Socio-onomastics is the study of names through a

sociolinguistic Sociolinguistics is the descriptive, scientific study of how language is shaped by, and used differently within, any given society. The field largely looks at how a language changes between distinct social groups, as well as how it varies unde ...

lens, and is part of the broader topic of

onomastics Onomastics (or onomatology in older texts) is the study of proper names, including their etymology, history, and use. An ''alethonym'' ('true name') or an ''orthonym'' ('real name') is the proper name of the object in question, the object of onom ...

. Socio-onomastics 'examines the use and variety of names through methods that demonstrate the social, cultural, and situational conditions in name usage'. As a discipline, it aims to explore 'the social origin and use of different variants of proper names within various situations and contexts', including both place names and personal names. The term stems from the German ''Sozioonomastik'' and, first emerging among German thinkers in the early 1970s, it is a much younger subdiscipline of onomastics than many others (e.g.

toponymy Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' ( proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage, and types. ''Toponym'' is the general term for a proper na ...

). Research can be contemporary, with data collected through surveys and ethnographical inquiry of modern societies and communities, or historical, based on historical written sources. Methodologically speaking, socio-onomastics focuses on synchronic variation of names over time and space - why are some names given and others not, why are some so popular, why are some remembered by or applied to certain groups of people or places?

Notable scholars

Socio-onomastic study of

nicknames A nickname, in some circumstances also known as a sobriquet, or informally a "moniker", is an informal substitute for the proper name of a person, place, or thing, used to express affection, playfulness, contempt, or a particular character trait ...

has proved particularly productive. James Skipper Jr., Professor of Sociology, focused on the study of nicknames within typically American cultural groups: baseball players and jazz musicians. Alongside Leslie, his ''Toward a Theory of Nicknames: A Case for Socio-Onomastics'', published in the journal ''

Names A name is a term used for identification by an external observer. They can identify a class or category of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a given context. The entity identified by a name is called its referent. A person ...

'', established a number of crucial theoretical concerns.

* Ainiala, T., 'Names in Society' in C. Hough (ed.) ''The Oxford Handbook of Names and Naming'' (Oxford, 2016). * Ainiala, T. and Östman, J. R., ''Socio-onomastics: The Pragmatics of Names'' (Amsterdam, 2017). * Alphey, T. K., "Nicknames in Early Medieval England: A Socio-onomastic Study of Agnomina Before the Twelfth Century" (PhD Thesis, University of Oxford, 2025). https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:0f9b3963-ac4d-48b3-a43e-ff6bb3bc1644 * Hough, C. and Izdebska, D. (eds.), Names and Their Environments' Proceedings of the 25th International Congress of Onomastic Sciences Glasgow, 25-29 August 2014. Volume 4: Theory and Methodology. Socio-onomastics.'' (Glasgow, 2016).https://www.gla.ac.uk/media/Media_576598_smxx.pdf * Leslie, P. L. and Skipper, J. K., 'Towards a Theory of Nicknames: A Case for Socio-onomastics', ''Names'' 38/4 (1990).https://ans-names.pitt.edu/ans/article/view/1253 * Nordic Socio-onomastics Website - https://www.nordicsocioonomastics.org/about-socio-onomastics/

References

{{Sociolinguistics-stub Onomastics

Notable scholars

Further reading

References