Czech language; city of Most; street names; unofficial urbanonymy; popular place names; transonymization; local identity; collective memory

This article addresses the toponymy of the North Bohemian city of Most, Czech Republic,and its development during the second half of the 20th century. The city of Most makes a uniquecase, as the old city, fi rst documented in the 11th century, was demolished between 1964 and 1982to pave the way for coal mining, and replaced by a new one of the same name built by 1987to the south of the original city area. The article focuses on the urban toponymy of the newlybuilt city of Most (a typical example of a Socialist modernist city), particularly on unoffi cial(popular) forms of urban names as compared to official street name forms, on the transferof place names and chrematonyms from the old city to the new one, and on the role of placenames in the preservation and creation of the local identity and collective memory. The authorshows that the support for saving the old city memory on behalf of the state and local authoritieshas been a threefold initiative implemented through the conservation of the city name,the transfer of street names, and the use of chrematonyms (mostly names of pubs) specificto the old city. The analysis of urban place names is based on archival sources (predominantlymaps), on a fi eld survey, and on individual and group face-to-face interviews with inhabitantsof the city performed in the course of 2014 and 2015.

This article addresses the toponymy of the North Bohemian city of Most, Czech Republic,and its development during the second half of the 20th century. The city of Most makes a uniquecase, as the old city, fi rst documented in the 11th century, was demolished between 1964 and 1982to pave the way for coal mining, and replaced by a new one of the same name built by 1987to the south of the original city area. The article focuses on the urban toponymy of the newlybuilt city of Most (a typical example of a Socialist modernist city), particularly on unoffi cial(popular) forms of urban names as compared to official street name forms, on the transferof place names and chrematonyms from the old city to the new one, and on the role of placenames in the preservation and creation of the local identity and collective memory. The authorshows that the support for saving the old city memory on behalf of the state and local authoritieshas been a threefold initiative implemented through the conservation of the city name,the transfer of street names, and the use of chrematonyms (mostly names of pubs) specificto the old city. The analysis of urban place names is based on archival sources (predominantlymaps), on a fi eld survey, and on individual and group face-to-face interviews with inhabitantsof the city performed in the course of 2014 and 2015.