Hydronym
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A hydronym (from Greek hudor, "water" and onuma, "name") is a proper name of a body of water. Hydronymy is the study of hydronyms and of how bodies of water receive their names and how they are transmitted through history.
As linguistic items, hydronyms are very conservative, with successor peoples often retaining the name given a body of water (ex: Mississippi has passed from Native Americans to contemporary Americans). It can apply to rivers, lakes, even oceanic elements.
Among the Indo-European languages, hydronyms from various languages can all share a common etymon. The Danube, Don, Dniester, Dnieper and Donets rivers all contain Proto-Indo-European (*danu-), (IEW 175), meaning "river".
See also
Source
Robert S.P. Beekes, "River", Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture, pp. 486-87.
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