'anthropogeographer' originates from Modern English, specifically formed from the combining form 'anthropo-' (from Greek 'ánthrōpos') and 'geographer' (from Greek 'geographos'), where 'anthropo-' meant 'human' and 'geographos' meant 'earth-writer' (one who describes the earth).

'anthropogeographer' changed from the Late 19th-century formation 'anthropogeography' (anthropo- + geography) with the agentive suffix '-er' to denote a person, and eventually became the modern English word 'anthropogeographer'.

Initially, it meant 'a person who studies anthropogeography (the geographic aspects of human life)', and over time this specialist meaning has remained largely unchanged.