Territorial Identity in the Mirror of Urbanonyms of Northern Cities in the Ural Federal District: A Discursive Approach

Proper names of urban topographic objects (urbanonyms) are traditionally considered as carriers of historical and cultural information. However, the further development of urban toponymy through targeted municipal toponymic policy requires a special assessment: to what extent does urbanonymy, a significant portion of which was created in Russian cities during the 20th century, correspond to modern ideas about their uniqueness and reflect territorial identity, and what features of local originality should be conveyed today in the toponymic portrait of a city. This study attempts to assess the state of urbanonymy in the northern cities of the Ural Federal District from the perspective of this sociolinguistic issue. The authors apply an interdisciplinary discursive approach and apply the concept of “urbanonymic discourse,” interpreting it as a collection of texts (evaluative statements and reflections of residents themselves), united by the theme of the city’s image and its toponymy. The empirical material, obtained through online surveys and expert interviews, comprises over 300 texts. These texts are subjected to content, contextual, and onomasiological analysis. The results demonstrate that contemporary notions of local identity in the studied cities are generally supported by existing urbanonyms. The key characteristics that respondents identify for their cities are reflected in the current names of streets, parks, and forest parks, in the names of monuments and street art objects, as well as in the most significant names of buildings and structures. Motivating features assessed in informants’ responses as representative of conveying local identity include: reflection of natural and historical features, connection to the dominant economic activity (oil and gas production), maintenance of historical memory of the realities of industrial activity and the people who contributed to the development of the region, and references to the languages and cultures of the peoples of the Northern Urals and Siberia. Expert interviews confirm their potential for optimizing local toponymic policy.