Կարս-շիրակյան տարածաշրջանի մականունները և դրանց բնութագրիչները

<jats:p>This study is devoted to nicknames having a specific territorial coverage. The study attempts to subdivide the Kars-Shirak nicknames according to their main varieties, based on their semantic orientation as well as their fundamental characteristics. A separate issue of consideration became the causal conditions of nickname formation, as well as the dominant structural pattern. Methods and materials: The study is based on nicknames representing the Kars-Shirak region, stored in the archive of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography NAS RA (unpublished). During the research, the results of Armenian and Russian linguistic, ethnographic, and folkloric studies were taken into account. The study employed historical-comparative and partially historical-geographical methods. Analysis: One of the distinctive manifestations of the oral tradition of the Kars-Shirak region is the nickname, which was actively created and circulated parallel to the personal naming formulas of community members. Unlike personal names, which in the studied region over the past two centuries have mainly appeared in three-component formulaic composition (first name, patronymic, surname), nicknames have played the role of an additional (surplus) formula revealing an individual's identity. Results: The examination of nicknames reveals the social status, customs, relationships, and historical global changes of Kars-Shirak region society in the late 19th and 20th centuries. The study also shows that nicknames constituted an integral part of the life and everyday existence of the population of the Kars-Shirak region and especially the city of Alexandropol-Gyumri-Leninakan, imparting irreplaceable charm to individual naming by supplementing it with distinctive facts and nuances.</jats:p>