onomastician
nounEtymology From onomastic + -ian.
1
A person who studies onomastics; one who studies or researches names.
- The semantics of names vs. the semantics of words has been the most attractive and active field of inquiry in onomastics, investigating a large cultural variety of names and their embeddedness in many different languages. It is not surprising therefore that the onomastician’s closest ally is the lexicologist; the student of names is most easily understood by the student of words.1984, W. F. H. Nicolaisen, “What Crisis in Onomastics?”, in Names: A Journal of Onomastics, volume 32, number 1, →DOI, →ISSN, page 17:
- As an onomastician, I take it to be axiomatic that name choice in a great author’s works is a highly controlled and deliberate act.2006, Jeremy Parrott, “‘Change All the Names’: A Samuel Beckett onomasticon”, in il Nome nel testo. Rivista internazionale di onomastica letteraria, →ISSN, page 615:
1 more example
- What is a mere layman doing amongst people talking about such a specialised subject. Shouldn’t the organisers have invited our only onomastician to give this keynote?2020, Bojosi Otlhogile, “‘A Name Tells a Story’: Botswana’s Place, Street and Landmark Names – A Layman’s Perspective”, in Botswana Notes and Records, volume 52, →ISSN, →JSTOR, page 138:
- Related terms
- onomasiology, onomastic, onomasticon, onomatology, onomatopoeia, onomatopoeic, onomatopoetic