The Ludbreg area of the Drava river basin region is a part of the upper Drava river basin region. It is a geographical area situated on the right bank of the Drava river that gravitates towards the town of Ludbreg. Since the only relevant natural border of the Ludbreg area of the Drava river basin region is the Drava river, which separates it from Međimurje, it is necessary to take into consideration other criteria as well (historical, political-administrative, dialectological, etc.) when delineating the area. The aim of the doctoral dissertation entitled Toponymy of the Ludbreg Area of the Drava River Basin Region is to describe and interpret the contemporary names that refer to the natural and anthropogenic geographical objects of the aforementioned area from a linguistic perspective. In the introduction of this doctoral dissertation the horonym Podravina (Drava river basin region) is explained and the possibilities of dividing this region into smaller units according to various criteria are explored. Special attention is paid to the area called ludbreška Podravina (the Ludbreg area of the Drava river basin region). The geographic characteristics are described – the geographical location of the area, the climate, the vegetation, and the geomorphological, hydrographic, pedogeographic, phytogeographic characteristics of the area. Moreover, a short overview of the historical events is presented, providing context. The description of the research framework and the thesis based on it is presented next. Since the aim of the research is primarily linguistic, the introduction includes a review of the linguistic research previously conducted in the aforementioned area. The hypotheses and aims of this work are established on the basis of the data presented in bibliography and the results of the author’s preliminary field research. The central part of the dissertation is the most extensive one. Taking into consideration that toponomastics is closely related to dialectology and builds on it, the central part of the dissertation is divided into two large chapters – the dialectological one and the toponomastic one. Since the methodology of the research and the collecting and processing of data differs depending on the perspective and the discipline-specific approach, the methodological procedure and terminology are additionally explained in each mentioned chapter (and when necessary in subchapters). The author gives the most attention to the data collected during his field research. In the dialectological chapter of the dissertation, the characteristics of the researched local speeches are described. Based on the examples of the general, non-name lexis, first the inventory of the prosodic system, the vowel system and the consonant system is established, and then during the study of different linguistic levels (primarily phonology and morphology), the common and the distinctive characteristics of the researched speeches are established. Despite the many differences among the speeches, which are presented in the accompanied maps or tables, all of the studied speeches belong to the so-called Varaždin-Ludbreg dialect of the Kajkavian group of dialects. In the toponomastic chapter of this doctoral dissertation the toponymic corpus is processed. It consists of 977 different toponym forms, but the total number of toponyms is much higher (1276) because occasionally several different objects are named by the same toponym form and because the same object is sometimes named by more than one toponym form (polionymy). The collected toponymic corpus is categorized and interpreted according to several different criteria. Each classification, followed by analysis and discussion, is presented in a separate subchapter. In each subchapter, a review of the methodology of the classification and terminology is presented along with a review of the interpretation applied in the toponomastic papers. The first classification is based on the etymological criterion. The words from which the toponyms are developed are first categorized according to whether they have a name status or not. The words that do not have a name status are more thoroughly categorized depending on their Slavic or non-Slavic origin, whereby special attention is given to the influence of other languages and cultures. Based on the analysis, one may conclude that the linguistic origin of a word from which a toponym developed does not necessarily correspond to the linguistic origin of the toponym itself. This is followed by a motivational classification of the toponyms. The data is categorized according to the meaning of the word, base form or affix from which the toponym was created. The toponyms of the Ludbreg area of the Drava river basin region are categorized according to the motivational classification into the following groups: 1. toponyms motivated by words that refer to the natural-geographic characteristics of the named objects, 2. toponyms motivated by words that refer to the relationship of the named object and other named objects, 3. toponyms formed from other toponyms, 4. toponyms motivated by words referring to human activity, 5. anthroponym-motivated toponyms, 6. ethnonym or inhabitant name-motivated toponyms, 7. toponyms of unclear or uncertain motivation. A separate subchapter includes a classification according to the structure, and word-formation criteria. According to the structure criterion, the corpus is first categorized into one-word or multi-word toponyms, and then a more precise classification is presented: one-word toponyms are divided according to formation type, and the multi-word toponyms according to formation type and combinations of word classes that the components of multi-word toponyms belong to. Along with the classifications, the toponomastic chapter of the doctoral dissertation contains a review of the dialectological characteristics visible in the collected toponymic data. The toponyms fit into the established local speech systems according to their linguistic features; however, based on the comparison of the distribution of certain characteristics in toponymy and in the general lexis, it can be concluded that toponymy holds the older, more conservative linguistic characteristics. A part of the toponomastic chapter of the dissertation explains the methodology of the lexicographic processing of the toponymic data. The principles relevant to the toponymic dictionary are outlined, and the way in which a dictionary article should be structured is suggested. The already mentioned theoretical postulates are applied to the processing of the data collected during the field research, thus creating a complete dictionary of oikonyms of the Ludbreg area of the Drava river basin region. Furthermore, a sample of dictionary articles of the other toponyms of the Ludbreg area of the Drava river basin region dictionary is created. Moreover, the dissertation contains maps on which the named objects, to which the toponyms collected during field research refer, are marked. The cartographic representation of the data contributes to the understanding of the studied toponymic system and allows conclusions about the density of named objects, the distribution of certain toponymic base forms, etc. to be drawn. From a linguistic perspective, the Ludbreg area of the Drava river basin region has not been sufficiently investigated (this includes the nonexistant toponomastic research and the disparity of the results of the rare previous dialectological research). The dialectological data highlighted in this dissertation, which are more precise, will supplement the descriptions of local speeches. Moreover, it will be possible to determine the position of different isoglosses more clearly, and to establish the limits of certain groups of speeches. The toponomastic chapter of this dissertations completes a part of the entire Croatian toponymic picture, which is particularly important in the context of the barely processed toponomastics of the Kajkavian area. The data is interpreted from different perspectives, which enables the entirety of the processing, and will contribute to the comparison once other areas of Croatia will be toponomastically processed from multiple perspectives. The need for further research (including other areas, as well as considering the historical aspect) is emphasized in the conclusion, in order to preserve the data currently alive only in the memories of the local elderly population.