Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu - Note On His Name

Note On His Name

Hasdeu is pronounced as if spelled with the Romanian version of ş (Haşdeu); Hasdeu never spelled it with any diacritic (most likely because the Romanian alphabet appeared and went through several major changes during his lifetime).

Although many times taken for a first surname, Petriceicu is in fact his second name. The confusion can be ascribed to the name's uniqueness, and to the misguided assumption that cu is the same as the extremely common suffix for Romanian family names. The name was chosen by the writer himself, and it reflected the Hasdeu family claim to have descended from 17th century Moldavian ruler Ştefan Petriceicu.