Аннотация:This article offers an etymological and structural analysis of Pechenegproper names and place names cited in “De Administrando Imperio” (written byConstantine Porphyrogenitus). The Turkic etymologies of these words are quiteirregular and have a big problem with semantics. But exceeding part of Pechenegnames can be interpreted rather easily as having Ossetic language origin andcan be translated from this language. Some exceptions are the words fi xed inWest-Caucasian languages. The result of this investigation shows a new view ofethnic circumstances along the Khazar boarders which excludes a dominationof Turkic elements.