The onomastic view from Velebit’s Petar Zoranić Peak

Abstract

Based on researching the reference literature, archival materials, and available sources, this paper describes the reflection of the personal name of the author of the first Croatian novel on Croatia’s toponymy and chrematonymy. Special attention is given to historical circumstances, motivation, naming principles, and impacts on the formation of Velebit’s present-day oronymy, whose examples frequently point to the issue of the standardisation of geographical names, the lack of a legislative solution that would precisely stipulate the landform naming procedure, and the necessity to establish a national-level expert body that would decide on the official figures of Croatian toponyms that are recorded on maps. The section on hodonymy and chrematonymy chiefly examines the wider Zadar region, where the reflection of the writer’s personal name is clearly the most widespread.