This article deals with naming practices among the Czechs who lived in the first half of 20th century in two Bulgarian villages - Vojvodovo and Belinci. It is based on fieldwork carried out among the people who migrated in 1950 from Bulgaria and settled in several towns and villages in South Moravia (region of Mikulov and Valtice), and their descendants. Naming practices of the Bulgarian Czechs are analyzed in relation to naming strategies of the Bulgarians in the given period, and it is argued that the role that was fulfilled by surnames among the Czechs was fulfilled by first names among the Bulgarians. Relationship between the naming strategies and ideas about kinship and gender are discussed further.
By addressing fictional names head on, we risk going back to familiar, ordinary names intuitions and missing what is specific about them. I propose a different strategy. My view is grounded on fictional name sentence utterances and on indexed tokens of such sentences, where an index contains the fictional narrator and the time and location of the token. Using the framework of pluri-propositionalism (Perry 2012), I argue that the semantic relation of reference – ''x'' refers to y - where ''x'' is a name, rather than the notion of an object, is central to the debate on fictional names. I also contend that fictional names do not enter into that relation. Tokens of fictional names are individuated with the fictional index of the sentence they originate from. This allows for dispensing with a referent. Indexed fictional name sentence tokens have semantically determined truth conditions, yet they are not truth assessed given facts. In this respect, they have cognitive significance only, and no official or referential content. Indexed fictional name token of sentences are accepted as true, but they are not true. and Tím, že se zaměříme na smyšlené názvy, riskujeme, že půjdeme zpět ke známým, obyčejným názvům intuice a postrádáme, co je o nich specifické. Navrhuji jinou strategii. Můj pohled je založen na fiktivních výrocích o věcech jména a na indexovaných tokenech takových vět, kde index obsahuje fiktivní vypravěče a čas a umístění tokenu. Použití rámce pluri-propositionalism (Perry 2012), já tvrdím, že sémantický vztah reference - ''x'' odkazuje na y - kde ''x'' je název, spíše než pojem objektu, je ústřední pro diskusi o fiktivní jména. Také se domnívám, že fiktivní jména nejsou v tomto vztahu. Tokeny fiktivních jmen jsou individualizovány fiktivním indexem věty, ze které pocházejí. To umožňuje vynechání referenta. Indexované tokeny fiktivních věty o jménech mají sémanticky určená pravdivostní podmínky, avšak vzhledem k faktům nejsou pravdivě hodnoceny. V tomto ohledu mají pouze kognitivní význam a žádný oficiální nebo referenční obsah. Indexované fiktivní jména věty jsou přijímány jako pravdivé, ale nejsou pravdivé.
Contemporary theorists of family and kinship emphasize its fluidness. Processes of mating and becoming parents do not have clear rules and people must explicitly define their partner commitments and family arrangements. I explore the ways surnames are employed in the negotiation of kinship and making it obvious. Focusing on women’s perspective, I analyzed data downloaded from internet chats where (mostly female) participants discussed family-related topics. Findings confirm the the negotiated nature of family relationships and illustrate how social norms are being reinterpreted and accomodated to particular situations. As a result of a number of repartnered families, biological kinship loses its importance in defining close kin relationships, and instead their social and emotional basis is emphasized. The norm of nuclear family sharing a surname is challened and alternatives are prefered by some women, despite being restricted by less flexible codified norms.