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:
“Happy or unhappy, families are all mysterious. We have only to imagine how differently we would be described—and will be, after our deaths—by each of the family members who believe they know us.”
—Gloria Steinem (b. 1934)
“Our foreparents were mostly brought from West Africa.... We were brought to America and our foreparents were sold; white people bought them; white people changed their names ... my maiden name is supposed to be Townsend, but really, what is my maiden name? What is my name?”
—Fannie Lou Hamer (1917–1977)