Is onomastics still taught at universities as a discipline in its own right?
The answer is yes - although its international teaching landscape is surprisingly scattered.
A multilingual search of university catalogues, curricula, timetables and programme descriptions for 2026–2027 reveals courses devoted to onomastics, anthroponymy, toponymy, literary onomastics, geographical names and proper-name studies across Europe and well beyond it.
What is particularly striking is the variety of forms in which name studies are taught. Some universities still offer courses simply called Onomastics. Others teach name studies together with dialectology, semantics, geography, cartography, literature, archaeology or regional culture. In a few institutions, onomastics forms part of a postgraduate pathway or even a sequence of several specialised courses.
The table below includes institutions for which a specific current course, module, pathway or substantial onomastic/toponymic teaching component could be identified. Did I miss anything?
| University / Institution | Course(s) / provision | Teacher(s) | Level / credits |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🇬🇧 UNITED KINGDOM | |||
| University of Glasgow Scotland |
Onomastics; Name Studies; Ainmean-Àite o Bheul-Aithris; Celtic Place-Names of Scotland | Carole Hough |
UG / Honours / MSc; mostly 20 credits |
| Queen’s University Belfast Northern Ireland |
Name Studies – CEL7027 | Mícheál Ó Mainnín |
PG, 20 credits |
| University of Nottingham England |
Name-Studies pathway, Online MA English | Institute for Name Studies staff | MA |
| 🇫🇷 FRANCE | |||
| Université de Bretagne Occidentale (Brest) | Onomastique et Archéo-toponymie, within (Socio-)linguistique des langues celtiques modernes 2 | Centre de Recherche Bretonne et Celtique | Master’s-level provision |
| 🇩🇪 GERMANY | |||
| Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin | Onomastik | Christiane Schiller |
University seminar |
| TU Dresden | What’s in a Name? | Martin Eichhorn |
UG |
| Universität Leipzig | Onomastik / Namensforschung | Dietlind Kremer |
UG |
| 🇧🇪 BELGIUM | |||
| UCLouvain – Bruxelles Saint-Louis | Linguistique romane, including Romance onomastics | Olivier Delsaux |
BA, 5 ECTS |
| Ghent University | Dialectology and Onomastics | Timothy Colleman |
5 credits |
| 🇫🇮 FINLAND | |||
| Tampere University | Nimistöntutkimus | Unni Leino |
Advanced studies, 5 ECTS |
| University of Jyväskylä | Onomastics – SKIA402 | Department of Language and Communication Studies | Intermediate, 5 ECTS |
| University of Oulu / Open University | Ordbildning och namnforskning | Paula Rossi |
Intermediate, 5 ECTS |
| 🇸🇪 SWEDEN | |||
| Uppsala University | Namnforskning / Onomastics – 5SV262 | Katharina Leibring and Staffan Nyström | Master’s level, 7.5 credits |
| 🇱🇹 LITHUANIA | |||
| Vilnius University | Baltic Onomastics; Lithuanian Onomastics; Latvian Onomastics; Romance Onomastics; historical onomastics component | Daiva Sinkevičiūtė-Villanueva SvenssonM. Jakulis |
University courses; several 5-credit courses |
| 🇵🇱 POLAND | |||
| University of Warsaw | Nazwy własne w (u)życiu – onomastyka w różnych kontekstach | Monika Kresa et al. |
MA, 7 ECTS |
| 🇨🇿 CZECHIA | |||
| Masaryk University, Brno | Fundamentals of Onomastics; Fundamental Knowledge of Onomastics; Basics of Onomastics; Map Semiotics and Toponomastics | Michaela BoháčováHana SvobodováStanislava SpinkováZdeněk StachoňGabriela Godišková |
UG / MA / teacher education, 2–5 credits |
| Palacký University Olomouc | Toponomastika; Proper Names in the Language System and Communication; Literary Onomastics | Karel KomárekJaroslav ValaPavol Odaloš |
BA, 2–3 ECTS |
| Technical University of Liberec | Onomastics; Toponomastics | Hana ŠimkováVáclav Lábus |
BA, 2 ECTS |
| 🇸🇰 SLOVAKIA | |||
| Trnava University, Trnava | Onomastic Seminar; Dialectology and Onomastics Fundamentals of Onomastics, Anthroponomastics, Toponomastics, Chrematonomastics; Slovak-language instruction |
Andrej ZávodnýJuraj HladkýMária Beláková |
Master’s level, 2–5 credits |
| 🇷🇴 ROMANIA | |||
| West University of Timișoara | Toponimie geografică și etnografie | Remus Crețan |
BA Geography |
| 🇭🇷 CROATIA | |||
| University of Split | Leksikologija i onomastika | Katarina Lozić Knezović | BA, 4 ECTS |
| 🇧🇬 BULGARIA | |||
| Veliko Tarnovo University | Aspects of Balkan Onomastics | Center of Bulgarian Onomastics | UG elective |
| 🇺🇦 UKRAINE | |||
| Rivne State University of Humanities | Ономастика / Onomastics | N. V. Mushyrovska |
BA, 3 credits |
| Kryvyi Rih State Pedagogical University | Ономастика / Onomastics | Anastasiia Tytarenko and Galyna Melnychuk | BA elective |
| Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University | Ономастичний простір і міжкультурна комунікація / Onomastic Space and Intercultural Communication | Tetyana Vintoniv | University module |
| 🇪🇸 SPAIN | |||
| University of the Balearic Islands | Onomàstica | Gabriel Bibiloni Cañellas | BA, 6 ECTS |
| University of Lleida | Catalan Onomastics | Department of Philology and Communication | BA, 6 ECTS |
| 🇮🇹 ITALY | |||
| University of Milan | Nomi comuni e nomi propri tra forme e funzioni | Andrea Scala |
MA |
| University of Bologna | Italian Linguistics; Geography of Languages; Landscapes Archaeology with onomastic/toponymic components | Michele ColomboAnnaclaudia MartiniEnrico GiorgiMarco Cavalazzi |
MA, 6–12 ECTS |
| 🇰🇿 KAZAKHSTAN | |||
| Khoja Ahmed Yasawi International Kazakh-Turkish University | Toponymy; Modern Toponymy | — | Geography teacher education; 5 credits each |
| Abai University | Toponymy | Kulyash Kaimuldinova |
3 credits |
| 🇲🇳 MONGOLIA | |||
| National University of Mongolia | Mongolian Lexicology and Semantics – includes personal names, place-names, hydronyms and other name classes | — | BA, 3 credits |
| 🇹🇼 TAIWAN | |||
| National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) | Toponymy / 地名學 (GEU0254) † | Yen-tsao Wei (韋煙灶) |
2 credits; recurring course |
| 🇸🇬 SINGAPORE | |||
| National University of Singapore (NUS) | ELC5256 Onomastics: the Study of Names | Peter Tan |
Graduate / MA, 4 units |
| 🇯🇵 JAPAN | |||
| Mukogawa Women’s University | Regional Culture Studies, including historical place-name research | Ryō Takeuchi |
UG, 2 credits |
| Himeji Dokkyo University | Maps and Place-Names I–II | — | UG |
| Hiroshima University | Japanese writing and orthography studies with proper-name and place-name work | — | University course |
| Kyushu Dental University | Humanities / Literature sessions on proper names and place-names | Natsuki ŌkawauchiHiroshi Takeuchi et al. |
UG |
| 🇮🇳 INDIA | |||
| NIGST / Survey of India | Toponymy – Essentials, Course 675 | — | Professional course |
| Sree Krishna College, Guruvayur | Onomastics internship / Mini Onomastic Dictionary | — | UG internship |
| 🇳🇬 NIGERIA | |||
| National Open University of Nigeria | HAU311 Naming in Hausa | Garba Gwammaja Ibrahim |
300 level, 3 credits |
| 🇺🇬 UGANDA | |||
| Kabale University | MAL8106 Onomastics | — | MA Linguistics elective, 4 credit units |
| 🇿🇦 SOUTH AFRICA | |||
| University of the Western Cape | XHOSA 737: Onomastics | — | BA Honours, 30 credits |
| University of KwaZulu-Natal | Onomastics and Semantics | — | UG, 3rd year |
| University of the Witwatersrand | AFRL4030A Onomastics | — | BA Honours, 23 NQF credits |
| 🇦🇺 AUSTRALIA | |||
| Australian National University | Pacific Worlds: Critical Inquiry in Oceania – Indigenous/colonial place-name transformation within the mapping unit | Nayahamui Rooney |
UG, 6 units |
| 🇳🇿 NEW ZEALAND | |||
| University of Auckland | EDUCM 199 – Te Reo Māori; Māori names and placenames as an explicit teaching and learning outcome | — | Graduate Diploma / Level 7 |
| 🇺🇸 UNITED STATES | |||
| Western Washington University | Indigenous Geographies across the Salish Sea – place-names, ethnogeography and linguistics | Emma GrossMary Baker (faculty sponsor) |
UG, 4 credits |
| Windward Community College, University of Hawaiʻi | HAW 100: Language in Hawaiʻi – Global Issues; substantial Names and Naming unit | Emilia Kini |
UG, 3 credits |
| 🇲🇽 MEXICO | |||
| Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) | Estudio de nombres geográficos y análisis e interpretación de mapas | Jesús Israel Baxin Martínez |
BA Geography, 12 credits |
| 🇨🇱 CHILE | |||
| University of Chile | Lenguas, territorio e historia: pistas lingüísticas sobre el pasado humano – substantial toponymy component | Antonia GallardoMidori Asato |
Continuing education, 16 hours |
| 🇧🇷 BRAZIL | |||
| University of São Paulo | Toponímia I–IV sequence, including Toponímia II and Toponímia IV | Patricia de Jesus Carvalhinhos et al. |
UG / advanced UG |
| Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana | Onomástica in graduate language-studies provision | — | MA / PhD |
| Universidade Estadual do Oeste do Paraná (UNIOESTE), PPGL | Onomástica | Márcia Sipavicius Seide |
MA / PhD, 3 credits, 45 h |
† Taiwan: NTNU’s Toponymy / 地名學 is a recurring course; the latest publicly verifiable offering found in the university timetable is 113-2. It is included here following direct colleague feedback about the long-running course.
‡ Slovakia: Information on Slovak-language onomastics teaching at Trnava University was supplied directly by Andrej Závodný.
‡ Slovakia: Information on Slovak-language onomastics teaching at Trnava University was supplied directly by Andrej Závodný.
