polünoomiks

Polünoomiks is an interdisciplinary concept in linguistics and cultural studies that focuses on naming practices involving multiple names for a single referent. It examines how objects, persons, places, and events accumulate and switch between official, local, historical, and honorary names, as well as transliterations and pseudonyms. The field investigates how these naming practices encode social identities, power relations, memory, migration, and language contact.

Etymology: The term combines polü- (many) with onomiks (from onoma “name”), signaling a focus on plurality of names. It is used in Estonian-language scholarship and in cross-linguistic discussions about onomastics.

History: The concept has emerged in recent decades as scholars from linguistics, anthropology and digital humanities engage with multilingual naming in border regions, diasporas and online environments. It is often treated as a complement to established onomastics and toponymy.

Methods: Researchers collect data from ethnographic interviews, archival materials, government registers, newspapers, and large-scale text corpora. Analytical approaches include qualitative discourse analysis, toponymic mapping, and network analysis of name-usage patterns.

Applications: Polünoomiks informs documentation of endangered or evolving naming practices, supports multilingual information retrieval and translation, and aids cultural heritage and policy discussions on renaming and place identity.

Examples: A city with multiple names across languages, a person with a legal name, a historical figure known by several epithets, and a river with ancient and modern names.

Criticism: Debates exist about definitional boundaries with onomastics, potential overlap with sociolinguistics, and concerns about data privacy when analyzing personal names.

See also: Onomastics; Toponymy; Sociolinguistics; Linguistic anthropology; Names.