Anna Choleva-Dimitrova
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4251-1373
Institut pour la langue bulgare « Prof. Lubomir Andreychin »
Académie bulgare des sciences, Sofia, Bulgarie

https://doi.org/10.4467/K7446.46/22.23.17271

Bulgarian traditional personal names at the beginning of the 21st century. Is the tradition reviving?

Abstract
This is a corpus-based study, founded on official data derived from the National Statistical Institute (NSI) in the Republic of Bulgaria. The basic tasks to complete are as follows: analysing (statistically and linguistically/etymologically) the names of the newborns from a 10-year period (2008–2018); the comparison between the data valid for the biggest city in Bulgaria Sofia, with those observed in Plovdiv where the name-giving tradition is supposed to be more conservative. Over the last few years, there has been an increasing parental interest in naming their children with names from the folk tradition. Besides the invasion of a huge number of foreign names, one of the most pronounced tendencies of the Bulgarian anthroponymic system is the return to traditional names and especially the preference for two-base, complex names. A prominent trend in naming boys is to give them the names of famous historical figures – the most preferred are those of rulers. Two tendencies in the development of our anthroponymic system are clearly outlined: on the one hand a return to the historical past, but on the other an uncritical borrowing of foreign personal names. Which trend will prevail? The future will show.

Keywords
personal names, Bulgarian anthroponymic system, traditional personal names