Saturday, May 9, 2026

“Donnyland”? An Analysis of the Proposal to Rename Part of Donbas

 

1. The reported proposal

The alleged proposal to name part of the Donbas “Donnyland” should not be understood first of all as a normal act of geographical renaming. It is better interpreted as a symbolic diplomatic maneuver: a possible attempt by Ukrainian negotiators to appeal to Donald Trump’s personal vanity and thereby encourage a harder American position against Russia’s territorial demands. Accessible reports summarizing the New York Times article state that the term was first raised partly in jest, then appears to have circulated informally in negotiations, though not in official documents. TIME reports that the idea concerned a contested part of the Donbas and was connected with broader discussions about demilitarized or special-status arrangements, including a possible “Monaco model” or free economic zone.

The reported details make the proposal more than a casual joke but less than a formal policy. The Irish Times, citing people familiar with the negotiations, says that a Ukrainian negotiator even created a green-and-gold flag and a national anthem using ChatGPT, although it remains unclear whether the American side ever saw these designs. The Kyiv Independent similarly reports that the label would refer to a roughly 2,000-square-mile part of northwestern Donetsk Oblast and that the name plays on Donetsk/Donbas, Donald Trump, and Disneyland.

This ambiguity is central: “Donnyland” is not yet a toponym in the strict administrative sense. It is a proposed nickname, a diplomatic signal, perhaps even a bargaining device. Its academic interest lies precisely in that hybrid status.

2. Official Ukrainian reaction: distancing without full denial

President Volodymyr Zelensky’s reaction is politically significant. He did not embrace the term. On the contrary, he emphasized that in his own negotiations only official formulations such as “Donetsk Oblast,” “Luhansk Oblast,” “our Donbas,” and “territory of Ukraine” are used. He added that the essential point is that Donetsk and Luhansk remain Ukrainian territory, “as long as it’s not ‘Putinland.’”

This response performs two functions. First, it distances the Ukrainian presidency from a potentially embarrassing or unserious-sounding label. Second, it reframes the question away from flattering Trump and toward resisting Russian annexation. The Guardian also reported Zelensky’s denial that such a renaming offer was made in his negotiations, while noting that he cannot constitutionally cede Ukrainian territory and that Ukrainian commanders regard Donbas as a possible springboard for future Russian attacks if Russia is allowed to consolidate control there.

Therefore, the official Ukrainian line appears to be: no such term in formal documents, no abandonment of Donbas, and no recognition of any Russian claim.

3. Commentary: vanity diplomacy, deterrence, or absurdity?

The reactions found online fall into three main interpretive camps.

The first sees “Donnyland” as vanity diplomacy. The Week’s Rafi Schwartz places the proposal within a wider pattern of foreign leaders and governments attaching Trump’s name to strategic projects in order to attract his attention. He describes Trump’s name as a kind of “global currency” in diplomatic flattery. This framing is useful because it links “Donnyland” with earlier cases such as “Fort Trump” in Poland, “Trump Heights” in the Golan Heights, and the “Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity” between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

The second interpretation sees the proposal as an attempted security device. The Week cites RAND political scientist Samuel Charap’s view that Ukraine might regard a “Trump imprimatur” on a free economic zone as a form of deterrent against Russian aggression. The logic is not entirely irrational: if a disputed zone bore Trump’s name, Moscow might hesitate to violate it for fear of provoking American prestige politics. In that reading, “Donnyland” would function not as a serious cultural name but as a diplomatic tripwire.

The third interpretation is sharply critical. Salon’s Chauncey DeVega calls the idea surreal and treats it as evidence that flattery has become a foreign-policy strategy in the Trump era. He argues that such proposals exploit Trump’s need for personal affirmation and transform international security into symbolic branding. DeVega’s criticism is polemical, but the core point is analytically useful: “Donnyland” appears to personalize a question that should be handled through law, sovereignty, security guarantees, and local legitimacy.

Russian-language media unsurprisingly framed the story in a way that can be used against Kyiv. Gazeta.Ru presented it under the headline that Ukraine “wanted” to name part of Donbas after Trump, emphasizing the AI-created flag and anthem, the “Peace Board,” and the “Monaco model.” Even if this is based on the same NYT reporting, the Russian framing illustrates one of the main risks: such a name gives hostile media an easy way to portray Ukraine as unserious, externally dependent, or willing to trade symbolic sovereignty for American favor.

4. Academic interpretation: a case of transactional toponymy

From an onomastic and political-geographical perspective, “Donnyland” is best described as transactional toponymy.

In this article/blogpost, I introduce the term “transactional toponym” to describe a place name proposed not primarily to reflect local history, linguistic tradition, collective memory, or administrative continuity, but to produce an immediate political, diplomatic, economic, or symbolic exchange. A transactional toponym functions as a bargaining device: it offers symbolic recognition, prestige, gratitude, or reputational reward to an external actor in expectation of material, military, diplomatic, or political benefit. In this sense, the reported “Donnyland” proposal differs from conventional commemorative naming, decolonial renaming, or restorative toponymy. It is less an act of memory than an act of negotiation. Related possible terms would be instrumental toponym, bargaining toponym, patronage toponym, diplomatic toponym, quid-pro-quo toponym, or performative geopolitical toponym; however, “transactional toponym” best captures the exchange-oriented logic of such names. The category overlaps partly with research on critical toponymy, which treats place naming as an expression of power, ideology, and spatial governance, and with studies of toponymic commodification, where names are commercialized, branded, or sold through naming-rights regimes. Yet the transactional toponym is more specifically political: its value lies not in market branding alone but in its attempted conversion of symbolic naming into strategic advantage. Examples that approximate this category include Bill Clinton Boulevard in Pristina, Kosovo, George W. Bush Street in Tbilisi, Georgia, or Heydar Aliyev statue / Mexico-Azerbaijan Friendship Park in Mexico City. In all these cases, naming operates as a form of symbolic payment, designed to secure, reward, or dramatize political patronage rather than simply to identify a place.

Ordinary official renaming often emerges from regime change, decolonization, language policy, commemoration, or restoration of historical names. In Ukraine itself, recent toponymic policy has been dominated by decommunization, derussification, and the removal of names associated with Russian imperial power. Ukraine’s UNGEGN report describes legal and administrative work on geographical names, including updates to the State Register of Geographical Names and renamings under the 2023 law on condemning Russian imperial policy and decolonizing toponymy.

“Donnyland” moves in a very different direction. It is not a Ukrainianizing name. It is not an older local name. It is not a neutral administrative label. It is an English-language, person-centered, brand-like invention tied to an external political actor. This makes it almost the opposite of the logic behind Ukraine’s current official toponymic policy.

In critical place-name studies, names are not passive labels. They inscribe power, memory, and identity into space. Rose-Redwood, Alderman, and Azaryahu describe place-naming as a field in which governance, ideology, and spatial identity are actively negotiated. In this sense, “Donnyland” would not merely describe territory; it would symbolically recode a devastated Ukrainian borderland as an object of American presidential branding.

5. Political risks

The proposal has several serious political weaknesses.

First, it risks moral trivialization. The Donbas is not an empty diplomatic chessboard. It is a war-damaged industrial region with destroyed towns, displaced civilians, military casualties, occupation, filtration, deportations, and contested memory. A name echoing “Disneyland” sounds grotesque when applied to a devastated war zone.

Second, it risks sovereignty dilution. Even if intended as a clever deterrent, “Donnyland” could imply that Ukrainian territorial security depends less on Ukrainian sovereignty or international law than on the vanity of one American president. That is dangerous for Ukraine’s own legal and diplomatic position.

Third, it risks propaganda exploitation. Russian state and pro-Kremlin media could use the term to claim that Ukraine is ready to externalize Donbas, create an artificial protectorate, or submit its territorial future to Washington. The Russian-language coverage already shows how easily the story can be reframed in that direction.

Fourth, it could create domestic political backlash in Ukraine. Any settlement involving special status, demilitarization, outside administration, or semi-autonomy would be politically explosive. Adding Trump’s name to the formula would make it even more vulnerable to criticism.

6. Possible strategic logic

Yet the idea should not be dismissed as pure stupidity. From Kyiv’s wartime perspective, the United States remains indispensable. If Ukrainian negotiators believed that Trump was leaning toward accepting Russian territorial demands, then a personalized symbolic maneuver may have seemed like a desperate but pragmatic attempt to redirect his instincts.

The possible deterrence logic is especially interesting. If the area became a demilitarized or special economic zone branded with Trump’s name, a future Russian attack might be framed as an attack not only on Ukraine but on Trump’s personal diplomatic legacy. That is the logic behind Charap’s reported comment about a “Trump imprimatur” functioning as a deterrent.

However, this is an unstable basis for security. Deterrence built on personal vanity is weaker than deterrence built on treaty obligations, troop presence, enforceable guarantees, or alliance mechanisms. It also expires politically: what happens after Trump leaves office, loses interest, or changes position?

7. Comparative examples

The closest precedent is “Fort Trump” in Poland. In 2018, Polish President Andrzej Duda publicly floated the idea of naming a permanent U.S. military base in Poland after Trump and offering more than $2 billion toward the project. But Reuters later reported that the “Fort Trump” project had effectively crumbled, quoting a U.S. official as saying, “There is no Fort Trump.” This is highly relevant: personal flattery can open a conversation, but it does not guarantee durable institutional outcomes.

Another relevant example is the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity in the Armenia–Azerbaijan context. Unlike “Donnyland,” this name appears in a formal joint declaration and implementation framework. The difference is important. TRIPP names an infrastructure/connectivity project embedded in a negotiated declaration; “Donnyland” would name a devastated, militarized, sovereignty-sensitive war zone. The symbolic burden is much heavier in Donbas.

A third comparison is Trump Heights in the Golan Heights, which The Week discusses as part of the broader pattern of naming projects after Trump. Here again, the name is connected to contested sovereignty and international recognition, but it functions within Israeli domestic commemorative politics. “Donnyland,” by contrast, would be attached to an active battlefield settlement.

8. Probability of actual renaming

My probability assessment remains low, but with more nuance after reviewing the online reactions.

Official legal renaming of part of Donbas as “Donnyland”: 1–2%.
The name is absent from official documents, Zelensky has publicly emphasized official Ukrainian territorial terminology, and the proposal conflicts with Ukraine’s legal and symbolic approach to geographical names. Ukraine’s Constitution explicitly includes Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts in the state’s administrative-territorial structure.

Use as an informal negotiation nickname: 35–50%.
This appears already to have happened, at least according to NYT-based reporting. Informal labels often survive inside diplomatic circles even when they never enter formal texts.

Use in a public-facing peace plan or memorandum: below 5%.
The political cost is too high. A neutral formula such as “Donbas Security Zone,” “Donetsk-Luhansk Demilitarized Area,” “International Security Zone,” or “Special Recovery Zone” would be much more likely.

Adoption of a related special-zone model without the name “Donnyland”: 15–25%.
The “Monaco model,” demilitarized zone, free economic zone, or international administration concept is more plausible than the name itself. TIME reports that such arrangements have been discussed, although neither side has endorsed them.

9. Final judgement

Academically, “Donnyland” is a fascinating but troubling example of how contemporary diplomacy can transform geographical naming into personal branding. It reveals the convergence of three processes: wartime territorial bargaining, performative flattery, and the mediatization of diplomacy.

Politically, however, the proposal is weak. It risks trivializing suffering, undermining Ukraine’s sovereignty narrative, and gifting Russian propaganda an easy target. It also substitutes personalized symbolic deterrence for the harder but more reliable instruments of security: enforceable guarantees, international monitoring, military aid, legal continuity, and territorial integrity.

My final position is therefore critical but not dismissive. If Ukrainian negotiators raised the idea, they may have done so out of strategic desperation rather than frivolity. But as a naming act, “Donnyland” would be poor toponymy and poor statecraft. It may be memorable, but it lacks legitimacy. It may flatter a powerful actor, but it does not honor the place. It may briefly attract attention, but it would not produce a stable political geography.

A serious settlement should avoid “Donnyland” and use sober, legally precise terminology: Donbas Security Zone, Donetsk-Luhansk Demilitarized Area, Internationally Monitored Recovery Zone, or Ukrainian Donbas Security Corridor. Such names are less spectacular, but they better serve the principles of sovereignty, dignity, and postwar reconstruction.


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UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 70: A World Tour in Place Names

 The 70th issue of the UNGEGN Information Bulletin (April 2026), dedicated to the theme "The Standardization of Geographical Names across Languages and Geographic Regions," is one of the most geographically wide-ranging issues the bulletin has published. At 81 pages, it reads as a genuine cross-section of the global toponymic community - from Welsh Patagonia to the Kyiv skyline, from Chilean mythological creatures to the Soviet-era name layers embedded in Bulgarian mountains.

The thematic section opens with a highlight: Adriana Vescovo's contribution on Welsh toponymy in Argentine Patagonia is among the most vivid pieces of onomastic journalism the bulletin has run in recent memory. She traces how the first Welsh settlers, arriving in 1865 aboard the Mimosa, named the Chubut valley in their own language - giving rise to places like Trelew (Tre Lew, "Town of Lewis"), Trevelin (Tre Velin, "Village of the Mill"), and the magnificent Gorsedd y Cwmwl ("Throne of the Clouds") - and how those names now circulate between cartographic inconsistency and cultural heritage protection, through bilingual signage, municipal ordinances, and a workshop Vescovo herself organised in Trevelin in October 2025. The detail that Richard Jones Berwyn added the name of a Welsh mountain range as his own surname, and that Berwyn is now a common Patagonian surname, is the kind of onomastic fact that stays with you.

The theoretical backbone of the issue is provided by two articles from Peter Jordan, who contributes more to this bulletin than any other single author. His piece on place-name standardization in Austria is an admirably clear exposition of the country's subsidiary system - where naming authority rests at the lowest possible administrative level, down to the individual farmstead owner - and its consequences for minority languages, including the long and contested path to bilingual locality signs for Carinthian Slovenes that was only resolved by federal decree in 2011. His companion article, "Some principal thoughts on place-name standardization," is the most intellectually substantial piece in the issue: a concise treatment of who standardization actually serves (the local community? the nation? the international community?), the tensions between standardization and cultural diversity, and the growing influence of critical toponymastics, which frames standardization itself as a political act. Jordan's willingness to acknowledge that "standardization works against the wealth of culture expressed also in the wealth of place names" is a welcome note of critical honesty from a figure who has spent decades advancing standardization.

The national case studies that form the bulk of the thematic section vary considerably in ambition. Yuri Varyan's contribution from Armenia is conceptually interesting - his focus on diglossia and the 60+ Armenian dialects embedded in the national gazetteer raises important questions about the relationship between literary and spoken forms - though the article remains somewhat general. The contributions from Belgium (Jeanne Henrion) and Canada (Nicole Halseth and Steve Westley) are models of institutional clarity, explaining with precision how multilingual naming policy works in practice: Belgium's strict territorial linguistic regions, Canada's pan-Canadian bilingual list, and the gradual integration of Indigenous names in both countries. Andreas Hadjiraftis on Cyprus offers perhaps the most politically complex case, where the political division of the island since 1974 has created a parallel, unrecognised naming system in the north that the Republic of Cyprus must document without acknowledging - a toponymic situation with no easy resolution.

The two Chilean contributions from Betsabé Herrera Salinas and Felipe Hidalgo Leiva are the most original in the thematic section. Herrera Salinas's inventory of the Chilean bestiary in official toponymy - mythological creatures embedded in the map, from El Diablo Chileno (78 records) to the vampiric Piuchén (26 records, with no fewer than 14 spelling variants) - is a genuinely fresh piece of research that treats standardization as a problem of oral tradition and cultural memory, not merely orthography. Hidalgo Leiva's companion piece on the Ex Isla del Alacrán near Arica — an island that became a peninsula when an isthmus was artificially constructed in 1965, raising the question of which toponym class now applies - illustrates with perfect economy how geography itself can render names obsolete.

The "From the Countries" section contains three rewarding pieces. Stanislava Valcheva's tour of Bulgarian toponymy — tracing the name Balkan through 100 variants across centuries, and following Sofia from Serdica to Sredets to Sofia across a 17th-century map that shows both names in simultaneous use — is beautifully written and a good reminder that the bulletin does its best work when national contributors write with specific local knowledge rather than generic institutional prose. Eman Ahmed Oriby's sweeping account of Egypt's names through history, from Kemet to Um El Donia, with its comparative tables of how "Egypt" and "Misr" distribute across the world's languages, is encyclopaedic and useful.

The divisions and working groups sections offer two events of real significance to the broader community. Peter Jordan announces the GeoNames Symposium 2026 in Hermagor, Carinthia (12–13 October 2026), on the heritage value of microtoponyms - the intimate namescape of fields, springs, ditches, and farmsteads that is rapidly disappearing as agricultural societies transform - with proceedings to be published as Volume 10 of the Name & Place series. The Romano-Hellenic Division announces its symposium in Rome (3–5 June 2026) on toponymy and the Sustainable Development Goals, with a particular focus on gender balance in street naming and the lessons of historical toponymy for sustainable human-environment relationships.

The final section includes a brief but genuinely moving retrospective by Stefan Schweinfest, retiring Director of the UN Statistics Division, who recounts how he first encountered the word exonym in 2002 and spent the next two decades in service of the UNGEGN community. His three priorities for the future - building national names authorities, strengthening ties with UN-GGIM, and connecting toponymy to the post-2030 policy agenda - are well-chosen. The section also includes an informative piece by Jessie Pechmann of the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team on the gaps and complementary strengths of OSM and OCHA data for populated place names in humanitarian contexts (in Sudan, only 38% of OSM populated places have a recorded name; in Somalia, 13%), with a proposal for AI-assisted, human-reviewed gap-filling.

The bulletin closes with Peter Jordan's announcement of the ICOS Congress Vienna, 16–20 August 2027 - which readers of this blog will already know, since we have been writing about it for some time.

Issue 71 will circulate in September 2026 under the theme "How toponymy can contribute to reach the Sustainable Development Goals." Contributions are welcome at geoinfo_unsd@un.org.

Names, Places, Laws, and Literature: Acta Onomastica, Vol. 67/1 (2026)

 The new issue of Acta Onomastica - Vol. 67, No. 1 (2026) - arrives with thirteen peer-reviewed articles spanning urbanonymy, historical toponymy, anthroponymy, literary onomastics, etymology, and socio-onomastics across a remarkably broad geographic and linguistic canvas, from Ukraine and Romania to Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Bohemia, and the Carpathian Basin.

The issue opens with a theoretical contribution by Ján Bauko on toponomastics and translatology, examining the translation of urbanonyms in bilingual environments - a question of growing relevance wherever minority languages and official nomenclature compete for the same street signs. Andrea Bölcskei and Gábor Mikesy then turn to Hungarian place names as evidence of historical relations between Moravians, Czechs, and Hungarians - a reminder that toponyms are political archives as much as linguistic ones.

Jaroslav David offers what may be the issue's most theoretically ambitious contribution: a new perspective on the honorific motive in place naming, revisiting a concept central to modern urbanonymy with fresh analytical tools. David appears again near the end of the issue, co-authoring with Anna Laura Kolláth a study of how street name changes in Miskolc, Hungary between 1989 and 1993 were reflected in the regional newspaper Észak-Magyarország - a case study in how the press mediates the politics of renaming after regime change. David also contributes a review of Slovenská onomastická terminológia by Iveta Valentová and colleagues, a major terminological reference for Slovak onomastics.

Jana Davidová Glogarová and Tereza Klemensová explore the proprial landscape of postmodernism through the prose of Czech writers Michal Ajvaz and Miloš Urban - a literary onomastics study that asks what proper names do in fiction when reality itself becomes unstable. Žaneta Dvořáková and Andrea Bartíková take a legal-historical angle, tracing the history of regulations and laws governing surnames in the Czech lands and examining expert surname assessments and court disputes - a study that bridges onomastics and legal history in ways rarely attempted.

Oliviu Felecan contributes a socio-onomastic study of Czechs and Slovaks in Romania, exploring how naming practices reflect identity, minority status, and cultural memory in a diaspora context. Ilona Janyšková and Helena Karlíková tackle the methodological challenges of etymologising proper names in etymological dictionaries - a metatheoretical reflection on how onomastics and historical linguistics interface at the lexicographic level.

From Ukraine, Olga Klimkina examines the names given to new residential developments in Kyiv through the lens of speech influence theory, and Tetyana Kosmeda, Oksana Kovtun, and Vitaliya Papish analyse verbal innovations derived from anthroponyms - the productive, often subversive process by which proper names become verbs in Ukrainian. Judit Kozma, Zsófia Ludányi, and Dorottya Jakab present a corpus-based study of morphological variation in Hungarian proper names, drawing on inquiries received by the Hungarian Language Consulting Service — the most-viewed article in this issue, reflecting the practical demand for normative guidance on name inflection.

Two contributions round out the toponymic section: František Kožíšek investigates the origin of the Czech toponym Hladové vody (Hungry Waters), and Martina Zirhutová maps the distribution of the appellative borovice (Scots pine) and its dialectal variants in minor place names across Bohemia.

The issue closes with a tribute by Soňa Wojnarová to the life anniversary of Miloslava Knappová - one of the most important Czech onomasticians of the twentieth century - a review by Martina Ptáčníková of Justyna B. Walkowiak's two-volume Nazwy ulic Poznania, onomastic news compiled by the editorial team, and Žaneta Dvořáková's overview of 25 years of advisory activity by the Department of Onomastics of the Czech Language Institute (2000–2025).

The full issue is freely available at asjournals.lib.cas.cz/actaonomastica.


Česky

Jména, místa, zákony a literatura: Acta Onomastica, ročník 67/1 (2026)

Nové číslo časopisu Acta Onomastica - ročník 67, číslo 1 (2026) - přináší třináct recenzovaných studií, které pokrývají urbanonymii, historickou toponymii, antroponymii, literární onomastiku, etymologii i socioonomastiku na pozoruhodně širokém geografickém a jazykovém záběru: od Ukrajiny a Rumunska přes Maďarsko, Slovensko a česky mluvené Čechy až po karpatský prostor.

Číslo otevírá teoretický příspěvek Jána Bauka věnovaný toponomastice a translatologii - konkrétně překladu urbanoným v bilingválním prostředí, otázce stále naléhavější všude tam, kde si menšinové jazyky a oficiální nomenklatura konkurují na stejných uličních tabulích. Andrea Bölcskei a Gábor Mikesy pak využívají maďarská místní jména jako pramen poznání historických vztahů mezi Moravany, Čechy a Maďary - doklad toho, že toponyma jsou politickými archivy stejně tak jako jazykovými.

Teoreticky nejambicióznější příspěvek čísla přináší pravděpodobně Jaroslav David: nabízí novou perspektivu honorifikačního motivu v pojmenování míst a přistupuje k tomuto ústřednímu pojmu moderní urbanonymie s novými analytickými nástroji. David se v čísle objevuje i jako spoluautor: společně s Annou Laurou Kolláth zkoumá, jak byl v regionálním deníku Észak-Magyarország reflektován přejmenovávání ulic v Miskolci v letech 1989–1993 - případová studie o tom, jak tisk zprostředkovává politiku přejmenování po změně režimu. David rovněž přispívá recenzí terminologické příručky Slovenská onomastická terminológia Ivety Valentové a kolektivu.

Jana Davidová Glogarová a Tereza Klemensová se věnují propriální krajině postmodernismu v prózách Michala Ajvaze a Miloše Urbana - literárněonomastická studie, která klade otázku, co vlastní jména dělají v beletrii, když se samotná realita stává nestabilní. Žaneta Dvořáková a Andrea Bartíková přistupují k tématu z právněhistorické perspektivy: sledují vývoj předpisů a zákonů o příjmeních a analyzují znalecká posuzování příjmení i soudní spory - studie, která propojuje onomastiku a právní dějiny způsobem, k němuž se badatelé příliš často neuchylují.

Oliviu Felecan přispívá socioonomastickou studií o Češích a Slovácích v Rumunsku, v níž pojmenovávací praktiky zrcadlí otázky identity, menšinového postavení a kulturní paměti v diaspoře. Ilona Janyšková a Helena Karlíková se zamýšlejí nad metodologickými úskalími etymologizování vlastních jmen v etymologických slovnících - metateoretická reflexe styčné plochy onomastiky a historické lingvistiky na úrovni lexikografie.

Z Ukrajiny přichází příspěvek Olgy Klimkinové o názvech nových zástaveb v Kyjevě nahlížených prismatem teorie řečového vlivu, a studie Tetyany Kosmedy, Oksany Kovtun a Vitaliji Papish analyzuje verbální inovace odvozené od antroponym — produktivní, často subverzivní proces, jímž se vlastní jména stávají slovesy. Judit Kozma, Zsófia Ludányi a Dorottya Jakab předkládají korpusovou studii morfologické variace maďarských vlastních jmen na základě dotazů zaslaných Jazykové poradně - nejčtenější příspěvek tohoto čísla, dokládající praktickou poptávku po normativních doporučeních ohledně skloňování jmen.

Toponymickou část doplňují dva příspěvky: František Kožíšek pátrá po původu jména Hladové vody a Martina Zirhutová mapuje rozšíření apelativa borovice a jeho nářečních variant v pomístních jménech v Čechách.

Číslo uzavírá příspěvek Soňi Wojnarové k životnímu jubileu Miloslavy Knappové - jedné z nejvýznamnějších českých onomastiček dvacátého století — recenze dvousvazkové práce Justyny B. Walkowiak Nazwy ulic Poznania od Martiny Ptáčníkové, onomastické zprávy a poznámky redakčního týmu a přehled Žanety Dvořákové o poradenské činnosti oddělení onomastiky ÚJČ AV ČR za posledních pětadvacet let (2000–2025).

Celé číslo je volně dostupné na asjournals.lib.cas.cz/actaonomastica.

Friday, May 8, 2026

From Cyrillic to Latin: A Step Toward Phonemic Precision in Kazakh

 by Sadyk Didar – Kyzdarkhan Rysbergen – Schochenmaier Eugen – Bazarbayeva Zeinep


Abstract
This study reassesses Kazakhstan’s 2021 Latin script design against the 1940 Cyrillic through a phoneme-to-grapheme correspondence (PGC) lens. We formalize an inventory-level estimator (PGC-Core) and evaluate three scenarios: Minimalist (Core phonemes), Standard (Core + Integrated loan segments), and an Extended set reported for coverage (Marginals documented but excluded from the mean). The Latin design exhibits consistently higher correspondence, reflecting a nine-vowel analysis, clearer treatment of glides, and a consistent diacritic system. We review earlier Latinization drafts and resolve contested cases (e.g., /j/ as a phoneme with context-conditioned mapping; loan affricates via a fixed digraph). Methodologically, the paper couples a transparent scoring scheme (A1–A3) with qualitative analysis of vowel polysemy, graphemic multifunctionality, and the management of dual-script coexistence. Status flags (Core/Integrated/Marginal) and a single formula specify what is averaged and what is excluded, ensuring replicability. A comparative section situates Kazakhstan among other reforms – especially in the Turkic sphere – distilling policy levers that correlate with smoother adoption. Beyond linguistic fit, script choice carries digital consequences. We outline practical measures - time-boxed coexistence, clear style guidance, funded teacher re-tooling, conversion pipelines, and unified ICT standards for input, hyphenation, OCR/ASR, and cross-script retrieval - to translate orthographic clarity into lower learning and production costs. Overall, the evidence supports Latin as the more faithful and operationally scalable orthography for contemporary Kazakh.

Key words: Phoneme-to-Grapheme Correspondence (PGC), IPA, Kazakh language, orthography, phonemic transparency, phonotactics

Pages: 306-315

Thursday, May 7, 2026

Names Without Borders: Onomástica desde América Latina, Vol. 7 No. 1 (2026)

 Open the new issue of Onomástica desde América Latina and you will travel - without leaving your chair - from the classrooms of Algeria to the streets of Buenos Aires, from the Amazonian rainforest to the marathon finish line in Valencia, from Vietnamese birth registers to Yoruba names on Facebook.

Volume 7, No. 1 (2026) is one of the most geographically and thematically expansive issues the journal has published. It opens with two studies rooted in Algeria: Widad Souali examines proper names in Spanish-language teaching manuals (Los nombres propios en la enseñanza-aprendizaje del español como lengua extranjera en Argelia), while Imene Maghraoui asks whether French children's readers like "Taoki et compagnie" open windows onto the world or impose cultural hegemony (Le poids des noms propres dans « Taoki et compagnie » en contexte algérien). Lamia Adrar rounds out the Algerian trio with a study of pharmaceutical brand names and their semantic motivations (Noms de Médicaments Algériens).

The issue then crosses continents with ease. Thi Minh Thao Le and Pham Thi Ngoc offer a sweeping sociolinguistic study of gender and culture in Vietnamese naming practices (Modern naming trends in Vietnam). Oluwatosin Mercy Ajayi, Esther Avosuahi Onmoke, and Idowu Odebode trace how Yoruba anthroponyms are anglicised on Facebook (Os processos morfológicos de anglicização de antropônimos iorubás). Chenglin Zhu and Gabriel Antunes de Araujo analyse phonetic adaptations in the translation of onomastic vocabulary in the works of Ruggieri (Adaptações fonéticas na tradução do léxico onomástico nas obras de Ruggieri).

Closer to home - or rather, closer to Latin America - Adianys Collazo Allen maps the propial expressions embedded in Cuban road names (Las vías de comunicación en Cuba: oraciones propiales), and the team of Gilberto Maximiano Ceballos Esqueda, Gloria Ignacia Vergara Mendoza, Lucila Gutiérrez Santana, and José Manuel González Freire proposes a methodological framework for classifying nicknames in Cuauhtémoc, Colima (Propuesta metodológica para la clasificación de los apodos). Yolanda Guillermina López Franco brings a lexicological and socio-anthroponymic lens to the most common given names in Mexico in 2021 (Une approche lexicologique et socioanthroponymique aux prénoms les plus attribués au Mexique en 2021), a study also published in Spanish translation in the same issue.

Across the Atlantic, Alexandre Melo de Sousa, Isabel Correia, Bruno Gonçalves Carneiro, and Amílcar Morais compare toponymic sign formation in Portugal and Brazil (Toponímia entre mares), while Robson Santos Silva traces the intellectual journey from traditional to critical toponymy (Da toponímia tradicional à toponímia crítica). Marcos Jaime Araújo explores Língua Geral toponymy and Amazonian identity in the Bragantina region of Pará (Toponímia em Língua Geral e identidade na Amazônia bragantina paraense), and the team of Romilia de Sá Feitosa, Maria Célia Dias de Castro, and Maria da Guia Taveiro Silva offers a socio-onomastic study of commercial establishment names in Imperatriz, Maranhão (Estudo sócio-onomástico de nomes de estabelecimentos comerciais localizados em Imperatriz/MA).

A highlight is the special dossier on onomastics and linguistic landscape, coordinated by María Carmen Fernández Juncal, who opens it with a panoramic overview of achievements and challenges (Onomástica y paisaje lingüístico: logros y retos). The dossier includes Elisa Suárez Caramés on the social stratification of chrematonyms in Galician urban space, Lucía Morán Gaitero on proper names in the rural linguistic landscape of León, María Victoria Galloso Camacho and Águeda Vázquez Hidalgo on odonymy and linguistic landscape, Mercedes De La Torre García on the naming of public libraries in Seville, Montserrat Rangel Vicente on institutional topo-ergonyms in Salamanca, Ricard Morant on names on marathon race bibs in Valencia, and Vinícius Pereira de Souza Cruz on football onomastics in the linguistic landscape of Buenos Aires.

Finally, a Mini contribution by Anna Choleva-Dimitrova, Nadezhda Dancheva, Maya Vlahova-Angelova, and Gergana Petkova surveys the Bulgarian personal name system in the early 21st century - a reminder that this journal's reach extends well beyond its Latin American home.

The full issue is freely available at e-revista.unioeste.br.


Português

Nomes sem fronteiras: Onomástica desde América Latina, v. 7, n. 1 (2026)

Abra o novo número de Onomástica desde América Latina e viaje - sem sair do lugar - das salas de aula da Argélia às ruas de Buenos Aires, da floresta amazônica à linha de chegada da Maratona de Valência, dos registros civis vietnamitas aos antropônimos iorubás no Facebook.

O volume 7, número 1 (2026) é um dos mais ricos e geograficamente abrangentes já publicados pela revista. Três estudos abrem o número com foco na Argélia: Widad Souali investiga os nomes próprios no ensino de espanhol como língua estrangeira (Los nombres propios en la enseñanza-aprendizaje del español como lengua extranjera en Argelia), Imene Maghraoui questiona se cartilhas francesas como "Taoki et compagnie" abrem janelas para o mundo ou impõem hegemonia cultural (Le poids des noms propres dans « Taoki et compagnie » en contexte algérien), e Lamia Adrar analisa os processos semânticos de formação dos nomes de medicamentos argelinos (Noms de Médicaments Algériens).

Da Ásia, Thi Minh Thao Le e Pham Thi Ngoc oferecem um estudo sociolinguístico abrangente sobre gênero e cultura nas práticas de nomeação no Vietnã (Modern naming trends in Vietnam). Da África, Oluwatosin Mercy Ajayi, Esther Avosuahi Onmoke e Idowu Odebode investigam como antropônimos iorubás são anglicizados no Facebook (Os processos morfológicos de anglicização de antropônimos iorubás). Chenglin Zhu e Gabriel Antunes de Araujo analisam as adaptações fonéticas na tradução do léxico onomástico nas obras de Ruggieri (Adaptações fonéticas na tradução do léxico onomástico nas obras de Ruggieri).

Na América Latina, Adianys Collazo Allen mapeia as expressões propiais presentes nos nomes de vias cubanas (Las vías de comunicación en Cuba), e a equipe formada por Gilberto Maximiano Ceballos Esqueda, Gloria Ignacia Vergara Mendoza, Lucila Gutiérrez Santana e José Manuel González Freire propõe uma metodologia para classificar apelidos em Cuauhtémoc, Colima (Propuesta metodológica para la clasificación de los apodos). Yolanda Guillermina López Franco aplica uma abordagem lexicológica e socioantroponímica aos prenomes mais atribuídos no México em 2021. Na interface entre Portugal e Brasil, Alexandre Melo de Sousa, Isabel Correia, Bruno Gonçalves Carneiro e Amílcar Morais comparam a formação de signos toponímicos nos dois países (Toponímia entre mares), enquanto Robson Santos Silva traça o percurso da toponímia tradicional à crítica (Da toponímia tradicional à toponímia crítica).

O dossiê temático sobre onomástica e paisagem linguística, coordenado por María Carmen Fernández Juncal, reúne sete estudos que vão da estratificação social dos crematônimos na Galícia (Elisa Suárez Caramés) ao nome nos dorsais da Maratona de Valência (Ricard Morant), passando pela onomástica futebolística no paisagismo linguístico de Buenos Aires (Vinícius Pereira de Souza Cruz).

O número completo está disponível gratuitamente em e-revista.unioeste.br.


Español

Nombres sin fronteras: Onomástica desde América Latina, v. 7, n. 1 (2026)

Abra el nuevo número de Onomástica desde América Latina y viaje — sin moverse de su silla — desde las aulas de Argelia hasta las calles de Buenos Aires, desde la Amazonia hasta la meta del Maratón Valencia, desde los registros civiles vietnamitas hasta los antropónimos yorubas en Facebook.

El volumen 7, número 1 (2026) es uno de los más ricos y geográficamente ambiciosos que ha publicado la revista. Tres estudios con foco en Argelia inauguran el número: Widad Souali examina los nombres propios en la enseñanza del español como lengua extranjera (Los nombres propios en la enseñanza-aprendizaje del español como lengua extranjera en Argelia), Imene Maghraoui pregunta si cartillas francesas como "Taoki et compagnie" abren ventanas al mundo o imponen hegemonía cultural (Le poids des noms propres dans « Taoki et compagnie » en contexte algérien), y Lamia Adrar analiza los procedimientos semánticos en los nombres de medicamentos argelinos (Noms de Médicaments Algériens).

Desde Asia, Thi Minh Thao Le y Pham Thi Ngoc presentan un estudio sociolingüístico sobre género y cultura en las prácticas de nominación en Vietnam (Modern naming trends in Vietnam). Desde África, Oluwatosin Mercy Ajayi, Esther Avosuahi Onmoke e Idowu Odebode estudian la anglicización de antropónimos yorubas en Facebook. Chenglin Zhu y Gabriel Antunes de Araujo analizan las adaptaciones fonéticas en la traducción del léxico onomástico en las obras de Ruggieri.

En América Latina, Adianys Collazo Allen cartografía las expresiones propiales en los nombres de las vías cubanas, y el equipo formado por Gilberto Maximiano Ceballos Esqueda, Gloria Ignacia Vergara Mendoza, Lucila Gutiérrez Santana y José Manuel González Freire propone una metodología para clasificar los apodos de Cuauhtémoc, Colima. Yolanda Guillermina López Franco aplica una perspectiva lexicológica y socioantroponímica a los nombres más atribuidos en México en 2021 - estudio que aparece también en traducción al español en este mismo número. Alexandre Melo de Sousa, Isabel Correia, Bruno Gonçalves Carneiro y Amílcar Morais comparan la formación de signos toponímicos entre Portugal y Brasil (Toponímia entre mares), y Robson Santos Silva traza el recorrido intelectual de la toponimia tradicional a la crítica.

El número incluye además un dossiê temático sobre onomástica y paisaje lingüístico, coordinado por María Carmen Fernández Juncal, con siete contribuciones: desde la estratificación social de los crematónimos en el espacio urbano gallego (Elisa Suárez Caramés) hasta los nombres en los dorsales del Maratón Valencia (Ricard Morant), pasando por la función del nombre propio en el paisaje rural de León (Lucía Morán Gaitero), la odónima y el paisaje lingüístico (María Victoria Galloso Camacho y Águeda Vázquez Hidalgo), las denominaciones de bibliotecas públicas en Sevilla (Mercedes De La Torre García), los topo-ergónimos institucionales en Salamanca (Montserrat Rangel Vicente) y la onomástica futbolera en el paisaje lingüístico de Buenos Aires (Vinícius Pereira de Souza Cruz).

El número completo está disponible de forma gratuita en e-revista.unioeste.br.

Исторический код имени: скандинавский след в Средневековой Руси


Беседу ведут Алексей Семихатов и Федор Успенский. Имя личное – совершенно особенная часть лексики. С ним связана вера в магическую силу слова, оно служило оберегом, отражало личные и социальные качества своего обладателя. Личные и родовые имена, патронимы, фамилии, прозвища, псевдонимы, криптонимы являются предметом внимания особой дисциплины – антропонимики, которая привлекает внимание лингвистов, литературоведов, психологов, этнографов, географов и других специалистов. История имянаречения – это замечательный портал в прошлое, она позволяет поставить точку в ключевых научных дискуссиях, а также увидеть процессы и события, которые не попали в письменные источники и остались незаметными для современного человека. О том, как выбирали имена в Средневековой Руси, какие важные исторические, политические и социальные процессы за этим стояли, и как имянаречение отражало мировоззрение наших предков, в этом выпуске «Вопроса науки» беседуем с доктором филологических наук, специалистом по русской антропонимике и скандинавской филологии, профессором РАН, член-корреспондентом РАН по Отделению историко-филологических наук и директором Института русского языка им. В. В. Виноградова Федором Борисовичем Успенским. 00:00 Тема и гость выпуска 01:17 Варяги, Рюриковичи и скандинавские имена 04:49 Многоимённость 06:14 Имя при крещении 07:40 Владимир Святославич 09:46 Годунов 13:09 До принятия христианства 15:58 Мода на имена 21:55 Славянские имена за границей 26:11 Изяславичи Полоцкие 31:48 Красивые и некрасивые имена 32:53 Когда основные имени стали христианскими 37:04 Современные тенденции 39:42 Произвольное количество имён сегодня

Wednesday, May 6, 2026

When Jokele Berkowicz Became Jakob Funkelstein: Reassessing Jewish Family Names in Galicia

 

Namenkundliches Online-Kolloquium: Peter Ernst über Pragmatik von Eigennamen

KI-generiert, kein offizielles Poster
Das nächste Namenkundliche Online-Kolloquium der Gesellschaft für Namenforschung findet am Montag, 18. Mai 2026, ab 18:30 Uhr statt - und es lohnt sich, den Termin im Kalender zu markieren.

Zu Gast ist Peter Ernst von der Universität Wien, einer der profiliertesten Forscher im Bereich Pragmatik und Eigennamen. In seinem Vortrag „Zu einer pragmatischen Namenauffassung" präsentiert er seine Überlegungen dazu, wie Namen nicht nur als sprachliche Zeichen, sondern als pragmatische Handlungen verstanden werden können - also was wir tun, wenn wir Namen gebrauchen, und was Namen in konkreten Kommunikationssituationen leisten.

Die Veranstaltung ist online zugänglich. Die Zugangsdaten werden kurz vor Beginn an alle angemeldeten Teilnehmerinnen und Teilnehmer verschickt.

Jetzt anmelden: forms.gle/bx2vcwBxFmoAqExF7

Wir freuen uns auf einen anregenden Abend mit spannenden Diskussionen!

Sunday, May 3, 2026

Fernando Cabeza Quiles (1953-2026)

 Fernando Cabeza Quiles, leading scholar and disseminator of Galician toponymy, dies at 73

The Galician onomastic community mourns the death of Fernando Cabeza Quiles - philologist, writer, teacher, and one of the most dedicated modern scholars and popularizers of Galician toponymy. The Real Academia Galega announced its deep sorrow at his passing on 1 May 2026, recalling him as an indefatigable student and disseminator of the names of Galicia, especially of those places that shaped his own life story.

Born in Ponferrada in 1953, Cabeza Quiles moved to Galicia as a child because of his father’s profession as a secondary-school teacher. His biography became closely interwoven with the Galician places whose names he later studied: A Estrada, Ribeira, Padrón, Pontecesures, and Carballo. These were not merely coordinates in a life; they became part of his intellectual geography.

Cabeza Quiles devoted decades to the study and public explanation of Galician place names. His work helped make toponymy accessible beyond academic circles, showing that names of villages, fields, rivers, parishes, and landscapes preserve linguistic memory, settlement history, ecological perception, and cultural identity. The Xunta’s toponymy portal describes him as one of the principal researchers and disseminators of Galician toponymy, with books and articles published over more than thirty years.

Among his major contributions were the volumes he published in the Terra Nomeada collection: Toponimia da Estrada (2018), Toponimia de Carballo (2020), Toponimia de Ribeira (2022), and Toponimia de Padrón e Pontecesures (2025). The last of these was presented only a few months before his death, in January 2026. Earlier works such as Os nomes de lugar and Os nomes da terra also formed part of a long intellectual project: to explain the origin, meaning, and cultural value of Galician place names to both specialists and the wider public.

His activity was also institutional. He was a founding member of the Instituto de Estudos Bergantiñáns and a member of the board of the Asociación Galega de Onomástica, confirming his place not only as an author but also as a builder of Galicia’s onomastic community.

Fernando Cabeza Quiles died in Carballo, after suffering a fall while cycling in the parish of Ardaña. Cycling, like nature, was one of his passions; the Real Academia Galega noted that his interest in the names of the land arose from his love of the natural world.

His death leaves Galician toponymy without one of its most generous voices. Yet his books remain as maps of memory: works that teach readers to hear history in the names of places and to understand that every toponym is a small archive of language, landscape, and belonging.



Muere Fernando Cabeza Quiles, referente de la toponimia y la onomástica gallegas

La comunidad onomástica gallega lamenta la muerte de Fernando Cabeza Quiles, filólogo, escritor, profesor y uno de los grandes estudiosos y divulgadores contemporáneos de la toponimia gallega. La Real Academia Galega expresó su profundo pesar por su fallecimiento el 1 de mayo de 2026, recordándolo como un investigador incansable de los nombres de Galicia, en especial de aquellos lugares que marcaron su propia trayectoria vital.

Nacido en Ponferrada en 1953, Cabeza Quiles se trasladó a Galicia siendo todavía niño por la profesión de su padre, profesor de instituto. Su vida quedó ligada a lugares que más tarde ocuparían un lugar central en su obra: A Estrada, Ribeira, Padrón, Pontecesures y Carballo. En su caso, la biografía personal y la geografía onomástica se entrelazaron de manera profunda.

Durante más de tres décadas, Cabeza Quiles dedicó una parte esencial de su labor intelectual al estudio, explicación y difusión de los nombres de lugar. Su trabajo mostró que la toponimia no es una materia secundaria ni meramente erudita, sino una vía privilegiada para comprender la historia lingüística, la memoria del poblamiento, la relación con el paisaje y la identidad cultural de Galicia. El portal de toponimia de la Xunta lo presenta como uno de los principales investigadores y divulgadores de la toponimia gallega, con numerosos libros y artículos publicados.

Entre sus aportaciones más destacadas figuran los cuatro volúmenes publicados en la colección Terra Nomeada: Toponimia da Estrada (2018), Toponimia de Carballo (2020), Toponimia de Ribeira (2022) y Toponimia de Padrón e Pontecesures (2025). Este último libro fue presentado pocos meses antes de su muerte, en enero de 2026. A estos trabajos se suman obras anteriores como Os nomes de lugar y Os nomes da terra, que contribuyeron decisivamente a acercar al público el origen, el significado y el valor cultural de los topónimos gallegos.

Su compromiso con la onomástica tuvo también una dimensión asociativa e institucional. Fue socio fundador del Instituto de Estudos Bergantiñáns y miembro de la directiva de la Asociación Galega de Onomástica, desde donde contribuyó a consolidar una comunidad dedicada al estudio y defensa del patrimonio onomástico gallego.

Fernando Cabeza Quiles falleció en Carballo tras sufrir una caída mientras circulaba en bicicleta por la parroquia de Ardaña. La bicicleta era una de sus aficiones, y la naturaleza - según recordó la Real Academia Galega - estaba en el origen de su interés por los nombres de la tierra.

Con su muerte, la toponimia gallega pierde a una de sus voces más constantes y generosas. Pero su legado permanece en sus libros: verdaderos mapas de memoria que enseñan a leer los nombres de lugar como testimonios vivos de lengua, territorio, historia y pertenencia.

Friday, May 1, 2026

ONE MONTH LEFT ! Call for Workshop and Session Proposals: ICOS 2027, Vienna

AI-generated illustration – no official poster
 The XXIX International Congress of Onomastic Sciences is coming to Vienna, Austria, 16–20 August 2027, and the call for workshop and session proposals is now open.

Organised under the auspices of the International Council of Onomastic Sciences (ICOS), the congress is hosted by the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the Austrian Geographical Society. The congress theme is "Names as Condensed Narratives" - an invitation to reflect on how names carry stories about the people, places, and communities they denote, and about those who give them. Proposals need not address the theme directly; all areas of onomastic research are welcome. icos27-vienna

You are cordially invited to submit proposals for workshops and sessions via icos27-vienna.at. Proposals should be 200–300 words. Note that workshops and sessions work slightly differently: workshop organisers invite their own speakers, while sessions are filled by paper submitters who choose to affiliate their abstract with a given session.

The deadline for workshop and session proposals is 31 May 2026. A call for papers will follow in July 2026, with a paper submission deadline at the end of October 2026.

The congress will take place in the premises of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna's historical centre, with capacity for up to 500 participants across six parallel sessions. All presentations will be in English.

Don't miss the deadline - it's just a month away!

MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship Opportunity in Socio-onomastics at Vilnius University

 An interesting opportunity has just appeared on EURAXESS for onomasticians working on naming practices, anthroponymy, and the intersection of names with migration and identity.


Vilnius University's Faculty of Philology is inviting researchers to develop a joint application for the 2026 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowship, hosted within the Department of Baltic Studies at the Institute for the Languages and Cultures of the Baltic. The supervisor would be Prof. Dr. Daiva Sinkevičiūtė-Villanueva Svensson, a specialist in Baltic anthroponymy whose current research focuses on contemporary Lithuanian naming practices, identity expression in diaspora families, and the sociocultural drivers behind parental name choice and innovation. She has also worked extensively on historical Baltic anthroponyms and the structure of Lithuanian compound personal names.

The suggested research topic is Personal Naming as a Site of Negotiation in Families of Lithuanian Citizens and Immigrants - a rich area sitting squarely at the crossroads of socio-onomastics, migration studies, and family language policy. It's an exciting framing: names as negotiated objects, shaped by competing pressures of heritage, belonging, legal systems, and parental aspiration.

Candidates are expected to have a background in socio-onomastics and experience analysing naming within sociocultural and political contexts. Familiarity with the Baltic region and Lithuanian linguistic and cultural contexts is listed as highly desirable.

The MSCA deadline is 9 September 2026, but those interested should contact Prof. Dr. Sinkevičiūtė-Villanueva Svensson well before then - ideally now - at daiva.sinkeviciute@flf.vu.lt. A CV, publication list, and proposal summary are needed to get the process started.

Worth noting for non-European applicants: Lithuania is a "widening country" under Horizon Europe, which means unsuccessful proposals are automatically resubmitted to the ERA Fellowships call, giving candidates an additional shot at funding.

Saturday, April 25, 2026

XV Международная научная конференция «Проблемы общей и региональной ономастики»

В Адыгейском госуниверситете 24-25 апреля 2026 г. прошла международная конференция «Проблемы общей и региональной ономастики», участниками которой стали 60 филологов России и зарубежья. Лингвисты из таких регионов, как Адыгея, Краснодарский, Ставропольский края, Ростовская область, Дагестан, Якутия, Тамбов, Москва и Украина, и других в течение двух дней обсуждали актуальные проблемы ономастики — науки об именах собственных.

Конференция проводится раз в два года, и в этом году она посвящена юбилею доктора филологических наук, профессора АГУ, заслуженного деятеля науки Адыгеи и Кубани Розы Намитоковой. Благодаря ее инициативе в АГУ организован Координационный центр по изучению региональной ономастики Северного Кавказа (КЦИРОСК), поддержанный в 2001 году грантом Министерства образования России. Каждое мероприятие предваряется выпуском сборника материалов.

В Майкопе обсудили проблемы общей и региональной ономастики— Это уже десятая конференция, ставшая для АГУ и для филфака брендовой, что является еще одним подтверждением того, как провинциальный вуз может создать собственную интеллектуальную площадку и сделать ее общероссийской. Ученые разных поколений и школ имеют возможность обмениваться опытом, — рассказала кандидат филологических наук Индира Нефляшева. — Участие в работе конференции принимают и студенты, и аспиранты Адыгейского госуниверситета.

Также в рамках этого события в актовом зале главного корпуса состоялся показ спектакля «Фауст», с которым студенты филологического факультета победили на завершившемся недавно фестивале «Студенческая Весна АГУ—2016».

Напомним, что после 12 лет работы конференции в 2013 году в Москве был издан «Сводный словарь личных имен народов Северного Кавказа». В книге 600 страниц, 17 именников, которые представлены по алфавиту для каждого этноса проживающих на Северном Кавказе. Есть и русские собственные имена, извлеченные северокавказскими русистами из летописей и документов, отражающие наиболее распространенные имена первых поселенцев на Кавказе.

Валентина Остапенко.

Фото Аллы салиенко.