The right name can be a time capsule, conjuring a moment, a place, a turning point, even a feeling. What name is special to 2025? What’s your choice for the Name of the Year?
The Name of the Year isn’t necessarily a person of the year. It’s a name or nickname that took on significance in a way that connected to other threads in names and society. Past NOTYs have included the names of real people, like Breonna in 2020, but also characters like Barbie in 2023, products like Siri in 2011, and even jokes like Boaty McBoatface in 2016.
What names have caught your imagination this year? Perhaps a viral trend? An argument-starter? A news headline? Or just a name that you somehow kept hearing everywhere? Submit your nominations and rationales in the comments section below, or join the discussion on our Facebook page. This is a conversation, so please second others’ nominations and offer arguments pro and con. As you contemplate candidates, here are some points to consider:
- How central is the name to the story?
- How has the name changed or emerged in 2025?
- How does the name story connect to broader trends, in names or in the world?
Let the name talk begin!
30 Comments
Zohran!
I second this. I saw an interview in which two talking heads were talking about the need for the Democratic party to become the big tent party. Someone quipped, “We already are. From Abigail to Zohran.” I do think part of the story of Zohran Mamdani’s historic campaign was his name. I heard dozens of reporters struggling to pronounce it correctly, and many of them commented about how they just couldn’t seem to get it right. But they were trying.
On the flip side, I heard similar missteps with the pronunciation of Ghislaine Maxwell’s first name. Some of the journalists I regularly watch have decided that they are either going to deliberately mispronounce her name or that they will not learn what the correct pronunciation is because “she doesn’t deserve it”. I find the contrast to be fascinating. Two people involved in huge news stories, and I’m encouraged that the journalists are working to respect Mamdani by pronouncing his name correctly. And I salute them for not bothering with Ghislaine.
Zohran has the most early votes for sure! Can I play devil’s advocate? Trying to demean a candidate or paint them as untrustworthy by playing up their non-Anglo name has been a political staple for some time now. It was part of what made Barack the NOTY back in 2007, and I wrote about the deliberate mispronunciations of Kamala in 2020. Zohran may be a new and different story, but how exactly? And what is different in 2025?
I felt Kamala was the obvious choice for last year’s NOTY (though I enjoyed reading your explanation for choosing Shaboozey). Zohran certainly fits a long-standing pattern!
Excellent points. The only argument I can make in favor of Zohran as being au courant is the deepening of the anti-immigrant sentiment and its use as a cudgel. That’s definitely nothing new, and anti-immigrant sentiment ebbs and flows, so although I do think the rhetoric has been heightened in 2025, I agree that this is not a new naming story.
I concur that “Zohran Mamdani” is old hat. “Ooh, spoooooky foreign name!” as a scare tactic is twenty years old, and he wasn’t even the only NYC mayoral candidate whose initials were “ZM.” Zzzzzohran, more like! Har har.
“Zohran KWAME Mamdani,” on the other hand, is a really fascinating name. I can’t think of another politician who’s really leaned into their middle name over the course of their career like this. The surface level read is that an “exotic” middle name like that is meant to play up his African “heritage” — he’s of Indian (Gujarati) descent, but he was born in Uganda. His academic dad named him after Kwame Nkrumah. (Who is, yes, Ghanaian, not Ugandan — I’m guessing this was a pan-African thing.) There’s obviously a cynical motivation for him to say “I’m an African-American named Kwame!” (e.g., passing yourself off as black on your college apps), but I also wonder whether this was a defense mechanism for a Muslim who came of age in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. Kwame peaks in the SSA data in 1990, the same year Zohran was born; perverse as this sounds from a Generic Anglo perspective, going by “Kwame” would be a savvy move to establish his bona fides as an American.
A lot of nuance here beyond “white people can’t pronounce it” imo!
I nominate DOGE for Name of the Year. This year, the federal government was put in the hands of men who prioritized looking and sounding cool over the interests of the American people and respect for the law. Naming a cost-cutting initiative after a goofy dog meme is emblematic of this year of chainsaws and gilt ballrooms. Nearly a decade after Boaty McBoatFace, it is no longer possible to draw a line between the silly and the serious.
Also, Elon Musk might have clung to power even longer if he hadn’t called his questionably legal task force a “Department” for the sake of the name DOGE. We know from X Æ A-12 that he cares more about the way a name looks than its practicality or legality.
I second DOGE. Not only is it a reference to a meme and the subsequent cryptocurrency, but it was the title of a Venetian official for hundreds of years. While many supporters might not have been aware, I’m guessing Elon and/or people around him knew about the connection. It provides an air of legitimacy to something that was profoundly unserious (while still horrifically damaging).
How about Leo? I think the new Pope chose the name specifically with reference to current time. Here’s a quote found in:
https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2025-05/matteo-bruni-holy-see-press-office-conference-leo-xiv-pope-elect.html
Turning to the name chosen by the new Pope, Bruni confirmed that the decision to be called Leo XIV was a clear and deliberate reference to Pope Leo XIII, author of the 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum. That document marked the beginning of the Church’s modern social doctrine.
“In this context,” Bruni said, “it is clearly a reference to the lives of men and women, to their work – even in an age marked by artificial intelligence.”
Luigi
Ennui and fear.
FYI, names submitted on other platforms: Zohran and Rumi (from the global phenomenon KPop Demon Hunters)
I was thinking about this comment and wondered whether KPop Demon Hunters itself would qualify? I say this as someone who hasn’t seen the movie (although my husband and one of my kids has) and really knows nothing about KPop. It seems to have been everywhere this year and its influence is inescapable. I work with young kids, and their biggest request for colouring-in pages lately has been KPop Demon Hunters. I hear the songs everywhere and have seen people wearing Huntrix clothes when out and about.
In terms of the name, I think it’s interesting. When I first heard about it, I imagined something very dark and spooky, because of the demon hunters part. The Kpop part threw me, to be honest, because I think of KPop as something light and fluffy (although I understand that there are some unsettling undercurrents to the entire phenomenon). It was only later on, after my husband watched it and told me that it’s essentially a kids’ movie, that I realised its reach was much broader than I had thought. I assumed it was aimed at perhaps teenagers; now, I see it appeals to a wide section of society, all over the world.
In a year when a lot of attention has been focused on the USA, I think it speaks to a different audience of people globally who want something to escape from reality. From what I’ve heard, the storyline of the movie is very positive and about being true to yourself. I think that resonates with everyone, and especially the younger generations who are very aware of the type of world they stand to inherit.
KPop Demon Hunters, as a name phenomenon, is something instantly recognisable. It’s an unusual format for movie title. It straightaway announces that it involves KPop – itself a global entity – despite (surprisingly to me) being an American film. It puts KPop front and centre, knowing that its audience will first and foremost be KPop fans (but obviously its appeal has proved much broader). The second part, Demon Hunters, reflects the storyline of the film, but perhaps subconsciously also appeals to people who might take different meanings of what demon hunting might involve (especially in the context of 2025).
Rumi… hm! It is sort of a curious name, insofar as it seems to have been chosen for reasons totally unrelated to the most famous Rumi (the poet) or even the second most famous Rumi (Beyonce’s daughter).
To my mind though HUNTR/X is the most interesting name in that film. It’s supposed to be “huntrix,” like some made up female form of “hunter,” yes? But it’s also like… hon. And “tricks.” And what’s with the slash??
It’s definitely interesting how HUNTR/X has managed to join the modern turbo X as in X games with the archaic feminine as in executrix! Does anyone know whether the slash is supposed to be a stylized I or more like the slash in F/X?
The first few that come to mind…
Anora – A film character who brought attention to the experiences of sex workers worldwide; the movie’s director/writer/producer/editor set the record for most Academy Awards won by a single person for the same film
Kendrick – His bold Super Bowl performance, full of historical references and pop culture easter eggs, had everybody talking
Leo – Name changes don’t get more high-profile than a new pope choosing his papal name; for the first time, a U.S. American (dual citizen with Peru) is the spiritual leader for over 17% of the world’s population
Charlie Kirk – A name that provokes an immediate emotional response; in the wake of his assassination, a person’s feelings about his legacy have become a litmus test for their alignment in our polarized political climate
And some non-human names…
Gulf of America – An example of how (re)naming can be used to express power and intent
Department of War – Ditto
SNAP – The political football that symbolized much broader partisan conflict, while representing very real survival concerns for 1 in 8 U.S. Americans
Gulf of America vs Department of War is an interesting one. I remember reading that the Department of Defense actually was called the Department of War in the past. Gulf of America, on the other hand, is novel, as far as I know.
Changing a name to fit a new identity isn’t a novel concept in itself – some might bristle at the juxtaposition, but some newly religious people want to only be referred to by their religious name (I’ve seen this in Judaism), and the more obvious example these days is trans.
… On the other hand, what does it mean to “deadname” an inanimate object like a body of water? Versus a place where people live? [Insert “Istanbul is Constantinople” here… And now we’re back to the Department of War!]
I’m trying to figure out how to make 6-7 qualify as a name. All of a sudden, all the kids know 6-7 and yet, it means nothing. Surely there’s a metaphor there.
To make it qualify as a name, I’d probably take 6 from Spanish (Seis) and 7 from German (sieben) to get Seiseben. Already I can see Ben as a potential nickname.
This is sort of an anti-name of the year – but it’s fascinating to me that with the explosion of chat AI, we aren’t really seeing much naminess with it. We aren’t seeing Alexa and Siri and Cortana, we’re seeing ChatGPT and Gemini and Copilot.
Is this just a lesson learned from previous naming (now every Alexa is mad at Amazon), in a similar vein to Covid and Delta? Or is there something deeper to… this already feels a bit “too human,” and so companies choose names that lean into characterizing the software as a program or a tool or at most a robot (Gemini does feel “namey” but it’s more of a robot name than a person name) instead of a person.
Ooh, this is a great insight! Along with Megan W.’s nomination of 6-7, the lack of a human name of AI does somehow seem very 2025. What does anything mean anymore?!
AI “names”: copilot, Gemini, Chat GPT, Grok, and … Claude. Only one of them is human a name. I wonder about Claude and how it was named. Did the programmers think the name would attract more users?
My college-aged son reports that his friends use “chat” as a verb. “I chatted the answer”.
Oooh… “chat” is an interesting one!!! Probably niche to middle schoolers and their parents/teachers, it definitely has a name-like use these days.
In Gen Alpha slang, borrowed from streamers, people use “chat” to talk to a group of people. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pKkFrk8gB48
“Chat” being used as a name with the sentence “Chat, is this true?” should definitely be a contender. (Chat meaning ChatGPT.) It was definitely a year when we had to consider our personal relationships (like actual emotional ties) with technology.
The mention of Charlie Kirk reminded me of Brilyn Hollyhand, the young Republican who stepped in to fill his shoes. The -lyn ending is probably thought of as a feminizing spelling and I just thought it was an interesting conversation about gendered names and how spelling conventions emerge and evolve. It happens more often with names given to girls, but the -y- appeals to parents of boys too. Seems unfair that they’d have to avoid it now because it’s become gendered.
I nominate Shohei Ohtani, the Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher/slugger. That skill combination is itself rare (maybe unique) in modern professional baseball, but Ohtani is also the first four-time MLB MVP. His is perhaps the first Japanese name to dominate American baseball (it certainly dominated the 2025 World Series). Bonus: the “Sho” element of his name means “to soar.” And he has a great nickname: “Shotime.”
Probably not conducive to a deep dive, but: Big Balls!?
Ok, not because I like this idea, but it is name-y.
What about Ghislaine and Epstein? They have been in the news all year (and previous years). But they are both largely one name wonders.
What about “Elara”? A lot of people have noticed that if you ask ChatGPT to write a story, it names the main character Elara remarkably often—and if not Elara, then a name that sounds very much like it. Is it some kind of “average” name?
Here are a few links where you can see people discussing this:
https://www.threads.com/@secretstoriesdaily/post/DO1OhyKCjuc/when-you-dont-read-directions-you-fail-silently-sure-enough-a-couple-students-tu?hl=en
https://tanukicorner.com/2024/09/02/blog-i-made-ai-write-a-story-it-was-something/
Good idea—ties in with a huge societal trend