It's time to play the latest NPR Word Puzzle! Can you figure out the given names that were popular last year?

Every year around this time I present a "new names in the news" quiz. I'm going to give you some names that you'd probably never heard before 2025 but that were prominent in the news during the past 12 months. You tell me who or what they are.

 

1. Zohran Mamdani

 

2. Karoline Leavitt

 

3. Mark Carney

 

4. Robert Francis Prevost (hint: Chicago)

 

5. Jeffrey Goldberg (hint: The Atlantic)

 

6. Sanae Takaichi

 

7. Nameless raccoon, Hanover County, Virginia

 

Answer Keys

1.  The newly sworn-in mayor of NYC

2.  The White House Press Secretary

3.  The Prime Minister of Canada

4.  The new Pope Leo

5.  an American journalist who is the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic

6.  the first female Prime Minister of Japan

7.  the drunk raccoon (The raccoon reportedly fell through the ceiling of the state-run liquor store, damaged merchandise on several shelves, consumed some of the spirits, and then retired to the bathroom where it was found asleep)