Exonym and endonym

An exonym or xenonym is an external name for a geographical place, group of people, or language/dialect: a common name used only outside the place, group or linguistic community in question, usually for historical reasons. Conversely, an endonym or autonym, from the Greek root words ἔνδον, éndon, "within" or αὐτο-, auto-, "self" and ὄνομα, ónoma, "name", is given by members of a particular ethnolinguistic group to the group itself, its language or dialect, or its homeland or a specific place within it.

Exonym and xenonym are derived from the Greek suffix -ónoma ὄνομα ("name") and the prefixes ἔξω or ξένος- éxō ("out") and xénos ("foreign") respectively.

Marcel Aurousseau, an Australian geographer, first used the term exonym in his work The Rendering of Geographical Names (1957). Endonym was devised subsequently as a direct antonym of exonym.

Definitions

Exonyms and endonyms can be names of places (toponym), ethnic groups (ethnonym), languages (glossonym), or individuals (personal name).