ВОПРОСЫ ОНОМАСТИКИ | PROBLEMS OF ONOMASTICS

Elizaveta Olegovna Borisova
Ural Federal University, Ekaterinburg, Russia

NAMING PATTERNS IN NORTHERN RUSSIAN NICKNAMES INDICATING A PERSON’S PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITY

For citation
Borisova, E. O. (2026). Naming Patterns in Northern Russian Nicknames Indicating a Person’s Professional Activity. Voprosy onomastiki, 23(2), 186–208. https://doi.org/10.15826/vopr_onom.2026.23.2.026

Received on 2 June 2026
Accepted on 10 July 2026

Abstract: This article examines traditional village nicknames motivated by a person’s professional activity. The article draws on nicknames recorded by the Ural University Toponymic Expedition in the Arkhangelsk, Vologda, and Kostroma regions; many of these nicknames are introduced into scholarly circulation here for the first time. The meanings of the underlying appellatives and the accompanying motivational contexts are analyzed. The first part of the article highlights the main models for the formation of nicknames that indicate a person’s profession or occupation: nicknames are directly derived from names of professions, as well as from designations of products of labor, objects of influence, tools, means of transportation, places of work, and actions performed by a person during work. Furthermore, nicknames that follow figurative models of nomination, including predicative models, are widely represented. It is common for a nickname to be derived from the name of a related profession or position, for example, one with a higher status (Terapévt ‘Therapist’: “She worked as a nurse in the hospital and offered advice, so that's how she got her nickname”). The second part of the article describes the connection between individual professional nicknames and family nicknames. In modern society, nicknames motivated by a person’s professional activity primarily serve a characterizing function, which determines the diversity of their naming models. However, they retain a persistent tendency toward the formation of family names. It is shown that a person’s nickname is often derived from the name of the profession of their husband, wife, father, or other relative (“Our man worked in the forestry department, and his wife was the head of the obstetrics center, so the foresters called him Medic”). Contexts are provided demonstrating the transition from individual nicknames to family ones (the nickname Písar’ ‘Clerk’ is given “by profession — he was a clerk, his children are Pisar’áta ‘The clerk’s children’, and Pisar’ata will have more Pisar’at”).

Keywords: Russian vernaculars; anthroponymy; individual nicknames; family nicknames; motivational model; figurative nomination; Russian North

Acknowledgements
The grant of the Russian Science Foundation No. 23-18-00439-П Onomasticon and Linguocultural History of the European Russia (https://rscf.ru/en/project/23-18-00439-П) is gratefully acknowledged.

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