Ausgangspunkt der Untersuchung bilden die altrussischen Personennamen Volodimirъ, Vladimirъ und Volodimerъ. Umstritten ist in der Forschung die Herkunft des Hintergliedes -merъ. Geht es auf urslaw. *-měrъ zurück oder wurde es aus dem Germanischen entlehnt? Unklar war bislang auch seine Verbreitung im Slawischen. Diese wurde deshalb im tschechischen, altsorbischen, altpolabischen und polnischen Sprachraum genauer auf der Grundlage von Personen- und Ortsnamen untersucht und für das Tschechische mit zwei Ortsnamenkarten illustriert. In keiner der vier Sprachgebiete ließ sich das Vollnamenglied -mer sicher nachweisen. Für das Südslawische fanden sich in griechischen Quellen einige alte Namen mit -mer. Sie sprechen zusammen mit den wenigen altrussischen Vollnamen auf -merъ für urslawischen Ursprung dieses Namengliedes. Anlass der vorliegenden Studie war ein Gutachten zu einer Untersuchung des russischen Personennamens Vladimir für die Zeitschrift „Voprosy onomastiki“. In dem betreffenden Beitrag ging es vor allem um das Verhältnis der altruss. PersN (= Personennamen) Vladimirъ und Volodiměrъ sowie speziell um die Etymologie des Hintergliedes -měrъ. / The Old Russian personal names Volodimirъ, Vladimirъ and Volodimerъ form the basis for this study. The origin of the second component -merъ is controversial. Does it go back to Proto-Slavic *-měrъ or did it come from the Germanic languages? Up to now the extent of its occurrence in the Slavic languages has also been unclear. For this reason, more precise research was conducted on the basis of personal and place names in the Czech, Old Sorbian, Old Polabian and Polish language areas. Two place name maps illustrate the results for the Czech area. The component -mer of compound names could not be reliably verified in any of the four language areas. For South Slavic, several old names with -mer were found in Greek sources. Together with the few Old Russian compound names ending in -merъ this indicates a Proto-Slavic origin for this component.

Names perform a key function in texts: through their direct reference to extra-linguistic objects, they provide immediate information about who is doing what, who is affected by what, and about the places involved. Thus, names also play a key role in the computer-based processing of texts. For the use of semantic technologies, names and definite descriptions must be marked up in texts. This set of references to extra-linguistic objects is largely subsumed beneath the term ‚named entities‘ (NE) in information technology. This paper discusses, first, the technical processes, methods and possible ways of representing the contexts of large sets of names/named entities and, second, the challenges posed by allonymic and orthographic variants of names in text processing. Third, the substantive focus is on the differentiation between name and definite description in the Early High German mining documents „Schwazer Berglehenbuch“ and „Verleihbuch der Rattenberger Bergrichter“, which provide information on individuals, places, mines and dates linked by the legal act of lending.

Wie selbstverständlich sprechen Schwangere allerdings bereits vor der Geburt von ihrem Kind, ihrem Baby. Und verleihen ihm – ebenfalls ziemlich selbstverständlich – Namen, wenngleich diese nicht aus dem üblichen Anthroponyminventar stammen (müssen). Dass soziale und biologische Geburt nicht zwingend als aneinander gekoppelt verstanden werden, zeigen soziologische Untersuchungen: Stefan Hirschauer und Anika Hoffmann sprechen davon, dass die „Formierung der Person“ (Hirschauer et al. 2014: 168) bereits pränatal beginnt. Und ein Zeichen des Personseins ist die Verleihung eines Namens: „Personennamen stehen für die soziale Existenz einer Person“ / Sociological research has revealed that naming foeten during pregnancy is a marker of social existence. It shows that social birth has been decoupled from biological birth. This article deals with the linguistic description of so-called prenatal names. The aim is to provide an overview of the naming process and the usage, form and function of these names. The very great formal diversity of prenatal names is due to the fact that they are unofficial and without obligation. Names based on an anthroponym (e. g. Anne, Pepe, Thomas) are used as well as names constructed without any reference to potentially official names (e. g. Bauchzwerg, Hummel, Es). Addressing the fetus and talking about it are clearly essential needs experienced by parents if they already conceptualize the fetus as an individual baby. The naming process also establishes, consolidates and represents a relationship characterized by affection and emotional closeness between the parents and the unborn child.

Places known for their prehistoric petroglyphs are often named after the carved images and symbols found there. Focusing on a corpus of 115 representative toponyms from the Spanish, Galician and Portuguese speaking areas, the present article explores the interaction between the lexical components of place names and the rock carvings to which they refer. This analysis allows us to distinguish between several types of name motivation and to explain the manner in which such enigmatic testimonies of past cultures were perceived and interpreted before they became the subject of scholarly research.