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Nomenclature is a system of names or terms, or the rules for forming these terms in a particular
field of arts or sciences.[1] The principles of naming vary from the relatively informal
conventions of everyday speech to the internationally agreed principles, rules and
recommendations that govern the formation and use of the specialist terms used in scientific and
other disciplines.[2]
Naming "things" is a part of our general communication using words and language: it is an
aspect of everyday taxonomy as we distinguish the objects of our experience, together with their
similarities and differences, which we identify, name and classify. The use of names, as the many
different kinds of nouns embedded in different languages, connects nomenclature to theoretical
linguistics, while the way we mentally structure the world in relation to word meanings and
experience relates to the philosophy of language.
Onomastics is the study of proper names and their origins, includes anthroponymy, concerned
with human names, including personal names, surnames and nicknames; toponymy the study of
place names and etymology, the derivation, history and use of names as revealed through
comparative and descriptive linguistics.
The scientific need for simple, stable and internationally accepted systems for naming objects of
the natural world has generated many formal nomenclatural systems. Probably the best known of
these nomenclatural systems are the five codes of biological nomenclature that govern the
Latinized scientific names of organisms.

Contents

1 Etymology
2 Onomastics and nomenclature

3 Naming as a cultural activity

3.1 Names, words, language and meaning

3.2 Folk taxonomy

4 Names and nouns

o

4.1 Personal names

4.2 Common names and proper names

4.3 -onym nouns

4.4 Toponyms

5 Scientific nomenclature
o

5.1 Nomenclature, classification and identification

5.2 Biology

5.3 Astronomy

5.4 Chemistry

5.5 Metallurgy

5.6 Physics

5.7 Archaeology

6 See also

7 References

8 External links

9 Further reading

Etymology
The word nomenclature is derived from the Latin nomen - name, calare - to call; the Ancient
Greek from or onoma meaning name, and equivalent to the Old English
nama and Old High German namo which is derived from Sanskrit nama. The Latin term
nomenclatura refers to a list of names, as does the word nomenclator which can also indicate a
provider or announcer of names.

Onomastics and nomenclature

Main article: Onomastics
The study of proper names is known as onomastics,[3] which has a wide-ranging scope
encompassing all names, all languages, all geographical and cultural regions. The distinction
between onomastics and nomenclature is not readily clear: onomastics is an unfamiliar discipline
to most people and the use of nomenclature in an academic sense is also not commonly known.
Although the two fields integrate, nomenclature concerns itself more with the rules and
conventions that are used for the formation of names.[citation needed]

Naming as a cultural activity

Main article: Philosophy of language

Names provide us with a way of structuring and mapping the world in our minds so, in some
way, they mirror or represent the objects of our experience.

Names, words, language and meaning

Main articles: Proper name (philosophy) and Semantics
Elucidating the connections between language (especially names and nouns), meaning and the
way we perceive the world has provided a rich field of study for philosophers and linguists.
Relevant areas of study include: the distinction between proper names and proper nouns;[4] and
the relationship between names,[5] their referents,[6] meanings (semantics), and the structure of
language.

Folk taxonomy
Main articles: Folk taxonomy and Binomial nomenclature
Modern scientific taxonomy has been described as "basically a Renaissance codification of folk
taxonomic principles."[7] Formal scientific nomenclatural and classification systems are
exemplified by biological classification. All classification systems are established for a purpose.
The scientific classification system anchors each organism within the nested hierarchy of
internationally accepted classification categories. Maintenance of this system involves formal
rules of nomenclature and periodic international meetings of review. This modern system
evolved from the folk taxonomy of pre-history.[8] Folk taxonomy can be illustrated through the
Western tradition of horticulture and gardening. Unlike scientific taxonomy, folk taxonomies
serve many purposes. Examples in horticulture would be the grouping of plants, and naming of
these groups, according to their properties and uses: annuals, biennials and perennials (nature of
life cycle); vegetables, fruits, culinary herbs and spices (culinary use); herbs, trees and shrubs
(growth habit); wild and cultivated plants (whether they are managed or not), and weeds
(whether they are considered to be a nuisance or not) and so on.
Folk taxonomy is generally associated with the way rural or indigenous peoples use language to
make sense of and organise the objects around them. Ethnobiology frames this interpretation
through either "utilitarianists" like Bronislaw Malinowski who maintain that names and
classifications reflect mainly material concerns, and "intellectualists" like Claude Lvi-Strauss
who hold that they spring from innate mental processes.[9] The literature of ethnobiological
classifications was reviewed in 2006.[10] Folk classification is defined by the way in which
members of a language community name and categorize plants and animals whereas
ethnotaxonomy refers to the hierarchical structure, organic content, and cultural function of
biological classification that ethnobiologists find in every society around the world.[11]
Ethnographic studies of the naming and classification of animals and plants in non-Western
societies have revealed some general principles that indicate pre-scientific mans conceptual and
linguistic method of organising the biological world in a hierarchical way.[12][13][14][15] Such studies
indicate that the urge to classify is a basic human instinct.[16][17]

in all languages natural groups of organisms are distinguished (present-day taxa)

these groups are arranged into more inclusive groups or ethnobiological
categories

in all languages there are about five or six ethnobiological categories of graded
inclusiveness

these groups (ethnobiological categories) are arranged hierarchically, generally

into mutually exclusive ranks

the ranks at which particular organisms are named and classified is often similar
in different cultures

The levels are moving from the most to least inclusive:

level 1 - "unique beginner" ---e.g. plant or animal. A single all-inclusive name

rarely used in folk taxonomies but loosely equivalent to an original living thing, a
"common ancestor"
level 2 - life form --------------e.g. tree, bird, grass and fish These are usually
primary lexemes (basic linguistic units) loosely equivalent to a phylum or major
biological division.

level 3 - "generic name" ------e.g. oak, pine, robin, catfish This is the most
numerous and basic building block of all folk taxonomies, the most frequently
referred to, the most important psychologically, and among the first learned by
children. These names can usually be associated directly with a second level
group. Like life-form names these are primary lexemes.

level 4 - "specific name" ------e.g. white fir, post oak More or less equivalent to
species. A secondary lexeme and generally less frequent than generic names.

level 5 - "varietal name"-------e.g. baby lima bean, butter lima bean.

In almost all cultures objects are named using one or two words equivalent to "kind" (genus) and
"particular kind" (species).[7] When made up of two words (a binomial) the name usually consists
of a noun (like salt, dog or star) and an adjectival second word that helps describe the first, and
therefore makes the name, as a whole, more "specific", for example, lap dog, sea salt, or film
star. The meaning of the noun used for a common name may have been lost or forgotten (whelk,
elm, lion, shark, pig) but when the common name is extended to two or more words much more
is conveyed about the organism's use, appearance or other special properties (sting ray, poison
apple, giant stinking hogweed, hammerhead shark). These noun-adjective binomials are just like
our own names with a family or surname like Simpson and another adjectival Christian or
forename name that specifies which Simpson, say Homer Simpson. It seems reasonable to
assume that the form of scientific names we call binomial nomenclature is derived from this
simple and practical way of constructing common names - but with the use of Latin as a
universal language.

In keeping with the "utilitarianist" view other authors maintain that ethnotaxonomies resemble
more a "complex web of resemblances" than a neat hierarchy.[18]

Names and nouns

Main articles: Name and Noun
A name is a label for any noun. Names can identify a class or category of things, or a single
thing, either uniquely, or within a given context. Names are given, for example, to humans or any
other organisms, places, products - as in brand names - and even to ideas or concepts. It is names
as nouns that are the building blocks of nomenclature.
The word "name" is possibly derived from the Proto-Indo-European language hypothesised word
nomn.[19] The distinction between names and nouns, if made at all, is extremely subtle[20] although
clearly noun refers to names as lexical categories and their function within the context of
language,[21] rather that as labels for objects and properties.

Personal names
Main articles: Anthroponymy and Personal name
Human personal names are presented, used and categorised in many ways depending on the
language and culture. In most cultures (Indonesia is one exception) it is customary for
individuals to be given at least two names. In Western culture, the first name is given at birth or
shortly thereafter and is referred to as the given name, the forename, the baptismal name (if
given then), or simply the first name. In England prior to the Norman invasion of 1066, small
communities of Celts, Anglo-Saxons and Scandinavians generally used single names: each
person was identified by a single name as either a personal name or nickname. As the population
increased, it gradually became necessary to identify people further giving rise to names like
John the butcher, Henry from Sutton, and Roger son of Richard which naturally evolved into
John Butcher, Henry Sutton, and Roger Richardson. We now know this additional name
variously as the second name, last name, family name, surnames or occasionally the byname, and
this natural tendency was accelerated by the Norman tradition of using surnames that were fixed
and hereditary within individual families. In combination these two names are now known as the
personal name or, simply, the name. There are many exceptions to this general rule: Westerners
often insert a third or more names between the given and surnames; Chinese and Hungarian
names have the family name preceding the given name; females now often retain their maiden
names (their family surname) or combine, using a hyphen, their maiden name and the surname of
their husband; some East Slavic nations insert the patronym (a name derived from the given
name of the father) between the given and the family name; in Iceland the given name is used
with the patronym, or matronym (a name derived from the given name of the mother), and
surnames are rarely used. Nicknames (sometimes called hypocoristic names) are informal names
used mostly between friends.

Common names and proper names

Main articles: Common name and Proper name

The distinction between proper names and common names is that proper names denote a unique
entity e.g. London Bridge, while common names are used in a more general sense in reference to
a class of objects e.g. bridge. Many proper names are obscure in meaning as they lack any
apparent meaning in the way that ordinary words mean, probably for the practical reason that
when they consist of Collective nouns, they refer to groups, even when they are inflected for the
singular e.g. "committee". Concrete nouns like cabbage refer to physical bodies that can be
observed by at least one of the senses while abstract nouns, like love and hate refer to
abstract objects. In English, many abstract nouns are formed by adding noun-forming suffixes ("ness", "-ity", "-tion") to adjectives or verbs e.g. "happiness", "serenity", concentration.
Pronouns like "he", "it", "which", and "those" stand in place of nouns in noun phrases.
The capitalization of nouns varies with language and even the particular context: journals often
have their own house styles for common names.

-onym nouns
Main article: -onym
Distinctions may be made between particular kinds of names simply by using the suffix -onym,
from the Greek (noma) 'name'. So we have, for example, hydronyms name bodies of
water, synonyms are names with the same meaning, and so on. The entire field could be
described as chrematonymy - the names of things.

Toponyms
Main article: Toponymy
Toponyms are the names given to places or features of a particular district, region, etc.[22][23] This
could include planets, countries, cities, towns, villages, buildings etc.; it can be further divided
into specialist branches: hodonymy, the names of streets, roads, and the like; hydronymy, the
names of water bodies; and oronomy, the names of mountains. Toponymy has popular appeal
because of its socio-cultural and historical interest and significance for cartography. However,
work on the etymology of toponyms has found that many place names are descriptive, honorific
or commemorative but frequently they have no meaning or the meaning is obscure or lost. Also
the many categories of names are frequently interrelated. For example, many place-names are
derived from personal names (Victoria), many names of planets and stars are derived from the
names of mythological characters (Venus, Neptune), and many personal names are derived from
place-names, names of nations and the like (Wood, Bridge).[24][25]

Scientific nomenclature
Nomenclature, classification and identification

Main articles: Taxonomy (biology) and Identification (biology)

In biological science, at least, nomenclature is regarded as a part of (though distinct from)
taxonomy. Taxonomy can be defined as the study of classification including its principles,
procedures and rules,[26] while classification itself is the ordering of taxa (the objects of
classification) into groups based on similarities or differences.[27][28] Doing taxonomy entails
identifying, describing[29] and naming taxa,[30] so nomenclature, in this strict scientific sense, is
that branch of taxonomy concerned with the application of scientific names to taxa, based on a
particular classification scheme and in accordance with agreed international rules and
conventions.
Identification determines whether a particular organism matches a taxon that has already been
classified and named so classification must precede identification.[31] This procedure is
sometimes referred to as determination".[32]
The precision demanded by science in the accurate naming of objects in the natural world has
resulted in a variety of international nomenclatural codes.

Biology
Main article: Biological nomenclature
Although Linnaeus system of binomial nomenclature was rapidly adopted after the publication
of his Species Plantarum and Systema Naturae in 1753 and 1758 respectively, it was a long time
before there was international consensus concerning the more general rules governing biological
nomenclature. The first botanical code was produced in 1905, the zoological code in 1889 and
cultivated plant code in 1953. Agreement on the nomenclature and symbols for genes emerged in
1979.

International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, see also Botanical nomenclature

International Code of Nomenclature of Bacteria

International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants

International Code of Zoological Nomenclature

Virus nomenclature, used in Virus classification

Enzyme nomenclature[33]

PhyloCode (the International Code of Phylogenetic Nomenclature, see also

Phylogenetic nomenclature) - a new convention currently under development.

International standard on human anatomic terminology - Terminologia

Anatomica

Gene nomenclature

Red Cell Nomenclature[34]

Medical devices use the naming convention of the Global Medical Device
Nomenclature (GMDN).

Astronomy
Main article: Astronomical naming conventions
Over the last few hundred years, the number of identified astronomical objects has risen from
hundreds to over a billion, and more are discovered every year. Astronomers need universal
systematic designations to unambiguously identify all of these objects using astronomical
naming conventions, while assigning names to the most interesting objects and, where relevant,
naming important or interesting features of those objects.

Planetary nomenclature
Meteorite nomenclature

International Astronomical Union

Chemistry
Main article: IUPAC nomenclature
The IUPAC nomenclature is a system of naming chemical compounds and for describing the
science of chemistry in general. It is maintained by the International Union of Pure and Applied
Chemistry. The rules for naming organic and inorganic compounds are printed in two
publications, the Blue Book[35][36] and the Red Book[37] available here. A third publication, Green
Book,[38] contains recommendations for the use of symbols for physical quantities (in association
with the IUPAP), while a fourth, the Gold Book,[39] defines a large number of technical terms
used in chemistry. Similar compendia exist for biochemistry[40] (in association with the IUBMB),
analytical chemistry[41] and macromolecular chemistry.[42] These books are supplemented by
shorter recommendations for specific circumstances which are published from time to time in the
journal Pure and Applied Chemistry. These systems can be accessed here.

International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC)

Metallurgy
The classic English translation of De re metallica includes an appendix (Appendix C) detailing
problems of nomenclature in weights and measures.

Physics
Main article: Units of measurement

Symbols, units and nomenclature in physics.[43]

Archaeology

Main articles: Typology (archaeology) and Archaeological record