nommons

Nommons is a fictional term used in speculative fiction and worldbuilding to denote a hereditary guild or social class responsible for naming and onomastic practices within a constructed culture. It is not a real linguistic category or an established term in modern anthropology.

The word combines a simple root for name with a produced suffix to suggest a formal office or guardianship. In the imagined society, nommons regulate proper names, ritual epithets, and place-names, maintaining a centralized Word-Archive that records and validates new names.

Nommons participate in naming ceremonies that occur at key life moments and during political transitions. They adjudicate disputes over names, authorize new toponyms, and can confer or revoke naming privileges. Although they are respected, their authority often collides with official governments or religious authorities in the fiction.

In fiction, the nommon system offers a lens on how language and identity interact with authority, memory, and social hierarchy. Some narratives emphasize ritual purity and lineage, others focus on bureaucratic process and the politics of branding.

Related topics include onomastics, nomenclature, naming rights, and naming ceremonies.