Onomastic and Legal Terminology in Connection with Personal Names

Abstract

Onomastic and Legal Terminology in Connection with Personal Names

This paper draws attention to Hungarian personal name related terminology differences in legal, onomastic and everyday usage. Onomastics employs a wider range of technical terms than the legal profession since the former focuses exclusively on names, including non-official varieties, while the other does not. The paper reveals cases where the same term has different meanings in the two disciplines, or different terms express the same meaning. Synonyms and higher term variability are more characteristic of onomastic than legal terminology. Since onomastic research inevitably generates new points of view, models and conclusions, this leads to deliberate or unintentional terminological change. The consistency and clarity of terms are vital prerequisites for good legal texts, but they nevertheless contain cases of synonymy and polysemy. The effects of the two fields on one other’s terminology are evident. Legal terminology appears to have a greater impact on onomastics than vice-versa, perhaps due to the effects of applied onomastics. Legal terminology also impacts the standard language through public administration. Terminological confusion or fuzziness is observable in everyday communications.