Copulative Compounds in Iranian Onomastics

In this article the author discusses the status of copulative compounds in Iranian onomastics, attempting to show that this typology of personal names is present in Western Iranian since the Old Iranian period, though it only reaches its greatest frequency in the onomasticon of the short inscriptions found on seals and sealings dating from late Sasanian times. A few attestations of these compounds are found also in other Middle Iranian languages. Interestingly enough, copulative compounds are not so frequent in Pahlavi literature, probably because it relies on traditional materials.