g. bank accounts, government IDs, credit cards, etc.) are not random but have an internal structure and convention. Virtually all organizations that assign names or numbers will follow some convention in generating these identifiers. Airline flight numbers, space shuttle flight numbers, even phone numbers all have an internal convention.

Brand names[link]

The process of developing a name for a brand or product is heavily influenced by marketing research and strategy to be appealing and marketable. The brand name is often a neologism or pseudoword, such as Kodak or Sony.

Literary names[link]

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In fiction, proper names of people or places are often unique to the work in which they appear. Although, within the work of fiction proper, the name may nonetheless be said to have a certain ethnic origin, the name itself may not actually exist. For example, the character of Ororo Munroe (Storm of the X-Men franchise) is of African descent.^{[citation needed]} Her first name, however is not an authentic African name. Names may also be created to either represent ethnic neutrality or corruption of a name with the passage of time. This is a common technique used by science fiction and fantasy writers who may also employ alternate spellings of existing names. Also, many science fiction operates on the premise that racial and ethnic boundaries will cease to exist in the future thus producing names that appear to be mixes of different ethnic sources.^{[original research?]} Yoshiyuki Tomino (creator of the anime Mobile Suit Gundam) is notable for creating character names that are unusual, exotic, and sometimes silly sounding. Examples include Char Aznable (which is actually based on a real person), Bright Noa, Quess Paraya, and Marvel Frozen. The science fiction writer Isaac Asimov has also created names which may or may not be variants or corruptions of existing or ancient names. Examples include Dors Venabili, R. Daneel Olivaw, and Giskard Reventlov. The Star Wars and Dune franchises contains many character names that juggle existing names with created ones; Leia Organa, Ben Kenobi, Paul Atreides, Vladimir Harkonnen.^{[citation needed][original research?]}

.name domains[link]

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According to Verisign,^[5] the .name top-level domain name (TLD) is designed for individuals to create a presence and make online communications easy and accessible. Not exclusive to registrars, social networking and community sites may also offer .name registration to their members and customers as a value-added service to help establish an individual identity online.^[6]

See also[link]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• "Names" by Sam Cumming, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP), a philosophical dissertation on the syntax and semantics of names
• Matthews, Elaine; Hornblower, Simon; Fraser, Peter Marshall, Greek Personal Names: Their Value as Evidence, Proceedings of The British Academy (104), Oxford University Press, 2000. ISBN 0-19-726216-3
• Name and Form - from Sacred Texts Buddhism

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Name

• Kate Monk's Onomastikon (Dictionary of Names) or Kate Monk's Onomastikon Names over the world throughout the history
• The etymology of first names
• Meaning of Names The etymology of first names
• What is a Name?

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2009)

Kenny Rankin (Los Angeles, February 10, 1940 - June 7, 2009) was an American pop and jazz singer and songwriter, originally from the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City, New York.

Biography[link]

Rankin was raised in New York and was introduced to music by his mother, who sang at home and for friends. Early in his career he worked as a singer-songwriter, and developed a considerable following during the 70s with a steady flow of albums, three of which broke into the Top 100 of the Billboard Album Chart. His liking for jazz was evident from an early age, but the times were such that in order to survive his career had to take a more pop-oriented course. By the 90s, however, he was able to angle his repertoire to accommodate his own musical preferences and to please a new audience while still keeping faith with the faithful. Rankin's warm singing style and his soft, nylon-stringed guitar sound might suggest an artist more attuned to the supper-club circuit than the jazz arena, but his work contains many touches that appeal to the jazz audience.

Rankin appeared on The Tonight Show more than twenty times. Host Johnny Carson was so impressed by him that he wrote the liner notes to Rankin's 1967 debut album Mind Dusters, which featured the single "Peaceful." Kenny's friend Helen Reddy would reach #2 Adult Contemporary and #12 Pop in 1973 with a cover of it, released as her follow-up single to "I Am Woman". Georgie Fame also had a hit with this song in 1969, his only songwriting credit to hit the British charts reaching number sixteen and spending 9 weeks on the chart.

Rankin's accompanists from time to time included Alan Broadbent, Mike Wofford and Bill Watrous, and on such occasions the mood slips easily into a jazz groove. His compositions have been performed by artists such as Mel Tormé and Carmen McRae, while Stan Getz said of him that he was "a horn with a heartbeat". Rankin was deeply interested in Brazilian music and his Here In My Heart, on which he used jazz guests including Michael Brecker and Ernie Watts, was recorded mostly in Rio De Janeiro. More contemporary songs were given an airing following his move to Verve Records, including the Beatles' "I've Just Seen A Face" and Leon Russell's "A Song For You."

Rankin's own unique gift for reworking classic songs such as The Beatles' "Blackbird," which he recorded for his Silver Morning album, so impressed Paul McCartney that he asked Rankin to perform his interpretation of the song when McCartney and John Lennon were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Rankin was lifelong friends with Comedian George Carlin. On Saturday, November 4th 1972, Kenny Rankin performed live on Broadway, at Manhattan's Palace Theater as the opening act for The George Carlin Show. Tickets cost $6.75. "Just so you know, it was me that opened up the show. I toured with my dear friend George for nearly ten years. I will miss my most kind and generous friend. Peace ~ Kenny" They toured together off and on for nearly 10 years and later, Rankin sang at Carlin's Memorial Service (June 2008) before dying of cancer almost exactly one year later in June 2009.

He can be heard singing the song "Miles From Here" in the first episode of the television series Fame titled "Metamorphosis".

Rankin was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, just three weeks before he died in Los Angeles, California - where he had resided for many years - from the disease on June 7, 2009. He was 69 years old.

Discography[link]

Studio albums[link]

• Mind-Dusters (1967)
• Family (1970)
• Like a Seed (1972)
• Inside (1975)
• Silver Morning (1974)
• The Kenny Rankin Album (1976)
• After the Roses (1980)
• Hiding in Myself (1988)
• Because of You (1991)
• Professional Dreamer (1994)
• Here in My Heart (1997)
• A Christmas Album (1999)
• A Song for You (2002)

Compilations[link]

• Peaceful: The Best of Kenny Rankin (1996)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official Website
• Kenny Rankin at the Internet Movie Database
• Kenny Rankin at the Internet Broadway Database
• AP Obituary in The Los Angeles Times
• LA Times Obituary

Snoop Dogg
Snoop Dogg performing at the Snoop Dogg Supafest in April 2011.
Background information
Birth name	Calvin Cordozar Broadus, Jr.
Born	(1971-10-20) October 20, 1971 (age 40)
Origin	Long Beach, California, United States
Genres	Hip hop
Occupations	Rapper
Years active	1992–present
Labels	Death Row, No Limit, Priority, Star Trak, Geffen, Doggystyle
Associated acts	Tha Dogg Pound, Tha Eastsidaz, 213, Dr. Dre, Warren G, Nate Dogg, 2Pac, Pharell, R. Kelly, Ice Cube, Akon, Game, Brandy Norwood, Eminem, Wiz Khalifa
Website	snoopdogg.com

Calvin Cordozar Broadus, Jr. (born October 20, 1971), better known by his stage name Snoop Dogg (formerly known as Snoop Doggy Dogg), is an American rapper, record producer, and actor. Snoop is best known as a rapper in the West Coast hip hop scene, and for being one of Dr. Dre's most notable protégés. Snoop Dogg was a Crip gang member while in high school. Shortly after graduation, he was arrested for cocaine possession and spent six months in Wayside County Jail. His music career began in 1992 after his release when he was discovered by Dr. Dre. He collaborated on several tracks on Dre's solo debut, The Chronic and on the titular theme song to the film Deep Cover.

Snoop's debut album Doggystyle, was released in 1993 under Death Row Records making a debut at No.1 on both the Billboard 200 and R&B charts. Selling almost a million copies in the first week of its release, Doggystyle quickly became certified 4× platinum in 1994 and spawned several hit singles, including "What's My Name" and "Gin & Juice". In 1994, Snoop released a soundtrack on Death Row Records for the short film Murder Was The Case, starring himself. In early 1996, Snoop Dogg was cleared of charges over his bodyguard's 1993 murder of Philip Woldemariam. His second album, late 1996's Tha Doggfather, also debuted at No.1 on both charts with "Snoop's Upside Ya Head" as the lead single. The album sold only half as well, being certified double platinum in 1997.

Tha Doggfather was his last release for Death Row before he signed with No Limit Records, where he recorded his next three albums. Da Game Is to Be Sold, Not to Be Told in 1998, No Limit Top Dogg in 1999 (making it his last album of the 90s), and Tha Last Meal in 2000, which was his last No Limit Records album. Snoop then signed with Priority/Capitol/EMI Records in 2002, where he released his album Paid tha Cost to Be da Boss. Then he signed with Geffen Records in 2004 for his next three albums R&G (Rhythm & Gangsta): The Masterpiece, Tha Blue Carpet Treatment, and Ego Trippin'. Malice 'n Wonderland (2009) and Doggumentary (2011), his most recent release, were on Priority.

In addition to music, Snoop Dogg has starred in motion pictures and hosted several television shows: Doggy Fizzle Televizzle, Snoop Dogg's Father Hood and Dogg After Dark. He also coaches a youth football league and high school football team. He has run into many legal troubles, some of which caused him to be legally banned from the UK and Australia, although the UK ban was later reversed after a long legal battle.^[1] He is the cousin of Nate Dogg, Daz Dillinger, RBX and Lil' ½ Dead and the cousin of R&B singers Brandy and Ray J. Starting September 2009, Snoop was hired by EMI as the chairman of a reactivated Priority Records.^[2]

Life and career[link]

Early life[link]

Named after his stepfather, Calvin Cordozar Broadus, Sr. (December 10, 1948 – November 9, 1985, Los Angeles), Calvin Broadus was born October 20, 1971 at the Los Altos Hospital in Long Beach, California, the second of three sons of Beverly Broadus (née Tate; born April 27, 1951, McComb, Mississippi).^[3][4][5] His father, Vernall Varnado (born December 13, 1949, Magnolia, Mississippi),^[3] was a Vietnam veteran, singer, and mail carrier who was said to be frequently absent from his life.^[6] Broadus' parents nicknamed him "Snoopy" as a child because of his appearance, but usually addressed him as Calvin at home.^[7][8] His mother and stepfather divorced in 1975. At an early age, Broadus began singing in Golgotha Trinity Baptist Church and playing piano; when he was in sixth grade, he began rapping.^[9][10] He attended Long Beach Polytechnic High School, and was convicted for cocaine possession, serving six months at the Wayside County Jail.^[7]

As a teenager, Snoop Dogg frequently ran into trouble with the law. Snoop Dogg was a member of the Rollin' 20 Crips gang in the Eastside of Long Beach,^[11][12] although he stated in 1993 that he never joined a gang.^[9] Shortly after graduating from high school, he was arrested for possession of cocaine.^[7] Snoop Dogg's conviction caused him to be frequently in and out of prison for the first three years after he graduated from high school. Snoop, along with his cousins Nate Dogg and Lil' ½ Dead and friend Warren G, recorded home made tapes as a group called 213, named after the Long Beach area code at the time. One of his early solo freestyles over En Vogue's "Hold On" had made it to a mixtape which was heard by influential producer Dr. Dre, who phoned to invite him to an audition. Former N.W.A member The D.O.C. taught him how to structure his lyrics and separate the thematics into verses, hooks and chorus.^[13]

[edit] 1992–93: Doggystyle

When he began recording, Broadus took the stage name Snoop Doggy Dogg. Dr. Dre began working with Snoop Dogg, first on the theme song of the 1992 film Deep Cover, and then on Dr. Dre's debut solo album The Chronic with the other members of his former starting group, Tha Dogg Pound. The huge success of Snoop Dogg's debut Doggystyle was partially because of this intense exposure.^[7]

To fuel the ascendance of West Coast G-funk hip hop, the singles "Who Am I (What's My Name)?" and "Gin and Juice" reached the top ten most-played songs in the United States, and the album stayed on the Billboard charts for several months.^[7] Gangsta rap became the center of arguments for censorship and labeling, with Snoop Dogg often used as an example of violent and misogynistic musicians.^[14] Doggystyle, much like The Chronic, featured a host of rappers signed to or affiliated with the Death Row label including Daz Dillinger, Kurupt, Nate Dogg and others. Rolling Stone music critic Touré asserted that Snoop had a relatively soft vocal delivery compared to other rappers: "Snoop's vocal style is part of what distinguishes him: where many rappers scream, figuratively and literally, he speaks softly."^[9]

A short film about Snoop Dogg's murder trial called Murder Was The Case, was released in 1994, along with an accompanying soundtrack. On July 6, 1995, Doggy Style Records, Inc., a record label founded by Snoop Dogg, was registered with the California Secretary of State as business entity number C1923139.^[15]

[edit] 1996–97: Tha Doggfather

After Snoop Dogg was acquitted of murder charges on February 20, 1996, he and the mother of his son and their kennel of 20 pit bulls moved into a 5,000-square-foot (460 m²) home in the hills of Claremont, California and by August 1996 Doggy Style Records, a subsidiary of Death Row Records, signed The Gap Band's Charlie Wilson as one of the record label's first artists.^[16]

However, by the time Snoop Dogg's second album, Tha Doggfather, was released in November 1996, the price of living (or sometimes just imitating) the gangsta life had become very evident. Among the many notable hip hop industry deaths and convictions were the death of Snoop Dogg's friend and labelmate 2Pac and the racketeering indictment of Death Row co-founder Suge Knight.^[7] Dr. Dre had left Death Row earlier in 1996 because of a contract dispute, so Snoop Dogg co-produced Tha Doggfather with Daz Dillinger and DJ Pooh.

This album featured a distinct change of style as compared to Doggystyle, and the leadoff single, "Snoop's Upside Ya Head", featured a collaboration with Gap Band frontman Charlie Wilson. While the album sold reasonably well, it was not as successful as its predecessor. However, Tha Doggfather had a somewhat softer approach to the G-funk style. The immediate aftermath of Dr. Dre's withdrawal from Death Row Records, realizing that he was subject to an iron-clad time-based contract (i.e., that Death Row practically owned anything he produced for a number of years), Snoop Dogg refused to produce any more tracks for Suge Knight, other than the insulting "Fuck Death Row", until his contract expired.^[11] In an interview with Neil Strauss in 1998, Snoop Dogg stated that though he had been given lavish gifts by his former label they had withheld royalty payments to the artist.^[17]

Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic said that after Tha Doggfather, Snoop Dogg began "moving away from his gangsta roots toward a calmer lyrical aesthetic":^[7] for instance, Snoop participated in the 1997 Lollapalooza concert tour, which featured mainly alternative rock music. Troy J. Augusto of Variety noticed that Snoop's set at Lollapalooza attracted "much dancing, and, strangely, even a small mosh pit" in the audience.^[18]

[edit] 1998–2000: No Limit, Top Dogg and Tha Last Meal

Snoop signed with Master P's No Limit Records (distributed by Priority/EMI Records) in 1998 and debuted on the label with Da Game Is to Be Sold, Not to Be Told that year. His other albums from No Limit were No Limit Top Dogg in 1999 (selling over 1,503,865 copies) and Tha Last Meal in 2000 (selling over 1,000,000).^[7] In 2001, his autobiography, Tha Doggfather, was published.

[edit] 2002: Paid tha Cost to Be da Bo$$

In 2002 he released the album Paid tha Cost to Be da Bo$$, on Priority/Capitol/EMI Records, selling over 1,300,000 copies. The album featured the hit singles "From tha Chuuuch to da Palace" and "Beautiful", featuring guest vocals by Pharrell. By this stage in his career, Snoop Dogg had left behind his "gangster" image and embraced a "pimp" image.

[edit] 2004–05: R&G (Rhythm & Gangsta): The Masterpiece

In 2004, Snoop signed to Geffen Records/Star Trak Entertainment both of which are distributed through Interscope Records; Star Trak is headed by producer duo The Neptunes, which produced several tracks for Snoop's 2004 release R&G (Rhythm & Gangsta): The Masterpiece. "Drop It Like It's Hot" (featuring Pharrell), the first single released from the album, was a hit and became Snoop Dogg's first single to reach number one. His third release was "Signs", featuring Justin Timberlake and Charlie Wilson, which entered the UK chart at #2. This was his highest entry ever in the UK chart. The album sold 1,724,000 copies in the U.S. alone, and most of its singles were heavily played on radio and television. Snoop Dogg joined Warren G and Nate Dogg to form the group 213 and released album The Hard Way in 2004. Debuting at No.4 on the Billboard 200 and No.1 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, it included single "Groupie Luv". Together with fellow rappers Lil' Jon, Xzibit and David Banner, Snoop Dogg appeared in the music video for Korn's "Twisted Transistor".

[edit] 2006: Tha Blue Carpet Treatment

Snoop Dogg's appeared on two tracks from Ice Cube's 2006 album Laugh Now, Cry Later, including the single "Go to Church", and on several tracks on Tha Dogg Pound's Cali Iz Active the same year. Also, his latest song, "Real Talk", was leaked over the Internet in the summer of 2006 and a video was later released on the Internet. "Real Talk" was a dedication to former Crips leader Stanley "Tookie" Williams and a diss to Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Governor of California. Two other singles on which Snoop made a guest performance were "Keep Bouncing" by Too $hort (also with will.i.am of The Black Eyed Peas) and "Gangsta Walk" by Coolio.

Snoop's 2006 album, Tha Blue Carpet Treatment, debuted on the Billboard 200 at No.5 and has sold over 850,000 copies. The album and the second single "That's That Shit" featuring R. Kelly were well received by critics. In the album, he collaborated in a video with E-40 and other West Coast rappers for his single "Candy (Drippin' Like Water)".

[edit] 2007–08: Ego Trippin'

In July 2007, Snoop Dogg also made history by becoming the first artist to release a track as a ringtone prior to its release as a single, which was "It's the D.O.G." On July 7, 2007, Snoop Dogg performed at the Live Earth concert, Hamburg.^[19] Snoop Dogg has ventured into singing for Bollywood with his first ever rap for an Indian movie Singh Is Kinng; the title of the song is also "Singh is Kinng". He also appears in the movie as himself.^[20] The album featuring the song was released on June 8, 2008 on Junglee Music Records.^[21] He released his ninth studio album, Ego Trippin' (selling 400,000 copies in the U.S.), along with the first single, "Sexual Eruption". The single peaked at No.7 on the Billboard 100, featuring Snoop using autotune. The album featured production from QDT (Quik-Dogg-Teddy).

[edit] 2009–10: Malice n Wonderland and More Malice

Snoop was appointed an executive position at Priority Records. His tenth studio album, Malice n Wonderland, was released on December 8, 2009. The first single from the album, "Gangsta Luv", featuring The-Dream, peaked at No.35 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album debuted at No.23 on the Billboard 200, selling 61,000 copies its first week, making it his lowest charting album. His third single, "I Wanna Rock", peaked at No.41 on the Billboard Hot 100. Snoop features on the latest Gorillaz album, Plastic Beach. The fourth single from Malice n Wonderland, titled "Pronto", featuring Soulja Boy Tell 'Em, was released on iTunes on December 1, 2009. Snoop re-released the album under the name More Malice.

[edit] 2011–12: Doggumentary

Snoop collaborated with Katy Perry on the first single from her second mainstream album, "California Gurls", which was released on May 11, 2010. Snoop can also be heard on the track "Flashing" by Dr. Dre and on Curren$y's song "Seat Change". He was also featured on a new single from Australian singer Jessica Mauboy, titled "Get 'em Girls" (released September 2010). Snoop's latest effort was backing American recording artist, Emii, on her second single entitled "Mr. Romeo" (released October 26, 2010 as a follow-up to "Magic"). Snoop also collaborated with American comedy troupe The Lonely Island in their song "Turtleneck & Chain", in their 2011 album Turtleneck & Chain.

Snoop Dogg's newest studio album is Doggumentary. The album went through several tentative titles including Doggystyle 2: Tha Doggumentary and Doggumentary Music: 0020 before being released under the final title Doggumentary during March 2011.^[22] Snoop was featured on Gorillaz' latest album Plastic Beach on a track called: "Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach" with the The Hypnotic Brass, he also completed another track with them entitled "Sumthing Like This Night" which does not appear on Plastic Beach, yet does appear on Doggumentary. He also appears on the latest Tech N9ne album All 6's and 7's (released June 7, 2011) on a track called "Pornographic" which also features E-40 and Krizz Kaliko.

[edit] 2012–present: Reincarnated

On February 4, 2012, Snoop Dogg announced a new documentary alongside his new upcoming studio album entitled Reincarnated.^[23] Snoop Dogg is set to headline the Osheaga Festival in Montreal, Canada this summer. ^[24]

Other ventures[link]

Media appearances[link]

Snoop Dogg has appeared on television and in films throughout his career. In 1998, Snoop had a cameo appearance in the film Half Baked as the "Scavenger Smoker".^[25] In 2000, Snoop (as "Michael J. Corleone") directed Snoop Dogg's Doggystyle, a pornographic film produced by Hustler. The film, combining hip hop with x-rated material, was a huge success and won "Top Selling Release of the Year" at the 2002 AVN Awards.^[26] Snoop then directed Snoop Dogg's Hustlaz: Diary of a Pimp in 2002 (using the nickname "Snoop Scorsese").^[27]