onomástica

Onomástica, or onomastics, is the scholarly study of proper names across languages and cultures. It examines the origin, form, meaning, distribution, and social use of names, including those referring to people, places, and other named entities. The field aims to explain how names arise, change, spread, and acquire social significance over time.

The field is commonly divided into subfields such as anthroponymy (the study of personal names and surnames) and toponymy (place names). Other branches address hydronymy (names of bodies of water), ethnonyms, and other categories of named terms. Onomastics also analyzes naming practices within societies, including patronymic and matronymic systems, religious or linguistic influences, and processes of adoption, adaptation, and censorship.

Methods in onomastics combine philological and historical research with linguistic analysis of name elements (etymology, morphology). Researchers use corpus studies of contemporary usage and mapping of name distributions (onomastic geography). Data sources include genealogical records, cadastral maps, church registers, censuses, inscriptions, and modern digital databases.

Applications of onomastics extend to linguistics, anthropology, sociology, history, and genealogy. The field helps explain cultural identity, language contact, and migration patterns, and it has practical relevance for branding, marketing, and legal aspects related to personal names in different jurisdictions.

History and scope: Onomastics has roots in ancient and medieval scholarship and gained greater formal organization in the modern period, with expanded cross-cultural study in the 19th and 20th centuries through descriptive and comparative approaches.