The thesis points to the possible reasons why the name of the Croatian language is not uniform in linguistics. In this sense, the historical origin of the Serbo-Croatian name, which is imposed when it comes to speaking about the Croatian standard, is evaluate, as well as the appearance of the name BCS, i.e. BKS(M) language, and the reasons why some linguists consider the Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian and Montenegrin standard to be standard variants of one polycentric language, and on the other hand, the reasons why other part of the linguists consider them as four standard languages. Linguistic terminology and the historical approach to the Croatian standard are also problematized, as well as the application of the theory of polycentric languages to the Croatian standard. Due to the desire of (mainly foreign) linguists to present the Croatian standard as a standard variant of the polycentric Serbo-Croatian, i.e. BKS(M) language, attention is given to the general features of polycentric languages and the way they were created in order to assess whether the so-called Serbo-Croatian language meets the basic characteristics of polycentric languages. This thesis proposes a revision of the application of the theory of polycentric languages for a better understanding of Vuk Stefanović Karadžić's work, and, accordingly, for an unequivocal classification of the Croatian standard.