I have been studying for a long time what the origin of such a name is — Hotomlya. There was no reliable answer to this question. What can be said with high probability is that the name is of Baltic origin, and was later Slavicized. What could be found about the hydronym (possible versions of the origin): 1. Hydronyms with the base -hot-/-hat- are associated with swamp-lake landscapes; 2. It came from the name of Khotim (after the 14th century this name and its variants have already fallen out of widespread use among the Eastern Slavs); 3. The words «gat» (a swampy place, a swamp, or a deck of logs and brushwood on a swampy stretch of road), «gat» (to pave a road through a swamp, a swampy place), derived from the base -hot-/-god-/-got-.
Lake Khotomlya is located on the territory of a swampy massif, which was declared a local hydrological reserve «Shield» by the local authorities. This was done in order to preserve the natural state of the marsh massif between the Berezina and Druti rivers. So there are swamps in the origin of this hydronym.
As I wrote above, another name for the lake is Holy. This name also has its own version of origin. Many hundreds of years ago, near the lake, in a remote forest, there was a monastic hermitage. Local monks noted the unusual quality of the water, which is why they gave it the status of healing, miraculous. People, having learned about this, began to come to this place in order to overcome various ailments, both physical and spiritual. When the monastic community disappeared, the church continued to be actively used for religious purposes by local residents. And in the last century, this church was destroyed by atheists. The wooden elements of the building were thrown into the water. When they were making walkways to the lake (and it was in our modern hour, not so long ago), rumors spread that wooden log cabins in excellent condition, surrounded by a palisade, were found at the bottom of the reservoir. Some logs were even used as supports for the walkways.
May 3, 2026; part two.
Literature and other sources: 1. «Hydronyms as a source of studying the historical and chronological aspects of mastering the ethnocultural landscape: on the example of the Mogilev region of Belarus», I. N. Sharukho (2020); 2. «Historical geography and toponymy: Belarusians in the anthropological and ethnic space», I. N. Sharukho; 3. «Collection of legends: Khotomle — miracle Lake», A. Rylkova (2018); 4. «Slavic toponymic antiquities of the Novgorod land», V. L. Vasiliev (2012).
