Version 1 – A Credible One. The Name Comes from Men’s Names “Domash” and “Domashevitch”.

So, who in the world was this Domash or Domashevitch? The founder of the town? Or the owner? Or a close acquaintance of the owner? The theory in its own is quite credible, since names of places like that are often given after the names or last names of their owners. It’ll suffice to remember the villages of Nikolskaya and Lanskaya in the neighboring Malorita region that were named after the father of the General’s wife Nikolay Lanskiy. On the other hand, the village of Tomashovka, or many other Polish villages with the similar naming in honor of local Polish historical celebrities. The drawbacks of this theory are the absence of names like that in this area, though one can hardly meet people of the kind in Lanskaya and Nikolskaya. Moreover, the owners of these areas were often strangers (the Polish or Russians).

Similarly, towns and villages have been named with last names for not so long a while, since according an old tradition the name had a number one priority. Possibly, the problem lay on the fact that there wasn’t any owner of Domachevo registered, or there was no person at all connected with the owner. If the place bore a name of Vitgenshteynovka or Radivilovka – the theory would be 100% true, but the name of “Domashevitch” can hardly find a concrete historical proof, without which our speculations are simply colorful historical hypothesis.

Secondly, what a naked eye can spot is that namings like “Tomashovka”, “Tomashuvka”, “Tomashevo”, “Domashevo” are widely spread on Slavonic and not only lands. They were highly replaceable (even the Tomashovka in the neighborhood was often called in all these manners). It’s much easier to figure this name out, for historically we can trace the namings to people’s names Tomash, Thomas, Domash and Foma.

Here’s a small list of similar namings [3]:

-         Bosnia and Herzegovina – Domaševo – to the South from Sarajevo;

-         Germany ­– Thomashof (in German – “Tomash’s manor”); in Germany there are a couple of names like that: only near Berlin one can find at least 2 places with the name, which proves the idea of the Slavonic origin of it, since the territory around Berlin is the area of settling of Serbs);

-         Ukraine - Domashev (Domashuv, Domashov, Domashiv), 300 miles to the East from Kiev;

-         Slovakia - Tomášová (Тomásfalva) - Slovakia – 130 miles to the West from Bratislava; Tomášov (Fél) -  10 miles to the West from Bratislava;

-         Russia - Tumashevo – can be met a number of times to the North form Moscow, just like, for instance, Tomyshovo, Staroye Tomyshëvo, Tomazov, Tomizawa Lyutovskaya, Domashëvo, Domasheva, Domashova and Domachëvo do.

-         Poland - Tomaszów (more than 10 towns and small towns have a name like that); Tomaszewo (more than 5 cases); Tomaszew (at least, 3, among which 1 is a colony of settlers); Domaszew, Domachowo, Domachau;

-         Montenegro - Tomaševo;

-         The Czech Republic - Tomášov (used to be “Thomasdorf”); Domašov (former Domaschow, Thomasdorf) – met twice;

-         Belarus - Domashëvo (the Northern East from Minsk) and Tomashovka, near our Domachevo and the Polish border.

-         Kazakhstan - Tumashov (obviously, a former German colonists settlements).

This list was made a bit in haste, without any special preparations and total enumeration of the data. But, at the same time it demonstrates a curious system: all the names are typical for the Western Slavonic region (and they spread similarly within border areas (such as Ukraine, Germany), or in places of German and Slavonic settlements or colonies (for instance, in Siberia, or in Kazakhstan). The name of Foma (Thomas) is more spread forPoland, Germany or Slovakia, for the Czech Republic – Domash.

So, what can we say in relation to our Domachevo? It has always been spelled with the initial „D”, not „T”. So, in this way namely, it differs from the neighboring „tomashevkas” and „tomashuvkas”. The variations of spelling Domachevo appeared, most likely, under the influence of nationality and the own language of geographical maps creators or travellers, who mentioned this place. Therefore, they bear no significance for the origin. The most important thing is the initial „d” that has always existed it the name of the town.

So, if the name of the town  does come from the name Domash or Tomash, we should note that it appeared under Czech or German influence. There’s more than one (the most obvious) explanation to it, moreover there’re, as we see it, two of them:

 - The neighboring colonies Neudorf and Neubrof could totally encourage the emergence of such a variant of pronunciation and spelling like that. This is the most obvious explanation, but it can’t stand any reasonable criticism, as you’ll see later.

- The name could be brought by Jews, who also inhabited Domachevo since it had been founded. They came here, most likely, in the XVI century, moving to Western territories from the lands of Germany, Czech and others. They were looking for a place for themselves, settling and founding settlements or assimilating with the local population, bringing their linguistic changes of names with them. It can be that Domachevo appeared near a market place or an eatery, the owner of which was a Domash. This version is much closer to the Version 3. There it looks more logical. We should note that each and every town or settlement we mentioned above (in various countries), were Jewish settlements (all those settlements made it possible to find the list of the towns).

As we said, this version can be quite true, even if we don’t know in honor of which Domash or Tomash this town was named or under whose influence it happened. As long as what I can suggest on the basis of this hypothesis is my own version, but a patient and an attentive reader can find it at the end of this article.

 

Version 2 – Not credible. Comes from the name of “Domotkivka”.

The existence of this version appears to be encouraged by the name of Damatkanovichi (a village in Minsk State) and, simultaneously a wide spread in Polesye word “domotkivka”, which stands for a home-weaved fabric (esp. subtle weaved skirts).

The problem is that such names of villages are quite unique, special, that can be met very rarely and, most likely, take after something really special in this area. When weaving was especially popular in and people were famous for their art, hence there could appear a name like that. Although the word “domotkivka” was typical for Polesye-Volyn area, at the moment there’s no information about well-known Domachevo weaving specialists.

Similarly, we could look for likeness among other unique names of Belarusian towns, such as,  for instance: Domanovo, Domashany, Domashevichi, Domashkavichi, Domniki, Dymnovo and many more, or we can connect the names with the similar unique words.

Besides a partial connection of this name to the name of Domachevo, we can hardly can say any more than that.
 

Version 3 – Pretty credible. The name comes from the word: Dolmetsher – Interpreter.

The twisted and assimilated German word “Dolmetscher“ is akin to the Slavonic word translator or interpreter.

The author of this version is Ivan Matskevitch, who was the 1^st one (according to our data) to mention this possibility in 1980-s within his recollection, the manuscript of which can be found in the personal archive of the Avdeyuks in Domachevo. The manuscript found its way to the „Zaria nad Bugom” newspaper, sent by the author of the article in 1990-s.

In accordance of Matskevitch’s recollections, when the 1st German colonists appeared near Boug, they had to encounter the local population of the neighboring villages, who didn’t understand the German language. Due to it, in close proximity to the colonies, an interpreter could settle in order to help out in trade contacts with the neighboring villages, that had existed already (by the way, the village of Chersk had existed for sure). Germans called the interpreter „Dolmetsher”, the locals – traditionally, translator, or, in a twisted manner, „Domachev”. Next to the lodging of the interpreter, there logically appeared a market place, where other people started to settle (as, for instance, Jewish settlers). That was the way the town itself appeared, which kept its name „Domachev”.

This version explains the historic realities and the origin of the town, and it sounds quite credible, if we take a closer look at that. Since, at first, in Ukraine and in Poland there are numerous towns with the similar name of the same origin: such as, Tolmachev, Tolmachevo, Tlumachov. That means that the version is quite possible and absolutely credible and there were historical occasions of the kind.

Secondly, in relation to our town the version looks credible indeed. Germans in their colonies in Volyn, and next to the Black Sea, and in Siberia, almost always lived separately and in seclusion. They never mixed with the local population, and were not especially eager to learn the local language. When at home, they talked and prayed with the help of their native language. The locals also experienced difficulties concerning money and business issues, where special accuracy was needed. When a deal was to be done the Germans used to involve the interpreter – that was they were going to the „Dolmetsher”, whereas the locals could say they had been going to the “Domachev” (initially, to the „Dolmatsher”, then to the „Dolmatshev”, and finally, - to the “Domachev”). It could stay the way it was. Until now, the population of the neighboring villages keep going to “Domachevo”.

On my behalf I can say that this version is the most beautiful compared to the 1^st and the 2^nd ones, and no less credible. Frankly, the author of the article mainly sticks to this version, which corresponds to historical realities and simultaneously explains to the origin of the town.