Custom node-set in a variable

I have a simple template which copies entire XML tree doing some
attribute transformations.
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
   <xsl:template match="*|@*|comment()|processing-instruction()">
      <xsl:copy>
         <xsl:apply-templates select="node()|@*" />
      </xsl:copy>
   </xsl:template>

   <xsl:template match="*/text()">
<!-- TRANSFORMATIONS -->
   </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

Now I need to exclude certain xml elements from the transformations by
name.
The list of such elements is long.
Can I use a variable inside my XSL as a custom node-set, something like:
   <xsl:variable name="bypass-names">
      <element1 />
      <element2 />
...
   </xsl:variable>

And what would be the good way to handle the exclusion, keeping in mind
performance?
Please advice
Thanks

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