Onomastic Studies Research Articles

On the Need to Legitimize Onomastics in Academia

References Bryant, Margaret M. “After 25 Years of Onomastic Study.” Names 24 (1976): 30–55. Finegan, Edward. Attitudes Toward English Usage: The History of a War of Words. New York: Teachers College Press, 1980. Gourman, Jack. The Gourman Report: A Rating of Undergraduate Programs in American and International Universities. Los Angeles: National Education Standards, 1989. Gourman, Jack. The Gourman Report: A Rating of Graduate and Professional Programs in American and International Universities. Los Angeles: National Education Standards, 1989. Grimaud, Michel. “Onomastics and the Study of Literature.” Yearbook of Comparative and General Literature 38 (1989): 16–35. Gourman, Jack. “Whither Literary Onomastics? “Prufrock Revisited.” Names 41 (1993): 5–14. Lawson, Edwin D., ed. Social Science Contributions to Names. Names 31.4 (1983). Lawson, Edwin D. “Personal Names: 100 Years of Social Science Contributions.” Names 32, 34 (1984/1986): 45–73, 89-90. Lawson, Edwin D. “For Editors, Authors, and Readers: What We Can Do to Improve Our Journals.” ANS Bulletin No. 84 (1990): 6–8. Markey, T.L. “Crisis and Cognition in Onomastics.” Names 30 (1982): 129–42. Neuffer, Claude Henry. “The Origin and Development of a State Onomastic Periodical.” Names 16 (1968): 127–29. Nicolaisen, W.F.H. “Field-Collecting in Onomastics.” Names 27 (1979): 162–78. Nicolaisen, W.F.H. “What Crisis in Onomastics?” Names 32 1(984): 14–25. Stewart, George R. “The Field of the American Name Society.” Names 1 (1953): 73–78. Stewart, George R. “On the State of the Society.” Names 5 (1957): 59–60. Weitman, Sasha. “Some Methodological Issues in Quantitative Onomastics.” Names 29 (1981): 181–96.

A Provincial Bibliography on Names in the Works of Shakespeare

A Provincial Bibliography on Names in the Works of Shakespeare

Bibliography for 1980

This bibliography is meant to include all books, articles and significant reviews published in any branch of Anglo-Saxon studies during 1980. It excludes reprints unless they contain new material. It will be continued annually. The year of publication of a book or article is 1980 unless otherwise stated. There is a separate section for onomastic studies for the first time. The arrangement and the pages on which the sections begin are as follows:

The Date of the Tocra Graffiti

The large numbers of roughly-cut inscriptions on the inner face of the ancient city wall at Tocra, in the area south of the east gate, have often attracted attention. Interest in them flagged when it was realised that they consisted essentially of personal names; but recent developments in onomastic studies have given a new significance to personal names. Moreover since R. G. Goodchild dug there in the sixties it has been apparent that the inscribed stretch of the city-wall had been utilised for one side of a gymnasium courtyard and that the inscriptions on it are ephebic, so that they should throw some light on a civic instituion very much at the heart of the city's life. My purpose here, however, is simply to clarify the date at which the surviving texts were cut.The gymnasium has produced two main and one subsidiary series of texts. The first consists of graffiti on blocks found in situ on the inner face of the city wall as described above, and also on the inner face of the gymnasium wall flanking the main east/west street of the city, with additional items on blocks which patently derive from the gymnasium, but are found loose or re-used in many other parts of the site. Their appearance gives the impression that they were the work of the ephebes themselves and, since they often overcut one another, that they were produced over a period of time. They normally present personal names without patronymics, often in groups or in pairs, and with a brief indication that the associated persons were customary companions and sometimes certainly lovers.

After 25 Years of Onomastic Study

After 25 Years of Onomastic Study

Onomastic Studies in the Early Christian Inscriptions of Rome and Carthage

Onomastic Studies in the Early Christian Inscriptions of Rome and Carthage

Ukrainian Onomastics II

ONOMASTIC SCIENCES IN UKRAINIA during the Stalin period were virtually non-existent. The works of pre-revolutionary scholars such as M. Maksymovyc, M. Sumcov, I. Franko and others, which occasionally were concerned with onomastics, were never republished there. Moreover, the available copies of these works were usually withdrawn from the libraries, since they were not in accord with the views of the Communist Party. A few toponomastic publications which appeared in the 1920's, valuable in terms of content but rather unsystematic, were labeled as nationalistic and banned by the Soviet authorities in the 1930's. In point of fact, V. Kordt's Materialy do istoriii kartohrafiii Ukraiiny, published in 1931, could be regarded as the swan-song of onomastic studies in Ukrainia. In the succeeding twenty years nothing appeared in Ukrainian in this field: only one article (in Russian) on Ukrainian and Russian surnames was listed in the bibliography for the years 1934-1956.1 The fact that even this article appeared in Russian illustrates the effectiveness of the Russianization policies of the Government at that time. In 1949 and later some attempts were made to institute research in onomastic sciences,2 but these were limited only to the drafts of certain projects. With the resulting policy of de-Stalinization following the death of Stalin, Ukrainian scholars again resumed work in the onomastic sciences. Thus the period of stagnation came to an abrupt end. A program of field work concerned with toponymies was drawn up in

Onomastic Studies in the Early Christian Inscriptions of Rome and Carthage

Onomastic Studies in the Early Christian Inscriptions of Rome and Carthage

Some Names in Arthurian Romance

Among the most considerable of M. Bédier's achievements in his study of the Tristan legend was his demonstration by means of proper names that the tradition, in some form or other, must have passed from Pictland through Wales and Brittany into France and England. Although the researches of Miss Schoepperle have shown the influence of Irish aitheda, although the work of M. Loth has made it impossible to ignore the share of Cornwall, and Dr. Brugger's studies of the man Bleheris and of the name Loonois add to our knowledge of the origin and transmission of the story, yet M. Bédier's scheme still stands out as the first reasonably full and acceptable account of the derivation of any Arthurian romance. Now it is noteworthy that so important a result rested in large measure on the origin of the names inbedded in the tradition. Had the onomastic studies of Rhys, Miss Paton, Bruce, and Dr. Brugger been as generally convincing as those of M. Bédier, scholars would not still be so far apart in their interpretation of the development of the Round Table cycle. Thus far the only body of facts, apart from the Tristan branch, to which all parties subscribe is that the personal names Arthur, Kay, Bedivere, Modred, Guinevere, Merlin, Maheloas, Caradoc Briebras, Ider the son of Nu, Ivain son of Urien, Uther, and other proper names such as Escalibour, Pridwen, and Tortain, are derived from the Welsh. But the materials for further study are, as the Index to Sommer's seven volumes of French romance and Miss Blount's unpublished onomasticon show, very rich, and nothing seems to stand in the way of real advance in this field of research if only we can formulate and apply certain criteria which will at the same time fit the somewhat lax conditions of name-development and also be sufficiently rigorous to give assured results.