As far as I understand the mappedBy, it is mapped to the getter name using bean rules on the owning side of the relationship. View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=3965822#3965822 Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&p=3965822