Name – symbol or onomastic code of culture

Veronika Robustova – PhD, Associate Professor at the Department of Foreign Languages and Area Studies Lomonosov Moscow State University. The French envoy in the Russia Empire Maurice Paleologue wrote about Ivan Fedorovich Manasevich-Manyilov: “A very interesting person – a mixture of Panurge, Gil Blas, Casanova, Robert Macaire and Vidocq“. Does the description help you understand what kind of person I.F. Manasevich-Manyilov was? It depends on your cognitive base whether you know the key and can decode the information which is encoded in the name. Names are information capsules and can be bridges or gaps in the communication. Communication is symbolic and proper names present one of the semiotic codes of culture. Onyms provide the clue for social stereotypes, prototypical images and culture related information. “We got a Mickey Mouse education system“, wrote Studs Terkel in “American Dreams: Lost and Found“. What do we call “the Red Queen effect“ and how should we