Water names, using the genetic-motivational criteria, can be divided into two superior groups: deappellative and deproprial hydronyms. Among the hydronyms derived from proper names, one can distinguish between the detoponymic and deanthroponymic. The names of flowing waters from anthroponyms are the subject of this article. Preliminary statistical data regarding deanthroponymic potamonyms in the Vistula river basin, their chronology, naming models, word formation bases and geographical distribution are presented. The results of the analysis show that the deanthroponymic potamonyms account for approximately 6.8% of the names of flowing waters of the Vistula river basin, estimated at more than 13,500. They appear sporadically in documents as early as in the 13th century, with only 12% visible until the 16th century, with most of them not being noticed until the 19th and 20th centuries. Such a statistical distribution is typical for the names of the flowing waters of that basin. Deanthroponymic names of rivers represent a variety of naming models, but most often appear as a part of compound names created with the suffix -ów, one-word formations with the same suffix and derivatives from the suf. -ka. They mainly identify objects located between the Soła River and the Dunajec River, especially in the Dunajec River basin, so in mountainous and submontainous areas, as K. Rymut claimed. The basis of such potamonyms are mainly personal names with different motivations, rarely being ethnonyms and first names.

This study is based on the manuscript of the doctoral dissertation “Hydronymy of the Ostravice River Basin”, which takes as its thematic and methodological starting-point a project by Slovak linguists entitled “Hydronymia Slovaciae”; this project aims to produce a complete description of Slovak hydronymy applying consistent methodology, and it forms part of the European “Hydronymia Europaea” project. Although Czech toponomastics has not yet officially joined this project (or declared an intention to join it), research in Czech hydronymy and hydronomastics nevertheless has a long tradition. This study offers a critical commented overview of Czech hydronomastic literature from the earliest attempts (naive texts or folk etymologies), through 19th-century studies, to more recent research which seeks to understand hydronyms in their broader context, especially in terms of their communicative functions. The study also mentions important (mainly historical) cartographic sources recording Czech hydronyms. One of the appendices to the above-mentioned dissertation is a complete bibliography of studies, articles, Master’s theses and other publications that are in some way relevant to Czech hydronymy.