The first 'Gene Nomenclature Across Species' meeting was held on 12th and 13th October 2009, at the Møller Centre in Cambridge, UK. This meeting, organised and hosted by the HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee (HGNC), brought together invited experts from the fields of gene nomenclature, phylogenetics and genome assembly and annotation. The central aim of the meeting was to discuss the issues of coordinating gene naming across vertebrates, culminating in the publication of recommendations for assigning nomenclature to genes across multiple species.