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In this paper I will try to classify and explain individual bynames (borne by one person) and collective bynames (borne by the whole community) in Maramureș, Romania. The survey, carried out in the villages of this region, has yielded about two hundred bynames in contemporary use, and I have also found that there are individuals who do not have them. I analyze the trigger for attribution of bynames which were initially nicknames, their meanings, as well as the continuity and variation of bynames over time. The main objectives are to make a classification of bynames according to their motivation (physical appearance, character, speech defects) and a diachronic analysis of the act of naming (i.e. the frequency of assigning bynames). In addition, I study the most frequent age to give or receive bynames, the ethnicity (minorities or Romanians), as well as the openness of the community to minorities, to find out if they give bynames to each other or if they prefer to give them only among members of the same ethnicity.

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