Editors: Dr. Sara L. Uckelman, Dr. Jennifer A. McGowan, Genora Grim, and Nina Shiel.

Many people view the populations of the European Middle Ages as
static, with most people never going more than a handful of miles from
where they were born, and only those of high status and standing
traveling any great distance. One consequence of such a view is the
perception of medieval cultures as mono-cultural and consisting of
relatively homogeneous peoples. Such a view, however, oversimplifies
the complex cultural situation, and one area of evidence against this
simplified view comes from records of personal names. The study of
personal names can provide surprising insights into the multiculturalism
and motility of medieval peoples, especially as this evidence is often
overlooked by those who are not linguists. In order to address this
oversight and bring together relevant research on the issue of personal
names, multiculturalism, and motility in medieval Europe, we are calling
for papers for a themed section of the journal Onoma with particular focus on these issues.

The primary scope for the themed section is Europe (western and
eastern) from the fall of the Roman empire until the end of the 16th
century, though we welcome proposals which cover cultures outside of
this geographical area which nevertheless engage with medieval Europe,
such as the introduction of Spanish names in the New World, or the
influence of Arabic cultures as evidence by their influence on name
pools. Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):

• The names of foreigners recorded in vernacular languages not their own.
• The evidence of locative bynames for travel and migration.
• Mixed-language names.
• Persons with multiple locative bynames.
• The eclipse of “native” names by “Christian” names during the 11th-12th C.

If you would like to contribute to this themed section of Onoma, please submit a title and abstract by November 1, 2014, to onoma50@dmnes.org.
Accepted authors will be informed by November 15, 2014, and the final
deadline for completed the articles will be May 31, 2015.