Антропонимия и смесен брак
Anthroponymy and Intermarriage

Summary/Abstract: The article presents the nomination patterns which parents from certain types of intermarriage families use when they choose names for their children. The cases of two specific types of intermarriage are discussed here - Armenian-Bulgarian and Jewish-Bulgarian marriages. The nomination patterns in thirty-two intermarriages are classified into seven groups: a son and a daughter are named after the husband’s mother and father; two sons are named after the husband’s father and the wife’s father; two daughters are named after the husband’s mother and the wife’s mother; two children or just one of them takes a “new” name; a son is named after his godfather; a daughter is named after a childless father-in-law’s sister; a daughter is named after the husband’s sister who is away. The article shows: what is the parents’ interpretation of choosing the name of their child; what is the relation between the child’s name and grandparents’ care; where is the place of nomination in the broader context of preserving tradition; to which extent the name is a means through which the child is educated in specific culture and inherits this culture; what is the relation between child’s ethnic and confessional identity and his name.

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