Acute problems of contemporary ethnonymy

The article considers the following problems of contemporary ethnonymy: analysis of the linguistic status of the ethnonym and boundaries of ethnonymy and individual ethnonyms; development of ethnonimicon and fuctioning of ethnic names in different spheres of speech communication; interaction between ethnonymy and other lexical systems; study of categorization of ethnic semantics; constructing a model of systemic organisation of ethnonymic lexicon; the study of ethnic stereotypes. It is deducted that these problems can be solved by the analysis of local linguistic data thorough investigation of historical development and contemporary state of regional ethnonimicons and dictionary creation.