In the article the author discusses the practice associated with name-giving among the residents of Łódź (only Catholics of Polish origin) during the period from the beginning of the seventeenth century to the first half of the nineteenth century. The material was collected from official documents. Habits associated with the first names were treated as a kind of linguistic behaviour that implements a specific communication need of the given community. Observations of these habits show that they oscillate — like any linguistic behaviour — between automatism (and convention) and spontaneity. Conventional measures that should be considered: the use of a limited collection of names that indicate a high degree of stability in subsequent periods and against the background of habits of name-giving in the region and other territories of the former Poland (especially the most popular names of women, e.g. Marianna, Katarzyna, Agnieszka and names of men, e.g. Józef, Jan, Franciszek) and inheritance of names. In contrast, a large number of rare names (names of women, e.g. Idalia, Jokasta, Kasylda, and of men, e.g. Bonawentura, Wit, Witalis) and a visible preference in some families for the usage of rare names, e.g. Damazy, Feliks, Lubomira (including Slavic first names, e.g. Bolesław, Władysław, Bronisław) were included as spontaneous factors. Analysis of the material reveals a tendency to differentiate names depending on the social status of the inhabitants (the representatives of the noble families often used rare names). The author also draws attention to the problem of the diversity of names in Łódź (both in the context of different collections of names and different practices) depending on parameters such as the religion (Catholics, Protestants, Jews) and nationality (Poles, Germans, Czechs) of residents of the city.

The article discusses the monks’ names mentioned in the village register books of Kasina Wielka in the 17th and 18th century. The majority of them are the names of the priors of the Dominican monastery in Krakow and monks performing particular duties, for example stewards. There are 65 names of these kinds from a total of 89 male monastic names. All of them “had” a patron saint (except for Alan and Przecław). Only a few of them were also given to peasants. The names come from various languages and are interesting to study from the onomastic point of view.

In the introduction, examples from the Croatian language are used to exemplify the anthroponymization of appellatives (e.g. appellative kovač → family name Kovač), appelativization of anthroponyms (e.g. family name Penkala → appellative penkala) and transonymization (e.g. hydronym Una → first name Una). All of the listed transitions represent evidence that there are no firm boundaries between the onymic and appellative lexicon, nor within the onymic lexicon.

The central part of the study is dedicated to the so-called pure transanthroponymization of the type first name Vinko → family name Vinko. Pure transanthroponymization results in different combinations of homonymic pairs of anthroponyms in the anthroponymic formula / anthroponymic formulae (e.g. David David; David Vinko, Vinko David; David Novak — Josip David). Given that context does not contribute to the correct understanding of the message transmitted by the anthroponymic formula in the case of first name-family name homonymy, possible consequences of this homonymy for onomastic communication are emphasised. Also listed are examples of anthroponymic formulae of the Saša Pavlić type (it is impossible to distinguish whether the person is male or female from the first name) and Ivan Vinko Boris (it is impossible to distinguish whether the person has two first names or two family names from the anthroponymic formula) which also “stifle” the onomastic information.

The author concludes that the boundaries between first names and family names are not fixed and cautions of the need to carefully select the first name of a child bearing a family name created by the pure transanthroponymization of a first name.

The common layer of Jewish and Christian name systems consists of biblical names from the Old Testament. The comparison showing how these Old Testament names functioned in both faiths on Podlasie in 15th–16th centuries revealed a close connection between chosen names as well as their popularity over the centuries and cultural traditions formed by faith.

The article analyzes the names given today to the children of inhabitants of Przemyśl — followers of Catholicism and Orthodoxy, at the same time showing their differences and similarities within both religions. In the same urban, communication and cultural community, Catholic and Orthodox live side by side (often for many generations). Despite everything, they to some extent retain their own identity (culture, traditions and customs), which also manifests itself in the names given to children. For a more complete picture of the situation, the names of the two older generations (parents and grandparents) were also presented.

The topic of the article is a description of European urbonyms which fulfilled both political and commemorative roles in the past. The city names are presented in chronological order starting from ancient times to the 20th century. The ancient toponyms are related to the expansion of the Roman Empire, and the names of Roman emperors are used as a foundation for these toponyms. Such urbonyms created on the outskirts of the Roman Empire made reference to their new political allegiance and confirmed it. These naming practices therefore played an important role in the process of territorial expansion and the consolidation of political control. This naming model was also present in Byzantium, and became popular on the outskirts of medieval Ruthenia under the influence of the Byzantine Empire. The tradition of commemorating political rulers through toponyms stayed constant in the Eastern Slavic regions, and was continued by the Russian monarchy as well as the USSR. Such naming practices were initially used as a tool for the structural organisation of Kievan Rus’, and later to erase foreign names from these regions of Tsarist Russia. In Communist times, this tradition reaffirmed the new political reality through the use of surnames of political figures in toponyms. In the 20th century there was an increase in surnames featured in urbanonyms (the names of streets, squares, housing estates). This increase was meant to preserve the memory of remarkable individuals in society.

In 2018, the 90th anniversary of Professor Vasiliy Danilovich Bondaletov`s birth will be celebrated. The aim of the article is to remind readers of the quantitative and qualitative method of statistical analysis in anthroponomastic research developed by Professor Bondaletov, as well as to show its advantages over simplified descriptions of the frequency of personal names. In this article, the detailed analysis of male Christian names found in customs books from Northern Russia (1633–1636 and 1678–1680) was conducted. The comparison of statistical data, according to the suggestion of Professor V. D. Bondaletov, enabled us to observe subtle differences between the abovementioned resources, namely to estimate the level of their (dis)similarity and describe the dynamics of the evolution of the resources of male Christian names throughout the 17th century, as well as changes in the popularity of various names.