The present volume contains most of the papers given at the international symposium on Names in the Economy and Economic History, held at the University of Antwerp from 15 to 17 June 2006. This was the first conference to concentrate exclusively on names in an economic context. It was the aim of the symposium to present a state-of-the-art picture of ongoing research, and to provide greater insight into the subfields of onomastics that are, in one way or another, linked to the economy. In recent years, scholars of onomastics have shown increasing interest in name-giving practices within the world of business and corporate culture. The formation of, the reasons for, the economic function and legal aspects of product names or trade marks on the one hand, and of the names of companies, industrial sites and business premises on the other have been examined in a growing number of publications. The study of names in an economic context encourages interdisciplinary as well as international and intercultural approaches, and, in fact, several contributions to this volume combine linguistic aspects with law and marketing or with a cross-cultural perspective.
This volume is divided into four sections according to those subfields of onomastics linked to business life and socio-economic history: (1) theoretical and legal perspectives on commercial names, (2) product names (in the broadest sense), (3) corporate names, and (4) names and economic history.