About the Semantic and Pragmatic Typology of Names Giving Protection from ‘the Evil Eye’: With Reference to an Ethnographic Record from Boljevac

Abstract

The semantic and pragmatic typology of protective names which we have previously proposed – with reference to the latest increase in the frequency of the name Vuk (originating from Serbian vuk ‘wolf’), registered in Montenegro and Serbia – is in this paper examined and complemented using an interdisciplinary method, starting from the record made by Savatije Grbić in 1909 in the then Boljevački District, where he worked as a teacher, about the names of babies born to Serbian families. Given in order to allegedly protect against demonic creatures and forces (such as witches and spells), the names were used until baptism, and in case of female newborns, they were: Cigančica ‘little Roma girl’ and Bulče ‘little Muslim girl, i.e. Turkish girl’, while in case of male newborns, they were: Turče ‘little Turk’, Čore ‘little girl?’ and Keža ‘weakling’?. By interpreting one by one the above names, and especially Čore and Keža, we examine the semantic aspect of the typology, deducing that these are the names whose alleged purpose was to ward off all that is demonic by way of deception (as opposed to names such as Vuk, whose alleged purpose was to ward off all that is demonic by way of intimidation). The pragmatic aspect of the typology, consisting of the previously proposed form only of the division into the only and additional protective names (for any use, or for all uses except for the official one), is hereby complemented – based not only on Grbić’s record, but also on ethnographic records from other locations within the Serbian ethnic area – by the division into generic and specific protective names (for all male or female children in the given region, or for each one individually), and by the division into temporary and permanent protective names (until baptism, i.e. any other milestone, or until the end of life), deducing that in the region surrounding Boljevac protective names were generic and temporary. We also establish (and this for the first time in Serbian academia) the origin and meaning of the custom of giving a newborn an ime na vodici/znamenju ‘temporary Christian name given before baptism, right after the first blessing with holy water’, deducing that the Serbian Orthodox clergy – in the way of St. Sava (in the way that, for example, in celebrating the family patron saint’s day, krsna slava in Serbian, the ancestor cult and/or the fertility cult were replaced by the cult of the family patron saint) – probably replaced (but not at once!) protective names, which were usually either “horrible” or “ugly”, with specific temporary names which were neither “horrible” nor “ugly”, often naming newborns after the saint whose day was celebrated in the days around their day of birth.