Onomastics

The name of research, including onomastics, Onomatologie or onomastics (from ancient Greek: . Ὀνομαστική [ ἐπιστήμη ], onomastiké [ episteme ] ), deals with the Meaning, Origin and distribution of names, so among other things, personal names ( anthroponymy ), but also the name of geographical objects ( toponymy ) or other things.

Research area

The onomastics describes as a sub-discipline of linguistics, the specific properties of proper names ( pre-, family-, local -, water -, corridor, trade names, Astronyme ( star names ), etc. ). Since these occur in different areas of life, it shall also benefits in kind of the same and works with historical, social and natural sciences closely together for the names have the function of an important type of source. Similar to the language historical research, it follows the name origin and history associated with eponyms, names users and naming and changing application situations. The international coordinating body is the International Council of Onomastic Sciences ( ICOS, Office: Uppsala / Sweden).

Related areas are the linguistic discipline of etymology, which generally examines the meaning and origin of words, the genealogy (genealogy ), which for the origin ( "provenance" ) of individuals and families interested in, and the voice geography, the spatial distribution recorded current name of all kinds.