The name management in the mirror of the Estonian LPP-model

Abstract

The name management in the mirror of the Estonian LPP-model    

The Estonian model of language planning and policy, which has been serving the development and protection of the Estonian language in its current form since 2004, is one of the most successful of such strategies in Europe. It owes it success to the broad social and scientific consensus reached in questions of language policy, regardless of changes in government. The Development Plan of the Estonian Language divides Estonian language planning and policy into three parts: status planning, corpus planning and prestige planning. Name management is a part of corpus planning, although certain aspects are also connected to legal and prestige planning. Name management strategies are present in all components of the Estonian model of language planning and policy, as linguistically appropriate name use is not only a socio-cultural, but economic question, as informative and easy to understand names contribute to measurable economic advantages. The paper mainly demonstratest the dilemmas and answers of Estonian name management through examples from personal name giving practices, but questions concerning the problems of name use in a multicultural environment and the difficulties of place name and firm name management are also discussed.