Studia Językoznawcze

In this article I would like to present the course of the national discussion on the feminine names, which was held in the early decades of the 20th century, and its influence on the reception of this problem in later years (until the beginning of the 21st century). I demonstrate the speakers’ remarks and observations concerning the women names alongside the normative texts – both those which were a direct response to particular questions raised by the speakers, and those which addressed this issue in more general context. I focus on the texts published in “Poradnik Językowy”, particularly in the early years of its existence (until the 1930s). The investigation of the remarks contained in this source allows to observe specific direction of development of the reflection on the feminine names. This retrospection (to the beginnings of the national discussion on the feminine forms of names) makes also possible to better understand the contemporary postulates put forward by the linguists, as it demonstrates that the clash of the two different attitudes is not new in the contemporary Polish language. However, the vectors were reversed in this field – what was formerly modern, today may prove to be obsolete, and vice versa. I take an attempt to present the material according to the time sequence in which particular text were published.