This study aims to highlight the symbolic valences of feminine proper names in Istrati's short stories. The cosmopolitan nature of the urban space of Comorofca is reinforced by the impressive diversity of etymons that underlie feminine anthroponyms, displaying various origins: Latin, Greek, Slavic, German and native. Along with other features of Istrati's work, these names underpin the writer's literary internationality. Whether craving for power or love, devoted or intriguing, honest or misleading, enticing or devout, women can take multiple shapes in literary works. In Istrati's texts, female characters illustrate several types, such as the mother, the woman outlaw and the femme fatale. The expressive function of the feminine names in Istrati's short stories is manifested at the level of hypocoristics and nicknames, by means of metaphor and metonymy.
