The Historical Anthroponymy of the Ruthenian Population Living in the Historical Territories of the Eastern Lublin Region (On the Material of Registers of Parishes in the Former Greek-Uniate Diocese of Chełm)

Abstract

The subject of research is the anthroponymy of the Ruthenian (Ukrainian) population living in the historical territories of the eastern Lublin region on the Polish-East-Slavic borderland. The underlying objective of the study was to investigate the Ruthenian onomastics functioning in the historical Polish-Ukrainian onomastics and to highlight the territorial diversification of the personal names of Ukrainians, related to the dialectal diversity in the studied territory. The reference database is personal proper names excerpted from the parish registers of Uniate parishes in the former Chełm diocese. The territory investigated was divided into three areas: northern, central and southern, based on the ranges of the Ukrainian dialects spoken in the territory of present-day Poland. The research material was excerpted from the records of Uniate parishes in the former Chełm diocese in the years of 1662–1810. The northern area, defined by the range of Podlasie local dialects, and the central area, determined by the ranges of transitional dialects from northern to southern ones and Volhynian dialects, exhibit features closely similar to peasant anthroponymy, while the southern area, defined by the ranges of Dniester and San dialects, presents features characteristic of the anthroponymy of the lower Ukrainian gentry.