Anthroponymic Code in Ukrainian Demonymy

Abstract

The study deals with personal names used as euphemisms for devils in the Carpathian-Ukrainian folk epic tradition. This function is quite uncommon of proper names in the East Slavic demonology (cf. the term antípka), while the beliefs and tales of the Ukrainian Carpathians feature a surprisingly high concentration of those: in the Boikov and Hutsul dialects, the euphemistic replacement of the word ‘devil’ associates with the following male names: antipko, oleksa, yurko, pan’ko, andrey, andreiko, antos’, mil’ko, mikita, mikhas’ko, fyodó, fedkó, petrus’, yuzik, ivan’tso, and others. In the Slavic demonological system, all of them refer to a particular class of evil spirits associated with the souls of the dead unbaptised children (that is, those denied of the Christian rite of name-giving). Geographically, the distribution of these Ukrainian names overlaps with the territory known for the mythological beliefs that secretly buried miscarriages or ruined illegitimate children can turn into evil spirits if left unbaptised and unnamed. Therefore, the superstition had it to call the ruined children’s souls fl ying at night by male or female names (for example, Adam — Eve) to let them slip away to the other world. Hypothetically, one can relate the characteristic tradition of Carpathian-Ukrainian mythology to call the devil by masculine names to this custom of symbolic naming of dead children souls aimed to help them find peace in the other world, for otherwise these souls would turn into evil spirits after 7–12 years. The invariably diminutive form of these anthroponyms also points to their original reference to infants. This article attempts to explain this specific (Carpathian-Ukrainian) localization of numerous personal names used as demonological terms.

Keywords

• anthroponymy
• euphemisms
• personal name
• folk demonology
• unbaptised children
• name-giving rite
• magic