Vol. 73 No. 4 (2025): Names: A Journal of Onomastic
Articles

The Workings behind the Commemorative Motive in Czech Urban Names

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  • Tereza Klemensová,
  • Michal Místecký
Tereza Klemensová
University of Ostrava
Michal Místecký
University of Ostrava
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5195/names.2025.2666

Published 2025-12-01

Keywords

  • city,
  • commemorative motive,
  • Czechia,
  • quantitative methods,
  • street name,
  • toponyms
    • ...More
    Less

Copyright (c) 2025 Tereza Klemensová, Michal Místecký

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

The paper focuses on a complex quantitative analysis of the commemorative motive in Czech urban space. The studied corpus contains nearly 17,000 street names from 101 Czech cities. The findings reveal that the commemorative names account for, on average, 45% of a city's urbanonymy, with values ranging from 13% to 82%. Despite regional differences, the overall distribution follows a normal curve; the study thus introduces a classification of cities based on z-scores. Furthermore, the research shows that there are no significant differences in the amount of commemoration among historical lands of Czechia (Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia). Nevertheless, regarding the EU-introduced cohesion regions, the Northwest exhibits a higher proportion of commemorative names, possibly due to the local population shifts and industrial heritage linked to Communism. The city sizes and pre-WWII German populations show no correlation with the commemoration levels, indicating that frequent renaming does not necessarily lead to higher commemoration rates. Political milestones, such as WWII, undoubtedly influence naming practices, but local residents and municipal authorities play a critical role, particularly in smaller towns, where diverse and grassroots approaches prevail. This research may serve as a methodological springboard for comparative studies on commemoration trends across different regions and countries.

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