onomastics
/ˌɑː.noʊˈmæs.tɪks/noun
onomastics is a noun meaning “The branch of lexicology devoted to the study of names and naming, especially the origins of names” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled O-N-O-M-A-S-T-I-C-S and has 4 syllables, and it appears about once in every 55 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).
What does onomastics mean?
noun
- 1
The branch of lexicology devoted to the study of names and naming, especially the origins of names.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce onomastics?
- UK /ˌɒ.nəʊˈmæs.tɪks/
- US /ˌɑː.noʊˈmæs.tɪks/
- US /ˌɑː.nəˈmæs.tɪks/
Onomastics has 4 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-onomastics.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
How common is onomastics?
Onomastics appears about once in every 55 million words in written English, the 231,291st most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Onomastics in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense branch of lexicology devoted to the study of names:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | onomastique |
| German | Onomastik, Namenkunde, Onomatologie, Onomasiologie, Namenforschung, Bezeichnungslehre |
| Portuguese | onomástica |
| Spanish | onomástica |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.