Vol. 53 No. 1 (2005)
Research Article

Scientific Approach to Etymology of Surnames

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  • Alexander Beider
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1179/nam.2005.53.1-2.79

Published 2005-06-01

Copyright (c) 2005 Maney

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to show a possible approach in the domain of etymology of surnames for which the label “scientific” would be appropriate. It discusses the reasons of the law status of that branch of onomastics in scholarly circles. A scientific approach asks to provide a conjecture that would be the most corroborated by various factors among which are: answers, correlated with the etymon and between them, provided to other main questions of the etymological research; results of the statistical analysis of surnames of other families belonging to the same ethno-cultural group; knowledge concerning the general historical and linguistic background of the time of the surname adoption; finding of the family genealogical data concerning the time of the surname adoption; and existence of the testimony concerning the surname adoption.

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