Full Name, Please

"Names, once they are in common use, quickly become mere sounds, their etymology being buried, like so many of the earth's marvels, beneath the dust of habit." That's what Salman Rushdie thought… Read more Audio

Samuel Goldwyn once said, "Every Tom, Dick and Harry is called Arthur." Well that's clearly not true - especially if you're from China. In the second of the series Full Name Please, Amelia Nurse looks… Read more Audio

"If you should have a boy, do not christen him John...'Tis a bad name and goes against a man. If my name had been Edmund I should have been more fortunate." John Keats is not the only one to feel this… Read more Audio

We've established that human naming systems are infinitely complex - but what about the animal world? It turns out that we're not the only ones to use names. Dolphins have individual names as well… Read more Audio