The paper explores the variety of onomastic strategies in the short story Nikola Znamensky by Fyodor Reshetnikov, a follower of the ethnographic movement in the Russian literature of 1860s. It is typical for his works to omit the use of first names in the titles (Glumovs, Aunt Oparikh, Gossip Mironikh, Ilyich, Maxya, Yashka) whilst they play an important role in the stories. For example, the Doctor’s story begins with the first name and so it ends. The name suggests that the protagonist (albeit not openly) opposes himself to the official church position. Apart from that, the character himself claims that the name predicts his fate. Having lost the spiritual title, he also refuses the name. Within the text, only ten characters are named, and the naming strategies used in each case are different. The distinguishing factor is the variability of the name forms. This article aims to understand whether this variation affects the way the nature of the character is represented in the story. The analysis shows that the story features six context-driven forms of the name of the story’s main character, Nikola Znamensky. Religious teachers address Nikola by using the full form of the name. The narrator also refers to him as Nikolai. The character himself (and his fellows) tend to use both the full and the “folk” forms of the name (Nikola, Mikola, Mikula). The members of the family use the hypocoristic forms. The names of other characters (from the family circle: brother, sons) are also subject to change: the full form is typical for the speech of the narrator, the derivative diminutive -ka appears in the speech of the priest. The protagonist’s namesake son also has a separate derivative name reference (Nikolai — Kolka) which emphasizes the special role of the title character. The name’s variability thus reflects the main character’s embedding into various social networks and, more importantly, into the “folk” paradigm linking it to the figure of Saint Nicholas. The author concludes that Reshetnikov uses name variability as a characteristic means that adds to the types portrayed in the story.