It is not uncommon for place names to become symbols of national identity. Once in that position, such names often play a significant symbolic role in national and local politics. It is less common, however, for actual place name usage to significantly contradict declared place name preferences such that for official purposes people prefer a name variant that they do not use themselves. This article describes an instance of just such cognitive dissonance in a trilingual region in the Czech-Polish borderlands. As will be shown, arguments over which variant to use in this region have been marked by ongoing debates about multilingualism in the linguistic landscape. The parallel usage of the names Olše/Olza/Łolza for the local river shows how important place names can be in articulating national belonging in spite of actual place name usage. The analysis is based on the results of a survey conducted on a large population sample. The questionnaire results are supplemented by interviews and secondary literature.

地名成为国民身份的象征并不少见。一旦处于这一位置，此类名称通常在国家和地方政治中扮演重要的象征性角色。但是，实际的地名用法与声明的地名偏好大相径庭的情况不太常见，因此出于官方目的，人们倾向于使用自己不使用的名称变体。本文介绍了捷克波兰边境的三语地区这种认知失调的例子。如将显示的那样，有关在该地区使用哪种变体的争论以语言领域中有关多种语言的持续辩论为特征。名称Olše/ Olza /Łolza的并行用法尽管当地实际使用了地名，但当地河流显示了地名在表达民族归属方面的重要性。该分析基于对大量人口样本进行的调查结果。问卷调查结果以访谈和辅助文献为补充。