Abstract
This article discusses the relevance and importance of studying toponymic legends as a genre of oral folklore, peculiar stories about the reasons for naming certain regional geographical objects. The aim of the work is to examine toponymic legends as the basis for geographical names of places and to identify regional specificity. The study of the connection between toponymy and folklore, which is a phenomenon containing historical realities, cultural values and national originality of a given ethnic group, allows to discover a unique worldview in the folklore-language world picture of the Kazakh people. The main research methods were historical-cultural and descriptive. The novelty of the study lies in determining the specificity of the relationship between folklore and toponymy, which manifests itself in the form of antique worldview, or in the sense of antique culture, which includes the fact that the examples of geographical objects used in folklore were originally named and recognized as mythical, based on myths and legends. For example, toponymic names are not specified in fairy tales, they come in the form of mountains, water, rivers. The scientific significance of this work lies in the fact that the study has established that the toponymic legends can be considered an important component of the spiritual and cultural heritage not only of a particular people, but also of the region. Genre features of toponymic plots were revealed. The material for the study includes fragments of toponymic texts related to the naming of certain geographical objects in Mangistau and Aktobe regions of Western Kazakhstan. The conclusions reached during the research work allow us to determine that the genres of non-fiction folk prose, the main purpose of which is to reveal the features of ancient cultural heritage, are learned through toponyms.