Nomenclator (nomenclature)

A nomenclator (/ˈnoʊmən.kleɪtər/ NOH-mən-KLAY-tər; English plural nomenclators, Latin plural nomenclatores; derived from the Latin nomen- name + calare – to call), in classical times, referred to a slave whose duty was to recall the names of persons his master met during a political campaign.

[2] It also denotes a person, generally a public official, who announces the names of guests at a party or other social gathering or ceremony.

[2] In more general terms still, it is a person who provides or creates the names for things,[3] and this can apply to the application of names in a scientific or any other context, but especially in relation to specialist terminologies, glossaries etc.

For instance, an entry in the Nomenclator Zoologicus[5] looks like this: Abronia is a genus of lizard that was described by John Edward Gray in 1838 in the journal Annals and Magazine of Natural History.

The entry ends with a note about the animal group the genus belongs to, namely the reptiles ("Rept.