From the site:
Names. Everyone has one, most people have a vague idea what their own means, but few give them much more thought. The study of names is called onomastics, a field that touches on linguistics, history, anthropology, psychology, sociology, philology, and much more.
When people refer to the “meaning of a name”, they are most likely referring to the etymology, which is the original literal meaning. This website looks at the etymology and history of all types of given names.
Behind the Name is a website for learning about all aspects of given names. Its scope is broad: all given names from all cultures and periods are eligible to be included in the main name database. Names from mythology and fiction are also eligible. There are currently 27,404 names in the database (and additionally 189,437 in the submitted name database), a fraction of what the scope entails. There’s still much work to be done.
This site was created in 1996 by Mike Campbell. I wanted to put something on the web that was unique and, as far as I know, this was the first site that was quite like this when it was first created.
Here are the sub links available on the site:
- Browse names and their meanings
- Etymological elements in given names
- List of languages
- Browse other topics in the glossary
- Articles and current events about names
- Links about names
- Frequently asked questions about names
- Names for twins
To access the main site, go to Behind the Name
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