donym

Donym is a neologism used to describe a stable alias that stands in for a real person’s name in contexts where disclosure of the actual identity is restricted or undesirable. It functions as a surrogate identifier that preserves continuity across records, narratives, or analyses without revealing the person’s legal name. The term is not universally standardized and appears chiefly in discussions of privacy, data ethics, and qualitative reporting.

Distinctions from related terms are a common focus in early usage. A pseudonym is typically chosen freely to conceal identity in public or literary contexts, whereas a donym emphasizes a consistent, traceable linkage to the real person within a protected or controlled setting. In practice, a donym may be used in research reports, clinical notes, or data sets where researchers need to refer to the same individual over time without exposing their actual name. The concept can overlap with anonymization and de-identification, though it centers on maintaining longitudinal referential integrity rather than removing all identifying signals.

Etymology for donym is not firmly established; it is treated as a contemporary term formed with the -onym suffix common to naming terms. Its precise origin is traceable to privacy and data-ethics discourse in the 2010s and 2020s, with usage varying among disciplines.

Examples include field notes in which a participant is referred to by a donym (for example, D-3) to allow cross-referencing across interviews, or a data file that uses stable donyms (ID-1287, ID-582) to track interactions while protecting real identities.

See also: pseudonym, anonymization, de-identification, data privacy, onomastics.