Patrociny Settlement Names in Europe

In January 2010 I contacted European onomasticians with the call to join a research programme aiming to map the European situation regarding a special settlement name type—patrociny settlement names. The call was welcomed, 15 researchers from 10 countries indicated they would like to participate in the project. The final outcome is that 11 studies are being published in the volume entitled "Patrociny Settlement Names in Europe" which you have in your hands. The aim therefore was to present the situation of patrociny settlement names in Europe, introducing their region-specific features. When requesting the authors to write about this particular name type, I considered the fact that patrociny settlement names are characteristic of only certain parts of Europe (primarily Italy, France, Spain, Germany, and the Carpathian basin). In order to view the European attributes of patrociny settlement names in a unified framework (e.g. the circumstances of their formation, factors playing a role in their alterations, etc.) I collected the aspects which should guide the authors in their studies. Accordingly, the majority of studies reveal information regarding the following: the impact of religious organisation on the origin and distribution of the name type; how and from what time colloquial variants replace the Latin names; what kinds of chronological characteristics the name type has in certain language territories; onomato-geographical differences; the process and direction of the distribution of the name type. In addition, from certain studies we may get an impression about the linguistic or structural qualities of patrociny settlement names and their change processes. (Valéria Tóth)