Retrospective analysis of the oikonymicon of Zaporizhzhia region: experience of compiling a historical-etymological dictionary

Olga Karpenko, Doctor of Philology, Leading Research Fellow in the Department of History of the Ukrainian Language and Onomastics
Institute of the Ukrainian Language of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
4 Mykhaіlo Hrushevskyi St., Kyiv 01001, Ukraine

E-mail: olga.petrivna.karpenko@gmail.com
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5522-2565

Heading: Discussions
Language: Ukrainian

Abstract: The article presents a linguistic study of the oikonyms of Zaporizhzhia Region as a small part of the oikonymicon of the historically freedom-loving Zaporizhzhia. A retrospective view of the names of our towns and villages is extremely necessary and relevant at a time when issues of national identity and decolonization of the national space have become more acute than ever. The relevance of studying the oikonyms of Zaporizhzhia is determined by the importance of settlement names as carriers of historical memory and cultural identity. They vividly reflect the processes of colonization, ethnic contacts, socio-economic changes, and political transformations that took place in the region. Through critical comparison of historical forms of oikonyms from diverse sources, it becomes possible to refine the chronology of each name’s emergence and its transformations over time. This approach reliably delineates the historical layers of the oikonymicon of Zaporizhzhia: archaic names of the Cossack era; German, German-Mennonite, Bulgarian, Jewish, and other names linked to various colonization processes; as well as Soviet-period names characterized by ideological imprinting and mass renaming. In striving not to lose or distort the region’s history, we aim to present realistically the changes in the oikonymicon as conditioned by political events-directed not only toward erasing ancient indigenous oikonyms and colonial formations, but also toward restoring original names or introducing semi-calques close to them.

Keywords: oikonym, etymology, word-formation model, anthroponym, appellative.

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Received 30.04.2026   Аpproved 26.05.2026   Рublished 00.06.2026