FUNCTIONING OF BIBLICAL NAMES IN ETHNIC COMMUNITIES OF THE EASTERN PODILLIA IN THE LATE 19TH AND EARLY 20TH CENTURY

Abstract

The article examines functioning of names of biblical origin in the late 19th and early 20th century in the anthroponymicon of the inhabitants of the Eastern Podillia – representatives of various religions and ethnic groups: Ukrainian Orthodox, Catholic Poles, German Lutherans, and Jews. For this purpose, birth records from parish registers of four settlements in Vinnytsia and Cherkasy regions: Uman, Monastyryshche, Tsybuliv, and Nemyriv, have been processed. The features of borrowing biblical names and their functioning in the researched name systems have been analyzed. It has been established that the common anthroponymic layer for Christians of all denominations and Jews is Old Testament names of ancient Jewish origin. At the same time, Christians tend to use names from both the New and Old Testaments, while Jews tend to use mostly those from the Old Testament. It was found that regardless of religious affiliation, the female name repertoire is considerably less extensive than the male one, which is due to the smaller number of female names in the Bible. Within the name repertoire of Orthodox and Roman Catholics, cases of Russified name forms have been identified. A relatively frequent usage of the female biblical anthroponym “Mariia” in compound male names has been observed. It has been established that Jews often used biblical names, shortened or distorted under the linguistic influence of neighboring peoples, to register newborns. Peculiarities of recording the names of newborns by German Lutherans have been described. Specific features of the usage of biblical names as elements of double and multi-component personal names in the name repertoire of Roman Catholics, Lutherans, and Jews have been analyzed. Male and female theophoric names in all four name repertoires have been identified and analyzed. A comparative study of biblical anthroponyms was conducted, considering their usage by different communities in the Eastern Podillia, including invariant forms. The usage of biblical names in the four ethnical communities of the Eastern Podillia, in particular, the number of such names in the examined parish registers and the frequency of their usage, have been studied. Reasons for name selection among representatives of different denominations have been analyzed.