Unveiling the Landscape of Onomastics from 1972 to 2022: A Bibliometric Analysis

 I have stumbled upon a study, which mentions my name and many others: 

by Siyue Li (Zhejiang University), Chunyu Kit (City University of Hong Kong), and Le Cheng (Guanghua Law School, Zhejiang University)

Abstract

Over   the   past   five   decades,   onomastics   has   seen   remarkable   growthwith   fruitful   publications   and interdisciplinary  collaborations.  Despite  the  abundance  of  literature,  a  panoramic  view  of  contribution networks and the evolutionary trajectory of this field has been lacking. To address this issue, this study presents a statistical assessment complemented by visualization clustering, rendering data from 768 journal articles and 28,357  references,  to  unfold  impactful  journals,  influential  scholars,  foundational knowledge,  and  evolving frontiers.  The  outcomes  of  this  research  showcase  the  distribution  of  subtopics  within  each  name  category, depicting  noteworthy  contributors,  focal  trends,  and  cutting-edge  subjects  in  the  area. New  themes  that illuminate  orientations  include online  naming,  multi-identity  construction,  language  processing,  corpus-assisted  approaches,  and  neural-cognitive  experiments. Further  data-driven  exploration  of  name-related themes is foreseen to yield valuable insights. Through this comprehensive assessment, this study elucidates the role  of  names  as  manifestations  of  human  identity,  social  emotions,  aesthetic ingenuity,  and strategic communicative  paradigms.  The  findings  are poised  to  facilitate  the  discernment  of  human  quality,  societal stratification,  interpretative  nuances,  and  relationshipsunderlying  social  issues.  Additionally,  this  research exemplifies  the  efficacy  of  bibliometric  analysis  and  proposes  strategies  to  mitigate  potential  constraints, disclosing how quantitative data from onomastics can be applied in the digital era and beyond.This article is the correctedversionof  the  original  article.    For  more  information  on  thechanges  made,  see  the  erratum:http://dx.doi.org/10.5195/names.2024.2689.

Keywords: onomastics, bibliometrics, names, socio-onomastics, citation analysis, information visualization, scientific mapping

Taking into consideration that all data are solely retrieved by Web of Sciences (WOS) Core Collection Database (where there are only two onomastic journals), some rankings are disbalanced (f.ex.ranking of institutions does not mirror the onomastic landscape at all). 

What’s in a scientist name? Applying onomastics in scientometrics: the case of Cancer Research

What's in a Scientist name? from Nomtri Namsor

Applying onomastics to scientometrics

http://namesorts.com/2015/01/20/namsor-presented-during-symposium-on-academic-excellence/

NamSor presented during Symposium on Academic Excellence

Our friend Tania Vichnevskaia of the French National Institute for Health (INSERM) presented the paper ‘Applying onomastics to scientometrics‘ yesterday at IREG ​​International symposium or​​ganised by University of Maribor and Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

NamSor as a private start-up company has been solicited in 2014 by a European country to help measure the ‘brain drain’ affecting its competitiveness in the BioTech sector and to produce a global map of its scientific Diaspora (who are they, where are they and what are they doing). The objective was to build up the country’s scientific international cooperation and to engage its Diaspora.

Serendipity led analysts to discover interesting patterns in the way scientists names affect co-authorship and citation – not just for this particular country, but globally.

Last year, during ICOS2014 conference at Glasgow University, we presented how data mining millions of scientific articles in PubMed/PMC LifeSciences database uncovered amazing patterns in the way scientists names correlate with whom they publish, and who they cite in their papers.

We were interested to mine the large commercial bibliographic databases (Thomson WoS, Scopus) because they offer better data quality on citations and useful additional information, compared to PubMed:

- firstly, they have the full name in addition to the short name cited with just initials; this significantly reduces the error rate of onomastic classification

- secondly, they link scientists to research institutions (affiliations) and geographies (country of affiliation) ; this allows additional analysis on the topic of Diasporas and brain drain, comparing -for example- the research output of Chinese / Chinese American scientists in the US with that of scientists of Mainland China;

- thirdly, those databases have a larger coverage in terms of scientific disciplines, allowing comparison between different fields of research.

So collaboration started between NamSor and bibliometric experts at INSERM –the French National Institute for Health- to evaluate and visualize the effects of migration, Diaspora engagement and possibly cultural biases in Science.

We’ll publish the slides later today or after the conference. As a teaser, what does the ‘onomastic millefeuille‘ of the global Cancer Research community look like?

On this same topic:

• ‘Is China really becoming a science and technology superpower?‘
• NamSor™ for Life Sciences commercial brochure
• Example of Pilot Project
• Credential : Institute of Biotechnology (Vilnius)

The agenda of the Symposium is presented below

​​​​​​​2nd Maribor Academicus Event

Academic Excellence: BETWEEN HOLY GRAIL AND MEASURABLE OBJECTIVES

​​International symposium  or​​ganised by University of Maribor and Shanghai Jiao Tong University

within the IREG Project on Academic Excellence

19-20 January 2015, Maribor, Slovenia

Higher education can importantly benefit from the rankings and league tables when used in a context with clear perspective of what ranking actually reflects (Prof. Jan Sadlak, President of IREG)
Active participants at the conference will be:

•            Prof. Jan Sadlak, President of IREG,
•            Prof. Gero Federkeil, CHE (Coordinator of Multi-Ranking),
•            Prof. Nian Cai Liu,  Jiao Tong University in Shanghai (Author of the Shanghai ranking list),
•            Prof. Seeram Ramakrishna,  National University of Singapore,
•            Prof. Santo Fortunato,  Aalto University,
•            Prof. Karin Stana Kleinschek, University of Maribor,
•            Prof. Henryk Ratajczak, member of Czech Academy of Sciences,
•            Prof. Edvard Kobal, Slovenian Science Foundation,
•            Roberta Sinatra, PhD, Northeastern University,
•            Tania Vichnevskaia, French National Institute for health (INSERM),
•            Prof. Andrée Sursock, Senior Adviser at EUA,
•            Prof. Øivind Andersen, University of Oslo.

About NamSor

NamSor™ Applied Onomastics is a European vendor of Name Recognition Software (NamSor sorts names). NamSor mission is to help understand international flows of money, ideas and people. NamSor launched @FDIMagnet,  a consulting offering to help Investment Promotion Agencies and High-Tech Clusters leverage a Diaspora to connect with business and scientific communities abroad.
http://namesorts.com/onomastics/fdi-magnet/

Magdalena, 2000, Slovenia

Who fights #Cancer? The World! #Diversity DataViz #DanaFaber (Boston, US) @FudanUniversity (CN) @GroupeUNICANCER (FR) pic.twitter.com/Te9Uk1LrV1
— NamSor #Onomastics (@NamSor_com) January 20, 2015

Onomatometry

Today I was told for the first time about the term of  ONOMATOMETRY. What is that?

The term in question has been introduced by Prof. Paul Videsott (1971, Italy):

http://www.provinz.bz.it/ladinisches-schulamt/verwaltung/921.asp?aktuelles_action=4&aktuelles_article_id=343736

Here he is on the website of Austrian Onomastics: http://www.onomastik.at/index.php?article_id=46

Here he is on WiKi: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Videsott

He is professor of Romanic philology at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano:

Ladin language is his research focus:

He is researching on the origin of Ladin names. For example, I have found his: "Ladinische Familiennamen / Cognoms ladins" (Innsbruck : Wagner, 2000):

1990-1995: studies at the University of Innsbruck;
Since 1999 he has worked at the University of Innsbruck: http://www.uibk.ac.at/ipoint/kopf_der_woche/1137.html 
In 2000 he has defended his PhD thesis ("Ladin antroponomastics from 1605 to 1784"). In 2004 he has habilitated ("Padania scriptologica: Scriptologic and scriptometric research on the Old North Italian from the beginning to 1525").

His CV is to be found here: http://www.unibz.it/en/organisation/viewstaffpdf.customhandler?personid=24

OK, let's drive closer to onomatometry:

In English the term is to be met only once: http://www.namenkundliche-informationen.de/pdf/95_96/articles/NI%2095_96_2009_Blanar.pdf

It's an article of well-known Slovak onomatologist Vincent Blanár (Bratislava) titled "Proper Names in the Light of Theoretical Onomastics" from the onomastic journal (Namenkundliche Informationen, 2009, 95/96, ISSN 0943-0849) where he mentioned the project of Prof. Videsott : Onomatometry of Eastern Alps / Onomatometrie des Ostalpenraums : http://www.onomastik.at/index.php?article_id=66

By onomatometry Prof. Paul Videsott understands a measuring theory which by means of the numerical classification and the statistics determines those areas whose landscapes' names seem to be "similar", what demonstrates an „isonymic structure“. Onomatometry – with support of the H. Goebls's dialectometry – is an attempt to synthesise the mass, that is always becoming enlarging, of the available (atomistic) data in the area of toponomastics without having to accept substantial (typologic) losses of information. The visualisation of the results is furthermore possible by means of (coloured) maps.

All previous investigations have shown that the name spaces observeable today can be valid in the still Romanic but already Germanized Eastern Alps area as a result and emanation of an older and relatively coherent Romanic linguistic landscape. The besides ascertained similitude and autonomy structures coincide so well with the disposition of the Videsott's research area, which had already been provided on historical and dialectological basis, so that his model might claim, nevertheless, some plausibility.

Long-term objective of the Videsott's project is the onomatometric analysis of the pre-German toponomastics in all municipalities of his sampling which extends from the borders of Bavaria to the Southern Trentino and from the Swiss Graubünden up to the Western Friauls. This network will also allow comparisons with the existing linguistic atlases for this area (Linguistic atlas of Italy and the Southern Switzerland), ALI [Altante Linguistico Italiano] and ALD [Linguistic atlas of the Ladin Dolomitan (Ladin standard) and neighbouring dialects]).

In the journal Ladinia (Nr. 26-27) you can find "Onomatometrie Ladiniens" (2002-2003, pp.335-256)

In the "Namenarten und ihre Erforschung: Ein Lehrbuch für das Studium der Onomastik" (2004)

you may find the article in the chapter 9: Onomatometrie als Methode der Namenforschung (from the page 213). This onomastic subdiscipline is also mentioned in:

Another article is "Onomatometrie. Die Methoden der numerischen Taxonomie auf die Onomastik angewandt" and it was published in Rivista Italiana di Onomastica (RION). Bde. XII / 2 (2006) (pp. 423 – 467);

In the Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie (ZrP) (Band 119, Heft 3, Seiten 480–509, ISSN (Online) 1865-9063, ISSN (Print) 0049-8661, DOI: 10.1515/zrph.2003.119.3.480, November 2009) you may enjoy the work "Isonymische Strukturen in der Romania Alpina submersa und non-submersa. Ein Beispiel für die Anwendung der numerischen Taxonomie im Bereich der Toponomastik"

Then the term in question has been used by Prof. Damaris Nübling and Prof. Konrad Kunze in their article "Familiennamenforschung morgen: Der deutsche Familiennamenatlas (DFA)" (2005) in Namenforschung morgen. Hamburg:

The google frequency of onomatometry in German is 33, but most of these links are leading to the same works.

I suggest using this term in my research and I am going to consider onomatometry as a dialectometric onomastics or quantitative name studies what is in accord with my geonomastics.