The article is devoted to lexical units with the meaning ‘forest clearing’ in the dialects of the European North of Russia. The basic lexeme of the nest is etymologized and fit into the group of cognate names. The whole complex of synonymic lexemes is analyzed from the point of view of word origins and their semantic relations. Onomasiological models are interpreted. The article defines dominant ways of building names with the meaning ‘forest clearing’, the main of them being verb derivatives. The semantics of destruction in producing verbal lexemes is marked as prevailing. Borrowed lexemes are identified and etymologized. The data from Indo-European source languages: German and French are given for borrowings that have penetrated into the dialect speech from the Russian national language. Dialect borrowings are interpreted as the Baltic-Finnish and Volga Turkic. The nature of the metaphor employed in the nomination of forest clearing is determined.