Mykhailo Maksymovych and the First Experiments on Ukrainian Geographical Names

The article reveals the stage of formation of Ukrainian onomastics. Mykhailo Maksymovych was one of the first Ukrainian scholars to study toponymics as historical sources. It is important that Maksymovych’s works are contemporary to the works of the founders of European onomastics P. Šafárik and K. Zeuss. Thus Maksymovych is one of the founders of historical onomastics as a science. In particular, the scholar used hydronyms to prove the connection of ancient Rus with Kyiv region, with Ukraine. Maksymovych also founded field onomastics, he himself wrote down the names of places he visited, in particular microtoponymy. In the Dnieper region, Maksymovych’s initiative was continued by O. Lazarevsky, L. Pokhylevych and M. Sumtsov. In western Ukraine, Denis Zubrytsky laid the foundations of historical onomastics. This case was continued by V. Ploschansky and A. Petrushevych.