Etničko srodstvo i spolna razlika. Žensko ime u poretku muških imena
Ethnic kinship and sexual difference Female name in the order of male names

Summary/Abstract: The essay deals with the question: Is there a female name, a true proper name of women? Such a name can serve to its function of referring to female persons only if it is supplemented by a surname. Does it mean that there are female names only under the condition that there are true female surnames? However, in a rigid patrilineal kinship regime, surname or family name is always a Name-of-the-father, no matter if it is patronymic or metronymic. „The logic of supplement” (J. Derrida), which in the given realm of proper names appears as logic of copulation between female fi rst name and male surname, suggests that sexual identities are determined either as identifi cations with male name or as deviations from it. Femininity might be considered as a certain resistance to the semiotic function of surname, which is to wave a thread of filiation. Every name is a male name when it comes to denote rigidly the ethnic identity of its bearer. Ethnonyms are thus considered to be male names. Viewed through the lens of a semiologist, the local ethno-nationalism is a regime of ethnonyms, of family names in the first place. In the given linguistic universe composed mainly of common names (BCS language), it is important to grasp the role of proper names. It is only in the symbolic order that the prime mover of the omnipresent ethnic divides may be recognized: it can be called the racism of proper names.

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