This paper discusses selected types of native, appellative-form surnames of the inhabitants of 19th-century Cieszyn Silesia and its surrounding areas. Such appellative-form surnames (without derivative indicators) reflect the regional culture and values characteristic to, and cultivated by, the inhabitants of the region. An overview of them confirms that Cieszyn Silesia, as an ethnic-cultural borderland, stands out with its sub-regional distinctness in onymic stock. The described surnames not only reflect the values acknowledged by the inhabitants of 19th-century Cieszyn Silesia, showing the immanence of this set in the regional context, but they also depict the material and spiritual culture of the inhabitants of this region. The researcher used the semantic field method to analyse the anthroponymic material, and the sociolinguistic aspect of naming was considered when describing the collected set of appellative-based surnames, with references made to statistical research.