Journal of Danubian Studies and Research, Vol 6, No 1 (2016)

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is the repertorying and presentation of topical names on the Danube facade of Dobrogea in the context of restless historical evolution. It has materialized a toponymic layering, where the oldest and most important layer belonging to the native population, over which overlapped multiple layers, which we have tried to emphasize. Our intention was to highlight following the territorial distribution of places’ names the concentration of the Romanian population in the area bordering the Danube, a space of permanent links with the Romanians on the left bank of the river, but also that of identifying a variety of names having the origin in other languages, as effect of determining in Dobrogea throughout the history of many peoples. The results of our research consists in presenting some aspects of Romanians symbiosis with other ethnic groups, as well as reviewing the conditions and duration of their process of assimilation by the Romanian. The value that we add is capturing the ethnic diversity of the area by analyzing a large number of place names and grouping them according to the language of origin and time period in which they circulated, summarizing a rich and valuable bibliographical material.