The International Council of Onomastic Sciences (ICOS) is an international academic organization of scholars with a special interest in onomastics, the scientific study of names (e.g. place-names, personal names, and proper names of all other kinds). The official languages of ICOS are English, French, and German.
Work of the scholars of ICOS Members research:
the origin and history of names, the personal name-systems used by different cultures, the demographic patterns of names in different societies, the use and significance of names of characters in literature, brand-name creation, many related topics in the naming of persons, places, institutions, works of art, and other miscellaneous objects. They are also involved in practical projects such as the international standardization of geographical names. One of the aims of ICOS, unlike many national societies for name-study, is the advancement, representation and co-ordination of name-research on an international level and in an interdisciplinary context. To achieve this goal, it is committed to the publication of research and the development of research tools. Thus, its members come from diverse disciplines such as linguistics, philology, history, sociology, anthropology, psychology, geography and literary research. This organization replaced the former International Committee of Onomastic Sciences, which was composed exclusively of representatives of member countries and did not welcome individual researchers as this new structure allows.
Onoma ICOS publishes the annual journal Onoma, which is its official publication. Onoma is managed by a General Editor in conjunction with an Editorial Board. It contains topical research reports as well as basic theoretical articles concerning all areas of scholarly name research. ICOS also publishes an irregular newsletter. ISSN 0078-463X.
Working groups ICOS has two active working groups, striving:
to create an international bibliography of name-study to help create an internationally agreed technical terminology for name-study
Congresses The International Congress of Onomastic Sciences, which is normally held every three years, is a major academic conference organised on behalf of ICOS by one of its members. The General Assembly of ICOS, which also functions as its business meeting, and at which its officers are elected, is usually held at these congresses. The ordinary business of ICOS is transacted by the elected board of directors. Until the present, the following congresses have been run:
Paris, 1938 Paris, 1947 Bruxelles [Brussels], 1949 Uppsala, 1952 Salamanca, 1955 München [Munich], 1958 Firenze [Florence], 1961 Amsterdam, 1963 London, 1966 Wien [Vienna], 1969 Sofia, 1972 Bern, 1975 Kraków, 1978 Ann Arbor, 1981 Leipzig, 1984 Québec, 1987 Helsinki, 1990 Trier, 1993 Aberdeen, 1996 Santiago de Compostela, 1999 Uppsala, 2002 Pisa, 2005 York University, Toronto, 2008 Barcelona, 2011 Glasgow, 2014 Debrecen, 2017 Kraków, 2021 (postponed from 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic) Helsinki, 2024 The proceedings of each congress are available at the ICOS website.
Presidents Professor Hendrik Jozef van de Wijer (Leuven), 1950–1968 Professor Henri Draye (Leuven), 1969-1983 Professor Karel Roelandts (Leuven), 1984–1990 Professor Wilhelm F.H. Nicolaisen (New York / Aberdeen), 1990–1996 Professor Robert Rentenaar (Amsterdam), 1996–1999 Professor Isolde Hausner (Vienna), 1999–2002 Dr. Mats Wahlberg (Uppsala), 2002–2005 Professor Maria Giovanna Arcamone (Pisa), 2005–2008 Professor Sheila Embleton (Toronto), 2008–2011 Professor Carole Hough (Glasgow), 2011–2014 Dr. Milan Harvalík (Prague), 2014–2017 Dr. Paula Sjöblom (Turku), 2017–2021 Dr. Katalin Reszegi (Debrecen), 2021–2024
See also American Name Society
References
External links Onoma Society for Name Studies in Britain and Ireland
