Ethnonym

An ethnonym refers to an ethnic group, or a group of people who identify with each other as a distinct “people.” Ethnonyms are generally either endonyms (also called “autonyms,” names that come from inside the group) or exonyms (names that come from outside of the group).

Ethnonyms play a large role in group identity formation because they distinguish members from non-members. A common name that is not shared by people from other groups helps to harden the line between "us" and "them," despite the fact that individuals tend to float back and forth across that line.

Names are prone to change as the dynamics of the group and the group's social and physical environments change over time. Groups may fracture and rename themselves in the process. They might absorb other groups and adopt a new name. They might adopt a name that is applied to them by outsiders, or they might simply begin to refer to themselves in a new way.

Endonyms

Endonyms (or autonyms) are names that originate within the ethnic group to which they refer. Endonyms usually come from the traditional language of a group, but foreign names for the group are also sometimes adopted and transformed into a type of autonym. Three Native American groups – the Anishinabe, the Lenape, and the Diné – provide good examples.

All three terms mean “the people” or “the original people," a common theme in many places. Endonyms also commonly refer to prominent natural landmarks or distinctive characteristics of their homeland. For example, the terms “Ojibwe” and “Chippewa” come from the Algonquin word “otchipwa” (to pucker), a reference to the style of moccasins that were traditionally worn by members of the group.

The sources of other exonyms are sometimes harder to trace. Numerous explanations have been suggested for the origin of the word “Cherokee,” citing words and phrases in several languages for various descriptions of the group, but no consensus has been reached.

Many of the ethnonyms that are commonly categorized as exonyms are not properly exonyms but rather translations or corruptions of endonyms. The term “French” is an example: it is an English word, but it is directly derived from the endonym “Français,” so it does not really belong in the category of exonyms. In the same way, the French word “Anglais” refers to the English people.