Change of the paradygm of personal names in Kosovo as a reflection of socio-cultural transformations

Personal naming practices among Albanians in Kosovo, in the last few decades, have also reflected the social and political attitudes of the population. Therefore, there has been a trajectory that has marked a change in the paradigm, from dominant Turkish-Islamic names in the middle of the 20th century (etymologically, these names may be Arabic and Persian, but they all entered Albanian through Turkish), to names with Albanian meaning that have had changing trends depending on social and political changes, to the return of oriental names as dominant names (names that have not entered through Turkish). This study aims at exploring and describing this trend. In this framework, personal names serve not only to reflect the social context of the community, but, above all, to create narratives, hereby certain social circumstances are created and realities are constructed. Therefore, the study of personal names, in a broad sense, is important in terms of viewing the changes in the list of names as not only a reflection of reality, but also as a mechanism for reality construction, in which case the current list of people’s names is seen as driving social identity changes. However, the linguistic level, which is the essence in this regard, involves following the list of names as a variable of social and identity contexts in general. The study will involve collecting lists of names of people in Kosovo in different periods, by presenting them in certain social and political contexts.