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Abstract: The subject of research is the category of non-adulthood combining the names of the children and cubs. To achieve the goal setted in the work – apply a field approach to words with a general meaning of non-adulthood, select nuclear and peripheral zones, zones of intersection; to show the active processes taking place inside the field “Names of cubs” and the field “Names of non-adults” – were used the methods of component, derivational and contextological analysis, the method of field stratification, as well as methods of summarizing, interpreting and classifying the material under the study. As a result of the study, the following conclusions were made: about the tendency to unify ways to create names for cubs, about the replenishment of this group of vocabulary with neologisms and neo-derivates recorded in the electronic dictionaries and the Internet language, about the processes of metaphorization and onimization of names of cubs and, as a result, expansion of onomastic space due to pre-onomastic proximity – the presence of a common seme ‘caress’. The results of the study of persons with the meaning of non-adulthood allow to talk about the preservation of the traditions in Russian in the designation of non-adults (for example, in the designation of social status or nationality), but at the same time there is clearly noticeable increasing of occasional meaning – a large number of neo-derivates motivated by anthroponyms. At the same time, it is possible to see that the Russian language picture of the world reflects a new view on the category of non-adulthood, it expands its boundaries, the physiological attribute of non-adulthood ceases to be obligatory. Neo-derivates with the suffix ‑onok begin to enter the sphere of social evaluation. The materials of this study can be used in the study of active word-formation processes taking place in the Russian language, in lexicographical practice, in teaching Russian as a foreign language.