Meanings
- pluralplural onlyThe branch of lexicology devoted to the study of names and naming, especially the origins of names.
Her father had long been a student of onomastics, and loved to unpack the names of people they encountered as children.
2024, Susie Dent, Guilty By Definition, Zaffre, page 651 more example
From the point of view of onomastics, proper names fulfill many functions (individualizing, localizing, differentiating etc.).
(Can we date this quote?), David Vaculík, “Parts of the city of Ostrava – The past and current state of urbanonymy”, in Masaryk University Brno, page 405Synonyms: onomatology
Synonyms & antonyms
nounThe branch of lexicology devoted to the study of names and naming, especially the origins of names.
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*h₁nómn̥
- Proto-Hellenic*ónomə
- Ancient Greekὄνομᾰ (ónomă)
- Ancient Greekὀνομάζω (onomázō)
- Ancient Greekὀνομᾰστῐκός (onomăstĭkós)
- Englishonomastic
- Englishonomastics
First attested in 1936, from the adjective onomastic (“of or belonging to naming”) (1716) with a suffix -s, from French onomastique, from Ancient Greek ὀνομαστικός (onomastikós), from ὀνομαστός (onomastós, “named”), form of ὀνομάζω (onomázō, “I name”), from ὄνομα (ónoma, “name”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁nómn̥ (“name”) (whence English name).
More words from French, Ancient Greek, Proto-Indo-European
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Afrikaans onomatologie, naamkunde
- onomatologiebranch of lexicology devoted to the study of names
- naamkundebranch of lexicology devoted to the study of names
- onomastiekbranch of lexicology devoted to the study of names
Basque onomastika
- onomastikabranch of lexicology devoted to the study of names
Bulgarian онома́стика
- онома́стика (onomástika)branch of lexicology devoted to the study of names
Catalan onomàstica
- onomàsticabranch of lexicology devoted to the study of names
Chinese Mandarin 專名學 /专名学
- 專名學 /专名学 (zhuānmíngxué)branch of lexicology devoted to the study of names
Czech onomastika
- onomastikabranch of lexicology devoted to the study of names
Dutch naamkunde, onomastiek
- naamkundebranch of lexicology devoted to the study of names
- onomastiekbranch of lexicology devoted to the study of names
Esperanto onomastiko, nomscienco
- onomastikobranch of lexicology devoted to the study of names
- nomsciencobranch of lexicology devoted to the study of names
Finnish nimistöntutkimus
- nimistöntutkimusbranch of lexicology devoted to the study of names
French onomastique
- onomastiquebranch of lexicology devoted to the study of names
German Onomastik, Namenkunde
- Onomastikbranch of lexicology devoted to the study of names
- Namenkundebranch of lexicology devoted to the study of names
- Onomatologiebranch of lexicology devoted to the study of names
- Onomasiologiebranch of lexicology devoted to the study of names
- Namenforschungbranch of lexicology devoted to the study of names
- Bezeichnungslehrebranch of lexicology devoted to the study of names
Greek ονοματολογία
- ονοματολογία (onomatología)branch of lexicology devoted to the study of names
Hungarian névtan, onomasztika
- névtanbranch of lexicology devoted to the study of names
- onomasztikabranch of lexicology devoted to the study of names
Icelandic nafnfræði
- nafnfræðibranch of lexicology devoted to the study of names
Italian onomastica
- onomasticabranch of lexicology devoted to the study of names
Japanese 固有名詞学
- 固有名詞学 (koyūmeishi-gaku)branch of lexicology devoted to the study of names
Malay onomastik
- onomastikbranch of lexicology devoted to the study of names
Polish onomastyka, nazewnictwo
- onomastykabranch of lexicology devoted to the study of names
- nazewnictwobranch of lexicology devoted to the study of names
Portuguese onomástica
- onomásticabranch of lexicology devoted to the study of names
Romanian onomastică, onomatologie
- onomasticăbranch of lexicology devoted to the study of names
- onomatologiebranch of lexicology devoted to the study of names
Russian онома́стика
- онома́стика (onomástika)branch of lexicology devoted to the study of names
Slovak onomastika
- onomastikabranch of lexicology devoted to the study of names
Spanish onomástica
- onomásticabranch of lexicology devoted to the study of names
Swedish onomastik, namnforskning
- onomastikbranch of lexicology devoted to the study of names
- namnforskningbranch of lexicology devoted to the study of names
Thai นามศาสตร์
- นามศาสตร์branch of lexicology devoted to the study of names
Ukrainian онома́стика
- онома́стика (onomástyka)branch of lexicology devoted to the study of names
Yiddish אָנאָמאַסטיק
- אָנאָמאַסטיק (onomastik)branch of lexicology devoted to the study of names
Cite this entry
onomastics. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/onomastics
“onomastics.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/onomastics. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “onomastics,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/onomastics.
Source: onomastics on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.