onomastics

[on-uh-mas-tiks]

noun

(used with a singular verb)

1. the study of the origin, history, and use of proper names.

onomastics

/ ˌɒnəˈmæstɪks /

noun

1. (functioning as singular) the study of proper names, esp of their origins

2. (functioning as singular or plural) a systematization of the facts about how proper names are formed in a given language

Other Word Forms

• onomastician noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of onomastics¹

First recorded in 1930–35; onomastic, -ics

Example Sentences

In case you are wondering, this fact and others make up part of an entire field called “onomastics.”

Read more on New York Times

I studied a branch of linguistics called onomastics, which involves the history and origin of proper names.

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Parents following larger cultural trends when looking for baby names is nothing new, says Cleveland Evans, a former president of the American Name Society, an group that promotes onomastics, the academic study of proper names.

Read more on Time

But sociologists and experts in onomastics, the study of names, said the diminishment of nicknames is not exclusive to famous athletes.

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We are as yet so imperfectly acquainted with the onomastics of the nations surrounding the Semites that it is hazardous to attempt to locate these people.

Read more on Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• jargon 
• language 
• lingo 
• phrasing 
• vocabulary