onomastology

Onomastology is the scholarly study of proper names—personal names, place names, and other labels—and the origins, forms, meanings, changes, and social functions of naming. The preferred term in most academic works is onomastics, but onomastology is encountered in some sources. The field investigates how names are created (naming practices), how they spread through languages and cultures, and how they reflect identity, status, power, migration, and historical contact.

Major subfields include anthroponymy (the study of personal names, including given names and surnames); toponymy (place names); hydronymy (water names); ethnonyms and exonyms; and the study of corporate, product, and brand names. The discipline also intersects with linguistics, history, anthropology, and cultural studies, examining naming systems across different societies and historical periods.

Researchers employ a variety of methods, including historical linguistics, archival records, censuses, literature and inscriptions, and surveys. They use comparative and semantic analyses and geography-based approaches to trace name origins, variants, and distributions, and to map how names migrate and transform over time.

Applications and significance extend to genealogy, sociolinguistics, cultural history, and branding. Onomastics sheds light on naming conventions, identity construction, and the social implications of names, including legal name changes, censorship, and the politics of naming in public life.

The term derives from Greek onoma "name" and the suffixes -logy or -stics, reflecting its long-standing presence in classical scholarship. Today, onomastics is the more widely used form, with onomastology appearing as a less common variant.