Make a name for yourself with onomastics
Last week鈥檚 researches into place names derived from numbers turned up reminders that numbers show up in personal names, too.
Mystery often surrounds the way a number makes it onto the map as a place name. But numeric personal names tend to be fairly straightforward: They refer to birth order, traditionally of the sons in a family. Except when they don鈥檛.
Take, for example, the poet 鈥檚 eight brothers. The first six had typical Victorian English names: Edward, Samuel, Charles John, George, Henry, Alfred. But the last two were Septimus and Octavius, from the Latin for 鈥渟eventh鈥� and 鈥渆ighth,鈥� respectively. It suggests that the Barretts had run out of ideas and so had resorted to numbers.听
A more recent example of a numeric personal name is that of film director . Was he a fifth son, or at least fifth child, as his name suggests?聽
Well, no. The Internet Movie Database reports that Mr. Tarantino was 鈥渘amed after鈥� Quint Asper, the Burt Reynolds character in the long-running television series 鈥淕unsmoke.鈥澛�
There鈥檚 a term for the scientific study of proper names: onomastics. I know, it sounds like something hard you have to do at the gym (鈥淥h, no!鈥�). But it鈥檚 from a Greek word referring to 鈥渘ame,鈥� onoma.听
Antonomasia is another word from the same root. It may sound like the name of a hip Spanish film director. But it鈥檚 actually a term for a rhetorical device. Merriam-Webster defines it as 鈥渢he use of a proper name to designate a member of a class (such as a Solomon for a wise ruler); also: the use of an epithet or title in place of a proper name (such as the Bard for Shakespeare).鈥澛�
Note that this is a two-way device. It was much used by headline writers in the newspaper of my childhood hometown: They would squeeze 鈥淪olon鈥� in where 鈥渓egislator鈥� or 鈥渓awmaker鈥� wouldn鈥檛 fit. was an Athenian statesman, one of the Seven Wise Men of Greece 鈥� with one of the shorter names in that group.听
Onomatopoeia, another word from this same Greek root, means literally 鈥渕aking a name,鈥� according to .听
That 鈥減oe鈥� element turns up in our more familiar poet. We may think of poets as contemplative rather than men and women of action. But etymologically, they are people who 鈥渕ake things.鈥�
has come to mean a specific kind of 鈥渕aking a name鈥� 鈥� 鈥渢he naming of a thing or action by a vocal imitation of the sound associated with it,鈥� as Merriam-Webster explains (鈥渃uckoo,鈥� 鈥渟izzle,鈥� and 鈥渃rash,鈥� e.g.).听
Several Western languages borrow the same Greek word for this concept. But German has its own term 鈥� the perhaps more poetic Lautmalerei, 鈥渟ound painting.鈥� Students of German know the language often goes its own way, disdaining an international term and using something closer to home.听
I remember being in the supermarket one day when I was living in Germany and noticing 鈥淐hinakohl鈥� 鈥� 鈥淐hina cabbage鈥� 鈥� for sale. Hmph, I sniffed inwardly. In English we call it bok choy.
