«Pagan» Names of Russian Organizations: Current Research Results

Abstract

In the years since the Soviet Union collapsed in Russia was a “naming explosion” that leads to large increases in the number and variety of different own names, including the names of various business associations (various organizations, commercial enterprises, etc.).  The totality of such names is indicated by Russian philologists the term “ergonymics”. In addition to the purely linguistic interest, the analysis of ergonymics is attractive because, as can be assumed, it allows us to record certain socio-cultural processes. The analysis of ergonyms (commercial names) derived from the Slavic god names looks promising in this sense. Until now, these ergonyms have not attracted the attention of onomatologists. Methods of such researches have not yet been developed. This study was conducted in two stages. At the first stage, a survey was conducted on the owners of companies whose names were probably derived from East Slavic god names. At the second stage, data were obtained on all Russian legal entities registered from July 2002 to January 2020, whose names include the East Slavic theonyms. The quantitative analysis of the data obtained allowed us to establish that most of these names are actually derived from the corresponding theonyms. The popularity of such ergonyms is growing, which may be associated with the development of the Russian ethnic nationalism and Russian Neo -paganism. Most of these names are derived from the theonyms Veles and Svarog. Such names are given to organizations of different spheres of activity, owing to abundance of various interpretations of the functionality of these deities. State and municipal institutions rarely bear the god names; if this is the case, the mythonym Bereginia is usually used, which in mass consciousness is less associated with pagan cults.