The role of the quantity of data referring to a single person in historical onomastic research

Abstract

The role of the quantity of data referring to a single person in historical onomastic research

The statement that a large quantity of data is required in historical onomastic research could be interpreted in two different ways. First, it is impossible to carry out macroinvestigations to examine the features of the name stock of a country, of an era or of a social class without a suitably large number of data. These surveys, however, must be preceded by microinvestigations to clarify whether or not an element connected to the name should be considered as a part of the name, or to decide upon how a name is to be classified, etc. This paper discusses the most important condition for the success of this latter type of enquiry, presenting cases in which, as a result of the lack of comparable complementary sources comprising data referring to the same person, researchers were readily prone to draw unstable, vague conclusions, and in the worst cases to even be mistaken. With the help of such sources, however, many uncertainties could be avoided.