Entwicklungstendenzen der zeitgenössischen inoffiziellen Anthroponymie und ihre Erforschung in Tschechien und in der Slowakei

Abstract

In the Czech Republic and Slovakia the official naming system consists of a first name and a hereditary surname. The connection between the first name and the surname is, in the sense of the relevant laws, the stabilized official (standardized, basic) designation of every citizen in the Czech and Slovak Republic. However, as in all other languages, there are a number of unofficial anthroponyms in Czech and Slovak in addition.
This paper examines a number of characteristic features and trends in the development of unofficial anthroponymy in both countries, especially during the period from the year 1989 to the present day.
Particular attention is paid to the status and function of unofficial anthroponyms in communication, in particular with regard to their variability. Two categories of variant names are identified. The first is proprial communication variants, meaning those forms of proper names that are derived from the same base (the same etymon) as the (official) basic form of the name, but which are modified in their sounds, word formation, paradigm, grammatical number or gender. The second is proprial naming variants in which the variability applies to the proprial naming act, in the course of which a new proper name for the anthroponymic object in question arises; thus, the result of this process is polyonymy.