Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

• Maryam Haji Mohammad Jafar ¹
• Hamed Abdi ²

¹ Assistant Professor in Linguistics department- Azad university- Tehran- North Branch

² Linguistics department ,NT.C., Foreign Languages Faculty, Islamic Azad University,

Abstract

This study examined the naming strategies of Iranian airline companies through the lens of cognitive onomastics, exploring how these names reflect cultural identity, ideological values, and cognitive frameworks. Employing a mixed-methods approach, the research analyzes 20 airline names, categorizing them into national-historical, religious-ideological, geographical-regional, and transnational-hybrid groups. The findings reveal a hierarchical preference: geographical names (35%) dominate, emphasizing regional pride and tourism appeal, followed by national-historical names (25%), which reinforce Iran’s pre-Islamic and post-revolutionary identity. Transnational-hybrid names (40%) demonstrate a strategic balance between local heritage and global marketability, while explicitly religious names (5%) are underrepresented, suggesting the aviation industry’s pragmatic distancing from overt ideological messaging. The study aligns with cognitive onomastics theories and sociolinguistic trends, highlighting how airline names serve as dynamic intersections of cultural memory, cognitive salience, and economic pragmatism. The results underscore the tension between tradition and globalization, with names acting as linguistic markers of Iran’s negotiated identity in a globalized world.

Keywords

• Onomastics
• Socio-Cognitive onomastics
• airline naming strategies
• cultural identity
• globalization
• sociolinguistics

Main Subjects

• Sociolinguistics