Socio-onomastics

Socio-onomastics is the study of names through a sociolinguistic lens, and is part of the broader topic of onomastics. Socio-onomastics 'examines the use and variety of names through methods that demonstrate the social, cultural, and situational conditions in name usage'.^[1] 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.^[2]

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).^[3]

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?^[4]

Notable scholars

Socio-onomastic study of nicknames 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, established a number of crucial theoretical concerns.

Further reading

• 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).
• 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

1. "About socio-onomastics – New trends in Nordic Socio-onomastics". Nordic Socioonomastics. Retrieved 6 May 2022.
2. Ainiala, Terhi; Östman, Jan-Ola (2017). "Introduction". In Ainiala, T.; Östman, J-O. (eds.). Socio-Onomastics: The Pragmatics of Names. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. p. 7. ISBN 9789027265692.
3. Walther, H. (1971). Namenforschung heute. Ihre Ergebnisse und Aufgaben in der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik. Berlin.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
4. Ainiala, Terhi (2016). "Names in Society". In Hough, Carole (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Names and Naming. Oxford. p. 372.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)