Portugueseonomastic

Portugueseonomastic is a subfield of onomastics that studies the names used in Portuguese-speaking communities. It encompasses anthroponyms (personal given names and surnames), toponyms (names of places), and other onomastic material as they occur in Portugal, Brazil, and other Lusophone contexts. The field analyzes the origins, meanings, forms, and social functions of names, as well as patterns of usage across time and space.

Research topics include the etymology and evolution of given names (saint names, biblical and classical borrowings, and later secular or sentimental choices), naming conventions (the use of middle names, patronymics, and multiple family surnames), and the influence of religion, literature, and politics on naming practices. It also tracks toponymic phenomena, such as the creation of place names during exploration, colonization, and urban development, and the renaming of places in post-colonial periods. The Lusophone world exhibits regional variation: Iberian mainland naming cultures, Brazilian naming patterns, and African, Asian, and Indigenous influences in former colonies.

Sources for Portugueseonomastic work include parish registers, civil registries, genealogical databases, and historical documents. Methodologies combine etymology, historical linguistics, sociolinguistics, and corpus-based analysis; geographic information systems (GIS) are used for mapping surnames and toponyms and for distributions across regions. Comparative studies with other Romance languages and with non-Western name traditions illuminate contact influences and cross-cultural exchange.

In contemporary scholarship, trends include the diversification of given names, the rise of hybrid or international names, and shifts in gender dynamics and name-registration practices. Toponymy continues to reflect political memory, migration, and urban planning, with some places undergoing renaming as cultural and demographic landscapes evolve.