CHANGES IN THE Present Day state of PERSONAL NAMES IN THE LEADING ENGLISH SPEAKING COUNTRIES
Statement of the problem. The topic of this paper is the analysis of the changes in the choice of personal names in the UK, the US, and Australia. The aim of the paper is to show how the changes in social, cultural and religious background of a given country affect the choice of a particular onym. The main method of the given research is the statistical analysis of the most popular personal names. Results. The novelty of the given paper is shown by the fact that in it for the first time the changes in cultural and religious life of people in the US, Australia, and the UK had been analyzed and their influence on the choice of onyms was determined. Conclusion. Based on the analysis of the modern set of personal names in the United Kingdom, the US, and Australia we can draw the conclusion about the possible bigger influence of religion on the life of the people of the US, which finds its reflection, among other ways, in the choice of anthroponymicon. In the Australian set of onyms the Biblical names are not as dominant, however, we cannot but notice the preference of the Green Continent inhabitants to choosing the traditional, “established” names.