# HGNC gene symbol

Source: https://onco.cc/terms/hgnc-symbol/  
OnCo record `hgnc-symbol` (Term). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

The HGNC symbol is the one official short name for each human gene (ERBB2, not HER2 or NEU), so that datasets can be joined without guessing.

## Summary

The HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee approves a unique name and symbol for every known human gene (Wikipedia). Symbols change and aliases collide (HER2 is ERBB2; the symbol MLL became KMT2A), so every dataset should carry the stable HGNC ID (HGNC:3430) as well as the symbol, and gene lists from different years must be mapped before they are joined. OnCo's target records carry HGNC, Ensembl, UniProt and Entrez identifiers for this reason.

## Fields

- Kind: Term
- Last checked: 2026-09-24
- Also known as: HGNC symbol; HGNC gene symbol; approved gene symbol; official gene symbol; gene symbol; HGNC id; HGNC ID
- Tags: cansim-terms

## Notes

- Listed in the CanSim terms map 1.0.0 (docs/onco/terms.json, generated 2026-09-24), CC BY 4.0, attribution: CanSim project, an open, public-data-first cancer foundation-model programme; CanSim page path /terms/hgnc-symbol.

## Sources

- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HUGO_Gene_Nomenclature_Committee
- HGNC (genenames.org): https://www.genenames.org/about/
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HUGO_Gene_Nomenclature_Committee

## Connected records

- targets: [HER2](https://onco.cc/targets/her2/)
- terms: [Cancer AI vocabulary (CanSim terms map)](https://onco.cc/terms/cancer-ai-vocabulary/), [Ensembl gene ID](https://onco.cc/terms/ensembl-gene-id/), [Genome builds: GRCh38 versus hg19 (GRCh37)](https://onco.cc/terms/genome-builds/)

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JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/entities/hgnc-symbol.json