Once Prusa Street – today Ślimaka Street, or the naming processes associated with changes of street names in the Warsaw district of Wawer

Abstract

In 1951, the municipality of Wawer, consisting of several villages, became one of the districts of Warsaw. As a result of an administrative change, many of Wawer’s street names repeated those already recorded in Warsaw, which made it necessary to change them. Based on the juxtaposition of the original names with those found on the map of Wawer today, several trends illustrating the mechanisms of change can be distinguished. The article presents a preliminary proposal for the division of Wawer’s hodonyms according to their relationships with earlier names. The author examines in detail the types of relationships between new and old ononyms and indicates the semantic categories to which current names refer. She also mentions Wawerian hodonyms forming naming complexes and those that were intended to build local identity. The aim of the text is to provide a basis for a more detailed study of the renaming processes of street names.