The Ethnology Notebooks. 2025. № 6 (186), 1474—1479
UDK [392.3 + 392.91] (477.83/.84 + 477.86)
NAMING OF ILLEGITIMATE CHILDREN: SOCIO-LINGUISTIC AND CULTURAL ASPECTS (based on church baptism records from the town of Gorodok in the late 19th—20th centuries)
DENYS Іryna
- ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9646-2100
- Candidate of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department
- of Psychology and Social and Humanitarian Disciplines
- of the Ukrainian National Forestry University,
- 103, General Chuprynky Str., 79057, Lviv, Ukraine,
- Contacts: e-mail: idenys15@gmail.com,
VOITOVYCH Nadiia
- ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6313-9585
- Candidate of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department
- of History of Ukraine and Economic Theory of Stepan Gzhytskyi
- National University of Veterinary Medicine and Biotechnologies,
- 50, Pekarska Str., 79000, Lviv, Ukraine,
- Contacts: e-mail: wojtovych@ukr.net
Abstract. This article is devoted to one of the little-researched scientific issues — the naming of illegitimate children at the end of the 19th and 20th centuries in Gorodok, Lviv region. The purpose of the study is to investigate the peculiarities of naming infants born out of wedlock, based on the materials of church baptism records of the Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the town of Gorodok, Lviv region. The subject of the study is the names of illegitimate children, and the object of the study is the church baptism records of the Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Gorodok, Lviv region, at the end of the 19th and 20th centuries. The relevance of the article lies in the fact that the problem of naming children born out of wedlock combines social, legal, cultural, and linguistic aspects, reflecting the profound processes of transformation in modern society. On the one hand, changes in family values and social norms in the 21st century have led to an increase in the number of children born out of wedlock, which necessitates a scientific understanding of the peculiarities of registering their first names, surnames, and patronymics. On the other hand, the names of such children have linguistic, cultural, and sociolinguistic significance, as they reflect social stereotypes, historical changes in attitudes toward marriage, and modern trends in the noun system of Ukrainian language. Research methodology — a systematic approach to studying traditional everyday culture using general scientific methods, primarily systematization and generalization. To clarify information on the sphere of birth rites and folk beliefs and understand their symbolism, an analysis of church baptism records was also used. The use of the historical-comparative method is of great importance in this work. The scientific novelty of the work lies in showing how the practice of naming extramarital children is changing under the influence of urbanization, globalization, individualization, and digitalization of society, which allows us to identify new trends in Ukrainian naming.
Keywords: names of extramarital children, naming, church baptism records, Gorodok, naming traditions, customs, rituals.
Received 15.11.2025
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