Personal names in the birth certificates of the Roman- Catholic church in Sokolka under Russian rule (1865–1919)

The aim of the article is to show changes in the surnames of Catholic parishioners of Sokółka, when the tsarist authorities introduced the obligation to keep the Catholic birth certificates in Russian language. The notations in the original birth certificates show that the Russian language had the greatest influence on a number of changes in the personal names. Cultural and language differences between Polish and Russian brought different types of changes: – Polish first names, which had an Orthodox equivalents, were writing down in this way, for example: Iwan instead of Jan; – It was used to replace consonant h on g, e.g. Головня (Hołownia); – The vowel group om, em was introduced in place of the Polish nasal vowels ą, ę, e .g. Домбровскiй, Голембевскiй (Dąbrowski, Gołębiewski); – Russian endings -skij, -skaja were introduced, e.g. Яроцкiй, Антошевкая; – Russian anthroponimic three-word names were used: surname, first name and patronymic, e. g. Амброжевичъ Михаилъ Матвьевъ, Антошевская Софья Михайловна. After Poland regained its independence, as result of repolonization many surnames, which contained borderland h and Polish nasal vowels, had changed