Below is a guided walk-through of the articles, with comments on their scope, methods, and significance for the field.
Names, meaning, and cognitive perspectives
Maria Sarhemaa opens the volume with a theoretical study on whether personal names are meaningful or “senseless,” viewed through the phenomenon of appellativization, where proper names acquire common-noun uses. Drawing on empirical findings from Finnish data, she argues that meaning emerges through cognitive and usage-based processes, rather than being an inherent lexical property. This paper is particularly valuable because it links philosophical questions about names with cognitive semantics and real linguistic behavior, strengthening the bridge between theory and empirical onomastics.
Tereza Klemensová and Michal Místecký continue the theoretical thread through a grammatical lens, examining declension models for Czech proper names across several onymic classes. Their study provides insight into how formal morphology adapts to name categories, shedding light on borderline or irregular patterns that challenge traditional paradigms. This contribution is especially useful for scholars working at the intersection of onomastics and grammar.
Onomastic terminology — standardization, policy, and national traditions
A thematic cluster in the volume is devoted to terminology projects in different countries.
Milan Harvalík and Iveta Valentová discuss English and German equivalents of Slovak onomastic terminology developed within the Slovak Onomastic Commission. Their contribution highlights both the practical challenges of multilingual terminology work and its broader relevance for international cooperation in the field.
Olena Karpenko and Valeriia Neklesova examine recent tendencies in Ukrainian onomastic terminology, offering a perspective shaped by linguistic tradition, academic continuity, and present-day reform initiatives. Their study is especially timely, as it reflects an onomastic culture undergoing renewal and systematization under complex socio-historical conditions.
Olha Tsyhanok explores how Ukrainian proper names function in BBC News reporting during 2022–2023. This article provides a rare and insightful view into journalistic name usage, transliteration, and political-cultural framing, making it valuable for sociolinguists and media researchers as well.
Gabriela-Sînziana Ioaneș investigates the sustainability and social role of nicknames in the Russo-Ukrainian conflict context. Her analysis shows that nicknames operate simultaneously as markers of identity, humor, resistance, and group cohesion - demonstrating how even informal naming practices can carry deep symbolic power.
Exonyms, place-name structures, and fieldwork approaches
Agostinho Salgueiro contributes a study on the standardization of exonyms in European Portuguese. Beyond terminological and cartographic questions, the article raises broader issues regarding cultural heritage, identity, and linguistic continuity in exonym policy, making it relevant for geographers as well as onomasticians.
Montserrat Rangel Vicente addresses the morphological sustainability of place names, arguing from a synchronic perspective for a careful description of form, productivity, and diachronic consistency. Her paper helps clarify how place-name systems evolve while preserving structural balance and linguistic integrity.
Wen Ge proposes an innovative indirect method for documenting everyday pronunciation of Norwegian place names. This contribution stands out methodologically, as it engages with oral usage patterns, demonstrating how pronunciation data enriches both linguistic description and community-based documentation.
Dávid Wendl reports on microtoponymic fieldwork in the Kalocsa Region of Hungary. His paper not only documents naming patterns, but also offers ethnographic insights into local naming behavior, illustrating how microtoponyms preserve landscape knowledge, memory, and interaction with environment.
Erzsébet Győrffy analyzes the naming of river sections using a cognitive and socio-onomastic approach. The article convincingly shows why rivers often carry multiple names across communities, and how geography, mobility, identity, and communication practices shape hydronym systems over time.
Names, education, culture, and translation
Márcia Sipavicius Seide presents an interdisciplinary project connecting onomastics, hydronyms, sustainable development goals, and language teaching. Her case study demonstrates how name awareness can increase students’ understanding of environmental, cultural, and social issues - a truly pedagogically forward-looking contribution.
Viktória Gergelyová examines how culture is represented in the MagyarOK Hungarian-language textbook series. Her article shows how onomastic and cultural content interact in language education, emphasizing the role of names in shaping intercultural competence.
Zsuzsa Hajabács discusses the challenges of identifying Hungarian aristocrats in English translations of Slovak tourist texts, revealing how translation choices and cultural assumptions affect historical name interpretation and recognition.
Francescu Maria Luneschi presents a Corsican case study linking toponymy with territorial planning. The paper demonstrates how linguistic documentation and regional development processes become mutually reinforcing, providing a strong example of onomastics in applied regional policy.
Naming policy, innovation, and contemporary practices
Brian Ó Raghallaigh, Úna Bhreathnach and Gearóid Ó Cleircín examine Irish-language naming and renaming of state, semi-state and private bodies. Their study is especially relevant for sociopolitical onomastics, showing how naming decisions intersect with identity, language policy, and symbolic authority.
Pavel Štěpán analyses recent changes in Czech personal name law, focusing on the role of onomasticians in evaluating official names. The paper illustrates the tensions between legislation, identity preferences, and linguistic norms - a highly instructive contemporary policy case.
Katharina Leibring revisits the history of Swedish surname renewal and the ambitious, sometimes controversial, reform vision of Jöran Sahlgren. Her contribution is both historical and reflective, asking whether earlier innovations can be regarded as sustainable naming strategies today.
Daniel Solling offers an engaging sociolinguistic exploration of how people name their cars in Sweden. Far from trivial, this study illuminates affective relationships, identity creation, and playful onomastic creativity in everyday life.
Digital resources, databases, and AI-driven onomastics
Carole Hough presents a landmark methodological paper describing a digital approach to place-name survey in Scotland, where a single database simultaneously generates both printed volumes and an evolving online resource. This contribution is particularly significant for the future of onomastic infrastructure and scholarly sustainability.
Eugen Schochenmaier concludes the volume with a study on how onomastic databases support AI applications in fields such as ethnicity classification, digital heritage, and cultural analytics. The article demonstrates how structured name resources can guide more context-aware and ethically informed machine learning outcomes, highlighting an emerging frontier between onomastics and computational humanities.
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