'anthroponomist' originates from combining Neo-Latin/Greek elements: Greek 'ánthrōpos' meaning 'human' and Greek 'ónoma' meaning 'name', with the agent-forming suffix '-ist' (from Greek '-istēs') meaning 'one who'.

'anthroponomist' developed by analogy with terms from the study of names such as 'onomastics' and 'anthroponymy' (from Greek 'ánthrōpos' + 'ónoma'). The modern English formation follows scholarly coinages of the 19th–20th centuries where Greek roots were combined with '-ist' to name specialists.

Initially formed to denote a specialist concerned with human names; the meaning has remained stable as a term for a person who studies personal names.