Geonomastics on the Web: Visualizing Surname Distributions in a Regional Space

• Main Author: Xulio Sousa
• Format: Article
• Language: Russian
• Published: Izdatelstvo Uralskogo Universiteta 2019-11-01
• Series: Voprosy Onomastiki
• Subjects: galicia; anthroponymy; genealogy; geonomastics; surname distribution; geographic information system; digital humanities
• Online Access: http://onomastics.ru/sites/default/files/doi/10.15826/vopr_onom.2019.16.3.041.pdf
• ISSN: 1994-2400; 1994-2451

The geographical distribution of surnames has been used for decades in a variety of scientific fields as a source of information for research into the history, migrations, genetics, etc. of various human populations. Nevertheless, the geographical dimension of names has hardly been explored until now in the study of anthroponyms. Situated at the intersection of human geography and linguistics, geonomastics, considered as one of the onomastic meta-disciplines, received an important impetus since the introduction of GIS technologies into humanities in the last quarter of the 20th century. This paper presents Cartografía de Apelidos de Galicia (CAG), a free-to-use web application developed at the University of Santiago de Compostela’s Instituto da Lingua Galega that shows the geographical distribution of Galician surnames based on the current Galician population census. The author describes the data sources covered by the app, the structure of the map, its visualizing features and search capacities. The author argues that CAG may be a useful tool for both professional and lay researchers, especially genealogists. Since most of Galician surnames derive from place names, the visualization of their geographical distribution of surnames may be insightful for identifying their origin. Complemented with historical onomastic data, this application may become in the future a valuable source of information about the migration of the population of Galicia.