Anthroponyms as cultural memory: a comparative socio-onomastic analysis of Uzbek and French naming systems

Abstract This article presents a socio-onomastic comparison of the personal naming systems of Uzbek and French and examines the role of personal names in transmitting cultural memory across two linguistic communities. The study is based on a corpus of approximately 600 given names from civil registration documents, literary texts and contemporary public discourse. The analysis focuses on the etymological and cultural meaning of given names, their morphological structure, gender marking and the phonological adaptation of borrowed name material. The results show that there are substantial differences between the two systems. The etymological meanings of given names are often transparent and related to nature, religion and traditional culture in Uzbekistan, while French names are more related to Christian and historical naming traditions. Uzbek anthroponyms also exhibit productive compounding patterns, while French names are mostly suffixed. The study shows that personal names are not only an identifier of identity but also a linguistic vehicle of collective cultural memory from generation to generation.

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