Abstract
The article deals with naming practices among Czechs who lived in the first half of 20th century in two Bulgarian villages - Vojvodovo and Belinci, and who left Bulgaria after WWII. The text analyzes the origins, the use and the meaning of nicknames in the studied population in 1900-1950.
It draws on fieldwork carried out among the people who migrated from Bulgaria and settled in several towns and villages in South Moravia (region of Mikulov and Valtice) and their descendants. Naming practices of Bulgarian Czechs are analyzed in relation to naming strategies of Bulgarians.
Nicknames are classified into several groups: patronymic nicknames, occupational nicknames and unique personal nicknames. The system of nicknames, which evolved as a third classificatory element to help organize the local social world, is studied in respect to strategies of giving, using and concealing nicknames in different contexts.
Two sets of nicknames, used by the Czech and Bulgarian inhabitants of the village, respectively, are studied as an expression of the existence of two distinctive moral communities.