ВОПРОСЫ ОНОМАСТИКИ | PROBLEMS OF ONOMASTICS

Yuri Sergeevich Kostylev
Ural Federal University, Ekaterinburg, Russia

Alexandra Vasilievna Tikhomirova
Ekaterinburg Ecclesiastical Seminary, Ekaterinburg, Russia

RELIGIOUS VOCABULARY IN THE NAMES OF MINING FACILITIES: A MOTIVATIONAL PERSPECTIVE (Based on the Toponymy of the Kochkar Gold Deposit)

For citation
Kostylev, Yu. S., & Tikhomirova, A. V. (2025). Religious Vocabulary in the Names of Mining Facilities: A Motivational Perspective (Based on the Toponymy of the Kochkar Gold Deposit). Voprosy onomastiki, 22(3), 239–257. https://doi.org/10.15826/vopr_onom.2025.22.3.035

Received on 12 May 2025
Accepted on 28 August 2025

Abstract: TThe article examines toponyms from the Kochkar gold deposit (Chelyabinsk Region, Russia), derived from proper names of religious origin. The source material consists of general accounts concerning the state of gold mining in the Southern Urals at the end of the 19th century. The research aims to clarify the function of religious vocabulary in motivating naming practices in mining contexts. Out of 630 recorded toponyms, 154 were found to be associated with religious vocabulary. Notably, all the analyzed toponyms were motivated by proper names; none derived directly from religious appellatives. It is posited that the toponyms in question are linked to religious feast days. Typological analysis and correlation with church calendar dates suggest that the primary function of these names was not to invoke saintly protection or express religious sentiment, but rather to indicate the time of establishment of mining sites. Around 70% of the names correspond to feast days occurring during the warmer months, when mining operations were typically more active. Due to limited documentation on the history of mining, additional evidence from other regions in Russia was drawn upon to support this interpretation. These data, along with contemporary scholarship, confirm that 19th-century mining activity was predominantly seasonal. This naming strategy appears typical of systematic industrial development, whereas private prospecting follows different patterns and rarely draws on religious vocabulary. Overall, the toponymic system emerges as a tool for organizing and systematizing information about the spatial and temporal structure of mining activity at the deposit.

Keywords: toponymy; religious names; chrononyms; gold mining; mining industry; onomastic system; naming motivation; church calendar; religious vocabulary; Southern Urals

Acknowledgements
This research was carried out within the framework of the project Interaction of Cultural and Linguistic Traditions: The Urals in the Context of the Dynamics of Historical Processes, funded by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation (project no. FEU Z-2023-0018).

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