The Nickname – Sanction or Denominative Method

Anthroponymy, similar to toponymy, is the mirror within the society. A mirror in which the image can often be reflected in a distorted way: the filter of consciousness, culture and imagination of naming often leaves its mark on the “products” of the denominative process. An example of this is the name of the person that originates from descriptive nicknames, as these always appear as sentences pronounced in the light of the evaluation and reasoning of the others. The acceptance of diversity, and the tolerance (including the denominative tolerance) did not represent, more than a century ago (the period of formation and crystallization of the official family name system) a feature of our old community, especially in the village, which has always sanctioned (sometimes also out of a desire to correct) what did not fit into the patterns of its normality. Any physical or behavioural “deviation” from the “norm” of the community members had denominational consequences. As a result, an impressive number of anthroponyms today come from ancient physical and mental traits/faults. Upon exhaustive research, we could even reconstruct, through these names, the clinical picture of the old Romanian society. In this paper, however, we will limit ourselves to presenting those nicknames that sanction vices of thought, positioning ourselves, semantically, in the sphere of appellations fool and stupid. We will analyze here anthroponyms based on various words with that meaning, for example, Bălgunea (balga, balgan – “netot – silly”), Bolândău (bolând – “idiot, stupid”), Bondrea (bondră – “silly woman, who is good for nothing”), Captiu (capchiu, variant of capiu “bewildered, confused”), etc., but also the announced generics.