Family Names
Most Jews did not have family names before 1783. Still, we have the following family names recorded:
- 1050: Jászkonti,
- 1263: Farkas,
- 1350: Hosszú,
- 16th century: Cseh, Jakab, Gazdag, Fekete, Nagy, Kis,
- 1780: Bárány, Csonka, Horpács, Jónap, Kohányi, Kossuth, Kosztolányi, Lengyel, Lőrincz, Lukács, Szarvas, Szabó, Varga.
Emperor Joseph II wanted to facilitate the centralization of his empire by Germanization. He ordered the Jews to go in front of committees from 1783. There the Jews either had to choose or were given German family names, depending on the local circumstances.
The first wave of Magyarization of family names occurred between 1840 and 1849. This was stopped during the absolutist rule after the Hungarian revolution until 1867. After the Ausgleich, many Jews changed their family names from German to Hungarian.
A decree of the Hungarian Defense Ministry about "race validation" in 1942 complained that simply no Hungarian or German names were "safe" as Jews could have that name. Slavic names were deemed safer, but the decree listed 58 Slavic-sounding names Jews regularly had.
Read more about this topic: Judaism In Hungary
Famous quotes containing the words family and/or names:
“Freud is all nonsense; the secret of neurosis is to be found in the family battle of wills to see who can refuse longest to help with the dishes. The sink is the great symbol of the bloodiness of family life.”
—Julian Mitchell (20th century)
“The names of all fine authors are fictitious ones, far more so than that of Junius,—simply standing, as they do, for the mystical, ever-eluding Spirit of all Beauty, which ubiquitously possesses men of genius.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)