Five Thousand Names

Among Mario Fales’ many research interests, onomastic always occupied a special place as a means to investigate languages, cultures, and societies. He planned to organise the results of his long-standing inter-est, particularly his recent in-depth studies, into a comprehensive publication. This work aimed to system-atically address theoretical questions related to anthroponymy, explore problems and methods of name analysis and classification, investigate the social implications of onomastic data, and the historical and an-thropological perspectives of name giving within cultural and ethnic contexts. Additionally, it would look into specific situations and their meanings during the NA period. Mario completed a large part of this ambitious project so that it was almost ready for publication and in need of only minor editorial interventions, such as a few checks and updates, whereas the last chapters he had planned were still only barely outlined. After reading the manuscript, the editorial board considered that the extensive presentation of the NA materials and the thorough definition of the methodological issues, conducted along with a critical review of decades of onomastic studies, that the author produced in the first part, was a valuable and dense study in itself, a competent reflection on this field of study which is worth being shared as such with the scholarly community. We trust that we can correctly interpret the author’s desire by publishing it in the journal Mario founded more than 30 years ago. This posthumous publication, therefore, represents both an important scientific contribution and a homage to Mario's scholarly activity. The manuscript is here published with the kind permission of Marina Bentivoglio and Ludovica Fales, who promoted the edition of this article in SAAB, and whom we heartedly thank. The editors also thank Luigi Turri for the first preparation of the manuscript, and Giulia Francesca Grassi for checking references to the Aramaic bibliography.