Department of Onomastics
Address:
Valentinská 1
110 00 Praha 1
Scope of research:
The Department of Onomastics is the only research unit in the Czech Republic specialising in onomastics. It was established in 1960 with the core task of collecting non-settlement place names from Bohemia. With the help of more than 4,000 local volunteers, over 400,000 non-settlement place names used in the second half of the 20th century were collected in Bohemia between 1963 and 1980. Since 1994, this material has been used to develop the Dictionary of Minor Place Names in Bohemia. Completed entries are published online in the Slovník pomístních jmen.
Since its inception, the department has also conducted research on personal names. It also addresses the theoretical aspects (linguistic and extra-linguistic) of the formation of proper names and their role in social communication. The department develops onomastic research methodology, focusing on the interdisciplinary context of this research and the interrelations between appellative and proprial spheres of language.
Current projects:
Slovník pomístních jmen v Čechách (Dictionary of Minor Place Names in Bohemia)
Non-settlement place names; non-settlement landscape features - mainly fields, meadows, woods, mountains, water courses and water bodies and roads – constitute one group of geographical proper nouns. Non-settlement place names from Bohemia were collected through an extensive inventory that took place in 1963−1980. The inventory yielded ca. 400,000 non-settlement place names. Following extensive and demanding preparatory work - above all the development of a general alphabetically arranged catalogue of names from Bohemia, subsequent creation of a computer database and definition of the design of the dictionary - the actual work on the first volume of the Dictionary of Non-Settlement Place Names in Bohemia began at the beginning of the 21st century. After the first volume was published in 2005, the pace of work accelerated substantially and a new volume was published in each subsequent year. The fifth volume was the last printed publication in the series; subsequent new entries of the Dictionary of Non-Settlement Place Names in Bohemia have been published online.
Acta onomastica journal
Acta onomastica is the only Czech peer-reviewed scientific journal specialising in proper names. It was founded in 1960 as the Zpravodaj Místopisné komise ČSAV (later renamed to Onomastický zpravodaj). It has an extensive network of Czech and foreign contributors and publishes articles mainly in Slavic languages, German and English. The original articles, reviews and reports published in the journal span all areas of proper name research and their linguistic and extra-linguistic aspects. Due to the journal’s interdisciplinary focus, it publishes both papers by linguists and by researchers from other disciplines. Since 2019, the journal has been published biannually, in April and October. The journal Acta onomastica is published in Open Access mode: Acta onomastica
Editor-in-Chief: PhDr. Pavel Štěpán, Ph.D.
Editorial Assistants: PhDr. Žaneta Dvořáková, Ph.D., Mgr. Soňa Wojnarová
Verification of personal names:
The department provides expert opinions to verify compliance of forms of names and surnames with the legal provisions governing registration of names in personal documents. The expert opinions serve as a basis for the decision-making of registry offices. More information here.
Cooperation with universities:
The department works with universities by teaching onomastic seminars at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University in Prague, supervising PhD students and supervising diploma, bachelor and seminar theses.
Collections and materials:
The following collections and materials are stored and maintained in the Department of Onomastics:
1. Collection of non-settlement place names:
- original inventory of non-settlement place names (gathered in 1963–1980) covering more than 86% of the municipalities, villages and settlements in Bohemia;
- original inventory of non-settlement place names (gathered in 1974–1980) covering 1,561 municipalities, villages and settlements from border areas in Bohemia which had a predominance of German inhabitants until 1945;
- ca. 430,000 alphabetically arranged non-settlement place names excerpted from inventories prepared for Bohemia in 1963-1980, which are also available in electronic form;
- almost 180,000 alphabetically arranged non-settlement place names from Bohemia excerpted from printed sources;
- ca. 245,000 non-settlement place names excerpted from the Theresian cadastre and arranged alphabetically by manor;
- ca. 22,000 non-settlement place names from Bohemia excerpted from manuscript collections stored in archives and museums in Bohemia;
- nearly 20,000 alphabetically arranged non-settlement place name documents from the 19th-century Stable Cadastre maps for municipalities in the former Central Bohemian Region;
- part of the original inventories of non-settlement place names from individual villages in border areas which had a predominance of German inhabitants until 1945 and an alphabetically arranged manuscript card catalogue of non-settlement place names from these inventories. This material is from an event organised by Prof. E. Schwarz in the interwar period and is on long-term loan from the Institute of History of the CAS.
2. Collection of personal names:
- manuscript of Dr. J. Svoboda’s alphabetically arranged collection, which served as the basis for his book Old Czech Personal Names (Prague 1964, 317 pp.) and for the Dictionary of Old Czech Personal Names;
- manuscript of V. Sajtl’s alphabetically arranged collection of personal names: excerpts from the Central Bohemian Region registers.
3. Extensive map collection.
4. Alphabetical index of toponyms mentioned in the onomastic journal (the journal title has changed several times since its founding: 1960-1982 Zpravodaj Místopisné komise ČSAV, 1983-1992 Onomastický zpravodaj ČSAV, 1993-1994 Onomastický zpravodaj, 1995-present Acta onomastica).
The department also has an extensive onomastic library, which is catalogued by author and subject matter. We are gradually digitalising selected works and making some of them available online.
Staff members:
PhDr. Pavel Štěpán, Ph.D.
vedoucí
Mgr. et Mgr. Martina Lobotková, Ph.D. (temporarily out of office)