The article analyzes the semantics of the names of the characters in the stories of VV Nabokov "Christmas", "Announcement" and "Christmas story". Particular attention is paid to the study of nominations as a system. Two definitions of the concept of "system" are compared and on this basis the opposition "order" vs "structure" is formed. The criteria for understanding the system as a structure are homogeneity at the formal and thematic levels, the performance of the same functions, the interdependence and interdependence of nominations within the text in various aspects. In this regard, the naming systems in "Christmas", "Announcement" and "Christmas Story" are analyzed. On the basis of a detailed analysis of the nominations of the heroes of the above-mentioned stories in two parameters (the mechanism for the implementation of transtextual connections and the method of formulation), a number of conclusions are made, the key ones of which are the following: the functioning of the names of proper characters in the system is motivated by the topic of the text, which implies numerous and productive parallels and connections with the extra-textual reality; it is worth dividing the heroes into subgroups according to the degree of their importance and frequency of appearance; the relationship between the volume of the text and the degree of importance of the role of the character naming system is inversely proportional: the meaning of the names is the higher, the smaller the number of characters.