Online and print submissions of nickname suggestions will be accepted April 1 through April 30, the committee decided. Print submissions -- which will be advertised for in newspapers throughout the state, as well as possibly other avenues -- will allow one nickname suggestion, while the online process will allow the option of two.

Each suggestion, which will be limited to 25 characters, may be accompanied by a description of why that nickname was chosen, to be limited to 140 characters, the committee decided.

Suggestions may be anonymous, and there will be a screening process for suggestions already trademarked or deemed inappropriate.

UND President Robert Kelley recently tasked the new nickname committee with narrowing the public's suggestions to three nickname options for a public vote in May. UND's former Fighting Sioux nickname was retired in late 2012 after the NCAA threatened sanctions.

Following the committee's decision Wednesday on nickname submission guidelines, UND public affairs staff will finalize its work on an online portal for submissions, which will be announced publicly once complete, said Susan Walton, associate vice president of public affairs at UND.

The committee chose the April time period so that it will have roughly 10 to 12 days to narrow the submissions to three options for public vote. That short timeline will allow the final nickname options to be announced in the May issue of UND's Alumni Review magazine.

With that plan, public voting for a nickname would likely start in mid- to late-May, Walton said.

Also Wednesday, the nickname committee narrowed a set of attributes it will consider in choosing the three options.

Those attributes, which will be listed on the online submissions page, are:

Be unique, recognizable, inspiring and distinctly UND's.

Promote a sense of pride, strength, fierceness and passion.

Be representative of the state and region in a way that honors the traditions and heritage of the past but also looks to the future.

Be a unifying and rallying symbol.

Though nickname committee members came to unanimous conclusions on the submission time period and attributes, their discussion often touched on the daunting, important task of selecting three nickname options for public vote.

"It's not one name," said committee member John Bridewell, an aviation professor at UND. "We have to come up with three names that we would be satisfied with no matter what the public vote is."

At one point, committee member Lowell Schweigert, a UND alumnus and current UND booster chair, suggested the committee may be moving too quickly with its May deadline.

"What we're doing here is really important," he said. "It's a really emotional issue, and for people to get their emotions in check, it sometimes takes time."

But the committee decided to move forward with its quick timeline, planning to have multiple meetings in April and May to finalize its processes for public voting and selecting three options.