The Evens’ common and regional ethnonyms: historical and philological observations

The study of Northern indigenous small-numbered peoples, their languages’ peculiarities and tribal relations, names and self-names as a scientific phenomenon commenced in the first half of the 17th century, from the moment of the earliest contacts of Russian pioneers with the natives. Previous ages researchers have differentiated various Northern peoples; unfortunately, it has not been done thoroughly all the times. Thus, until the 20th century, the contemporary Evens and Evenks were often intermixed and commonly referred to as the Tunguses, which did not reflect Russian North-Eastern ethnic diversity properly. This article deals with archaic and modern Evens’ ethnonyms, both spread among all representatives of this ethnic group and regional ones, circulating on limited territories. Herein is set forth the research of the Evens’ names origins and the analysis of their former titles with reasons inspired in the 20th century to change the name of one of the Northern indigenous small-numbered peoples. The article also considers the problem of the Evens’ self-names, which up to the middle of the previous century competed for being the only general ethnonym in Russian. In conclusion, the author gives a presumption why the self-name Even was eventually chosen as general one.