At the turn of the XX – XXI centuries in the field of toponymic research, there is a transition to the anthropocentric paradigm of scientific knowledge.

The previous period in the study of toponymic systems was based on the study of the system features of toponyms as language units at the semantic, structural, and grammatical levels. While outside the purview of linguists remained ethno-cultural aspect of geographical names reflecting ethnic and cultural stereotypes of mastering space, wider – picture of the world – a person not only contemplating, but acting.

The principles of anthropocentrism, based on an integrative approach to the analysis of language phenomena, led to a qualitatively new stage in research based on the activation of cognitive structures of mental knowledge.

Thus, the research presented in the review shows that toponymy is an important source of ethnocultural information that can be extracted through cognitive modeling and linguistic and cultural interpretation within the framework of the anthropocentric paradigm.

In the future, the applied methods of toponymic research can be extrapolated to other sources of linguistic and cultural information.