UND released a list Monday night of 1,172 unique suggestions, along with accompanying commentary, that will be eligible for consideration to become the university’s new nickname.
“We figured there would be quite a few,” UND spokesman Peter Johnson said. “I don’t know if anyone had a strong sense of how many, but I can’t say I’m surprised. Obviously there’s been a lot of interest.”
The thousands of submissions range from names looking to capture a piece of North Dakota or UND to the silly to the profane. The full list of considered names is available here . The non-consideration list, available here , does contain obscenities, racist terms and other offensive phrases.
The submissions will be vetted by the university’s Nickname Committee, which will use a point system to score attributes and functionality.
In addition to the 214-page list of eligible nicknames, the university also published a 628-page list of nickname suggestions that will not be considered, including Fighting Sioux, Sioux and other American Indian nicknames, by the committee.
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Another popular theme among the names that won’t be considered were submissions for no nickname.
The lists aren’t necessarily set in stone, Johnson said, and there is still a possibility names may move from one list to the other at the discretion of the committee.
During an April meeting, the committee decided members would view the lists individually before meeting to narrow the list by vote. Johnson said he expects the committee will be meeting soon to review the suggestions.
The list of considered names will be reduced to three options that will be put to a public vote.
The release of the submissions comes after a monthlong process of collecting them both online and through the mail from the public.
Within about the first 24 hours of the nickname website being up April 1, about 3,000 suggestions had been submitted, Johnson told the Herald last month.
The suggested names were submitted to Padilla CRT, the Nickname Committee’s branding consultants, according to a university news release.
Submissions placed on the non-consideration list were placed there for three reasons:
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They are unavailable from a Web domain name standpoint.
They cannot be used under NCAA policy or under the terms of the 2007 Consent Agreement.
They contain profanity or other inappropriate language.
Both lists are organized alphabetically and each submission is listed separately, contributing to the length of the documents.
The most-submitted option for consideration appears to be North Dakota, the name the university has used since retiring the Fighting Sioux nickname in 2012. Other popular submissions on the list of considered submissions included the Flickertails, NoDaks and the North Stars.
Johnson noted the process is not a popularity contest based on the number of times a name was submitted.
On the list of rejected names, the suggestion of “Fighting Sioux” proved a popular submission, with entries starting on page 32 and ending on page 160. Between submissions and comments, the phrase is mentioned 5,778 times.
“Clearly, there’s a lot of people that still have a lot of feelings about that name,” Johnson said. “But the reality is we’re not going back to that name, we can’t go back to that name. We appreciate the passion of the fans, but we need to move forward with the new nickname.”
More on the UND nickname:
Aviators to Zombies: UND group begins sifting through nickname ideas
UND releases potential nickname suggestions
Condensed list of names under consideration
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Full list of names under consideration
Names not under consideration (contains profanity, vulgarity, racist terms)
Opinions on the UND nickname:
OUR OPINION: Frackers, Force, Flickertails, Frost Giants, Flood
BRAD SCHLOSSMAN: No name remains unique , so stick with UND
TOM MILLER: In UND nickname hunt, don't dismiss the strange
WAYNE NELSON: No matter the opposition , UND likely to have new nickname
KARI LUCIN: UND nicknames: An analysis of the good, the bad and the ugly
