Innovations in names and name patterns was the theme of a Nordic Symposium held in Halmstad in November 2013. The symposium was arranged by Halmstad University in collaboration with NORNA. The proceedings present 20 symposium papers. They offers insights into names in multicultural environments, changes in the gender marking of first names, introduction of new names in the Swedish name day calendar, the role of names in literature, as well as emergence of new name patterns in place names, personal names, names of animals, planes, ships etc. The proceedings cover a large time span from iron age to contemporary time and deal with names from different Nordic countries as well as Germany. Several articles also present new theories and methods within the field of onomastics.