This thesis deals with given names of cattle, i.e. cows, bulls and oxen in Sweden from the early18th century until the present day. Its main purposes are to gain a better knowledge of cattle names,to discuss the relationship between name creation and name giving, and to illustrate how changesin society can lead to changes in a particular category of names.

The first part of the investigation concentrates on names from the province of Värmland. Cattlenames, or buonyms, collected from estate inventories from 1737 to 1842, are morphologically andsemantically analyzed. A majority of the names are based on the physical or mental characteristicsof the bearers, especially their appearance, time of birth or origin.

The second part of the thesis examines buonyms in the last century and what impact organizedbreeding and import of foreign stock had on cattle names. Names from the last turn-of-century areanalyzed and the author finds that animals from imported breeds more often were given personalnames and that this custom spread to animals of domestic breeds.

To summarize the results: in the 18th century, a common stock of buonyms existed in northernareas of Scandinavia. Several of these names also have semantic parallels in other languages. Therewere also many names that were only used locally and maybe created specifically for the bearersin question. In the last century the stock of cattle names has changed: personal names and place-names are now used very frequently as buonyms. This is partly due to changes in the overall structure of agriculture and in cattle breeding in Sweden. Many cows nowadays are not even given an individual name, but are identified only by a number.