From the author: Do you like your name? Or would you prefer something else, more fashionable and sonorous? Have you ever asked someone to call you something other than what your parents gave you? "What's in a name?" A.S. Pushkin. Each person lives in his own special linguistic environment. We can speak several languages, but we live, as a rule, communicating in only one of them. “To fully master a language, you need to accept as your own the world that it expresses; and it is difficult to belong to two worlds at the same time. Thus, on the basis of our language, our social reality is constructed around us, in the center of which the Self is located”[3, p. 149]. Understanding the phenomenon of language is important for modern self-awareness when a person constructs his own self-images. Language is not only a way of describing the world and the self, but also forms that part of the personality that can be represented in the form of self-report, self-presentation to other people. But, despite the desire to preserve one’s national language and extend one’s historical life, one has to admit that the number The number of people who do not know their native language is growing. Young people strive to correspond to the real life situation. The question of the language environment, which is the starting point for the correct solution to this problem, is very important here. “Any language is first of all studied for the purpose of ensuring economic life. Previously, our highlanders studied the Kumyk language because it was easier to get used to the fisheries of the Caspian Sea, since the Kumyk language was the language of interethnic communication between Dagestanis. Then, during the Soviet period, Russian became such a language. English now dominates the world. So the language reaches out for bread”[2]. More and more people of various nationalities in Russia consider Russian to be their native language, this was clearly shown by the 2010 All-Russian Population Census (there are no official data yet, I use my own observations as a census taker). The family, parental factor is important here: their desire or unwillingness for their children to learn their native language. The parents themselves said about themselves that their native language corresponds to their nationality, and about their children they almost always (in my census area with the exception of 2 cases) answered that their native language is Russian. By what criteria is the native language determined? Many people determine their native language based on genetic principles—the nationality of their parents. It is not right. The native language is the language that the child speaks in the family. The language environment for a child in the family is the environment where the parents speak a specific language with the child at home, starting from the moment the child begins to understand the language. And if, for example, in a Lak family with a child, the parents speak only Russian, we can assume that the child grew up in a Russian language environment. Often, a person, immersed in a foreign language environment, changes his native name to another. Not officially, legally, but everyday, in words. To simplify pronunciation and the convenience of others. Sometimes even a person seems to offer his surroundings two of his names: his native one, with a complex national pronunciation, and its analogue in the language of the majority around him. And it is observed that in adulthood a person remains with his only, real name, as recognition by others of the integrity and indivisibility of his personality, despite the difficulties of memorization and pronunciation. Along with nationality, the name has always been and remains an important component of human identity. It is presented to society and positions the individual in a complex network of complex human relationships. “The name, like the body, plays a key role in identifying a person; it forms the basis of his recognition by Others. At the same time, the consistent use of one name facilitates the creation of a consistent life story (narrative)”[3, p. 127]. References:1. Kon I.S. “In search of oneself: Personality and its self-awareness”, M., Politizdat, 1984, p. 335.2. Nurmagomedov G. The tongue reaches out to/2390/