hydronymy

From hydro- +‎ -onymy.

hydronymy (countable and uncountable, plural hydronymies)

1. The naming of bodies of water such as rivers and lakes.
   • 1957, Scottish Studies - Volumes 1-2, page 239:

     As references to foreign hydronymies have shown, this semantic structure and development is not confined to Scotland or to the British Isles.

   • 1989, Jan Gijsbert Pieter Best, Manny M. W. De Vries, Thracians and Mycenaeans, →ISBN:

     In hydronymy there are many pairs of river names such as Eau Blanche/Eau Noire in France, Blanc Ruxel/Noir Ruisseau in the Vosges, France, Beli Iskdr/Cerni Iskdr in Bulgaria, Crisul Alb/Crisul Negru in Romania.

   • 2007, Helmut Birkhan, Hannes Tauber, Kelten-Einfälle an der Donau:

     Hydronymy marks the most conservative feature of toponomastics. By hydronymy earlier strata of a population might be identified and the movements of prehistoric peoples can be observed assessing the spread of the hydronymy associated with them.