Choose a topic that is related to onomastics (name studies). You should devise an essay question in consultation with me. Recommended topics are given below but are not exhaustive. Your essay should show clear familiarity with the recommended reading and credit will be given for the breadth of knowledge and further, independent research evidenced in your work. Make sure that you use recommended reading for any factual information about the name you investigate. Your essay can have a more ‘literary’ focus or a more ‘linguistic’ focus, as you prefer. Ideally, choose a topic that you are interested in and genuinely want to understand more fully.
Suggested Question Topics
1. Any aspects of the contribution of place-name evidence to the understanding of historical varieties of English and related varieties (e.g. Old English, Scots).
2. The relationship between genetic ancestry research and onomastic research.
3. Any literary onomastic project: e.g. investigate the uses of names in either one, two or three specific fictional texts (these may be poems, plays, novels, short stories, etc).
4. An exploration of theories relating to the grammatical classification of names.
5. An analysis of personal names: e.g. investigate naming trends in the UK. (For example, using the Office of National Statistics (ONS) data for England and Wales.)
6. Branding strategies for the names of commercial items, businesses or products.
7. Street names or maps as miniature texts encoding social and political attitudes.
8. The conflicting agendas of critical and traditional approaches to onomastics.
9. The interface between onomastics and other disciplines or theories (e.g. psychology,history, literature, sociology, politics, postmodernism, postcolonialism).
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