Nicolae Drăganu

Born in Zagra, Bistrița-Năsăud County,[1] into a Greek-Catholic family,[2] he attended primary school in his native village, followed by the Gymnasium in nearby Năsăud.

[1] Following the union of Transylvania with Romania, this institution was transformed into Cluj University, a process to which he contributed as a member of the organizing committee.

[4] He was an active participant within Sextil Pușcariu's Museum of the Romanian Language, where his research interests included early texts, toponymy and anthroponymy, lexicology and syntax.

[7] His most important works are the 1933 Românii în veacurile IX-XIV pe baza toponimiei și onomastic ("The Romanians during the 9th to 14th Centuries on the Basis of Toponymy and Onomastics") and two posthumous 1945 volumes, Elemente de sintaxă a limbii române ("Elements of Syntax in the Romanian Language") and Istoria sintaxei ("The History of Syntax").

In Toponimie și istorie ("Toponymy and History") he sought to determine the linguistic origins of the toponyms in the Someș River valley.