Introduction. The purpose of the article is to identify the sociolinguistic specifics of the thematic group of personal nouns with the meaning of the type of work, service in the Russian language of the nineteenth century. The author concludes that the thematic group of the named personal names, due to its fixation in various lexicographic publications of the named time, was relevant and widespread in the Russian language of the nineteenth century and consisted of seven semantic subgroups: 1) names by unskilled occupation, 2) names by craft, 3) names of workers of the manufacturing method of production performing one private operation from a variety of professional actions, workers by subject of labor, place of work, labor process, 4) names of specialists of large-scale machine production by mechanism, subject of labor, product of labor, 5) names of sellers of some kind artifacts, 6) nominations of specialists in creative fields and in science, 7) names of specialists in the military sphere.Conclusion. Based on the collected lexicographic material, the author proves that in the semantic aspect, the thematic group of nouns with the meaning of the type of work, service of a person was a heterogeneous formation, including elements of the past, present and future economic and social structure of the Russian Empire, which reflects the dynamic processes of profession formation in Russia of the studied period.