Žaneta Dvořáková
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3947-2019 
Department of Onomastics, Czech Language Institute of Czech Academy of Sciences

https://doi.org/10.4467/K7501.45/22.23.18053

In this paper, I focus on non-settlement geographical names (anoikonyms, microtoponyms or minor place names, i.e. names of fields, meadows, forests, waters, roads, etc.) which preserve traces of the Jewish population in Bohemia, i.e. a part of present-day Czech Republic. The research is based on the Collections of anoikonyms gathered between 1963 and 1980. Names containing the element Žid (‘Jew’) are quite common here, e.g., Židák (56), Židovka (93), Židovna (157), etc. They differ in terms of age and are located throughout Bohemia. These names are motivated by: (1) places where Jews lived and where they were buried (e.g., Jewish cemeteries were often called Židák); (2) the ethnicity or religion of land owners; (3) tragic events (e.g., the field in Lžín U mrtvého žida ‘at the dead Jew’s’); (4) metaphors (names using the adjective židovský ‘Jewish’ as a synonym of a separated place or land of bad quality). Some minor place names arose from the personal name (surname or nickname) Žid and it cannot be ruled out that some anoikonyms, which are assumed to originate from a common noun or ethnonym, also come from a personal name. In many cases, these names are the last memories of Jewish neighbours who disappeared.

Keywords anoikonym, minor place name, Bohemia, Jew