Social factors in choosing personal names among Turkmens

Abstract

This article is devoted to the analysis of social factors that indicate the choice of a certain personal name among the Turkmen people. The article examines personal names which contain extensive information about the features of the cultural, historical, social and everyday picture of the development of society. The relevance of this work is determined by the growing interest in the onomastics of Turkmenistan, namely personal names, which are the most important linguistic source of information about the culture and history of the Turkmen people. The article discusses the system of principles underlying the naming of a born child by a name among the Turkmen people. The Turkmen anthroponymic system indicates a wide range of criteria associated with family-tribal, religious, historical, natural, and physiological naming traditions. The purpose of this article is to analyze the motives for naming among the Turkmen people. In the article we have highlighted the main models of naming. In Turkmen linguistic culture, parents’ attitudes were manifested in intentional names. In conclusion, we can conclude that a personal name carries a deep semantic load. Moreover, it affects a person’s future. Along with the usual rules that Turkmens use when choosing names for their children, they have special customs that reflect the specifics and originality of naming a child and these customs are closely related to the character of the people themselves, the nature of their economy, sociocultural and religious and moral views. Our analysis of the motives for naming among the Turkmens showed that the Turkmen anthroponymic system reflects the unique features of the life understanding of the surrounding reality, which clarifies certain periods of the social life and spiritual culture of the Turkmen people.