Onomastics (or onomatology in older texts) is the study of , including their etymology, history, and use.
An alethonym ('true name') or an orthonym ('real name') is the proper name of the object in question, the object of onomastic study. Scholars studying onomastics are called onomasticians.
Onomastics has applications in data mining, with applications such as named-entity recognition, or recognition of the origin of names. It is a popular approach in historical research, where it can be used to identify ethnic minorities within populations and for the purpose of prosopography.
Etymology
Onomastics originates from the
Ancient Greek onomastikós (),
[ ὀνομαστικός , Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus project] itself derived from ónoma ().
[ ὄνομα , Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus project]
Branches
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Toponymy (or more precisely toponomastics), one of the principal branches of onomastics, is the study of place names.
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Anthroponymy is the study of personal names.
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Literary onomastics is the branch that researches the names in works of literature and other fiction.
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Socio-onomastics or re-onomastics is the study of names within a society or culture.
See also
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Ancient Greek personal names
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Extinction of surnames
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Hydronym
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Mononymous persons
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Naming convention
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-onym, listing the technical kinds of names
Organizations
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American Name Society
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English Place-Name Society
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Guild of One-Name Studies
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International Council of Onomastic Sciences
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Society for Name Studies in Britain and Ireland
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United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names
External links