 |
Business | Industries | Finance | Tax |
| Index: > A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z |
|
|||||
| First Prev [ 1 2 3 4 ] Next Last |
In Romania family names traditionally have an English-like usage: a child inherits his father's family name, and a wife takes her husband's last name. There are however exceptions and social pressure to follow this tradition is not particularly strong in most families.
Romanian names' etymologies are mixed. Sometimes, family names denote some ancestor's occupation (for example Butnaru meaning 'one-who-makes-barrels'), sometimes a genitor's name - notably, there are common family names deriving from a woman's name, hence the mother's name (e.g. Amarandei, '[son or daughter]-of-[S]maranda').
It should be noted that the first name/last name distinction is not clear in Romanian culture. While the ordering of given name first, family name second is always used in media, from literature to television, the opposite order is used in all official documents, ostensibly for filing purposes. Since bureaucracy is very pervasive in Romania, a Romanian will often instinctively start with his family name when introducing himself, especially in any 'official' context (this includes, for example, a student signing an occasional test paper in school). You will not, however, hear someone refer to a poet or a politician this way.
In Romanian the words "nume de familie" (literally "family name") and "prenume" (for one's given name) are used instead of the first/second name convention.
Until a few hundred years ago, Jews followed no tradition of family names, but used patronymics, i.e., the last name of a child was their father's name, prefixed by 'ben' or 'bat'. For example, a boy named Joseph of a father named Isaac would be called Joseph ben Isaac. Isaac's daughter Esther would be called Esther bat Isaac.
When northern European countries legislated that Jews required "proper" surnames, Jews were left with a number of options. Many Jews (particularily in Austria, Prussia and Russia) were forced to adopt Germanic names. Joseph II issued a law in 1787 which assumed that all Jews were to adopt German names. The city mayors were to chose the name for every Jewish family. For names related to precious metals and flowers a fee was gathered, the free of charge surnames were usually connected to animals and common metals. Many took Yiddish names derived from occupation (e.g. Goldstein, 'Gold-smith'), from their father (e.g. Jacobson), or from location (e.g. Berliner, Warszawski or Pinsker).
In Prussia special military commissions were created to chose the names. It became common that the poorer Jews were forced to adopt derogatory, offensive or simply bizarre names. Among those created by Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann were:
The Jews of Poland adopted names much earlier. Those who were adopted by a szlachta family usually changed the name to that of the family. Christened Jews usually adopted either a common Polish name or a name created after the month of their baptism (that's why many Frankists adopted the name Majewski - after the month of May in 1759).
In Poland and most of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth the surnames first appeared in late Middle Ages. Initially their purpose was to denote the differences between various people living in the same town or village and bearing the same name. Initially the surnames used were simple nouns denoting the occupation (Karczmarz - Innkeeper, Kowal - Blacksmith, Bednarczyk - Young Cooper), descent (patronymic names like Szczepaniak - Son of Szczepan, Józefski - Son of Józef or Kazmirkiewicz - Son of Kazimierz) or a feature (Nowak - the new one, Bialy - the pale one, Mazur the one from Masovia or Wielgus - the big one).
Since the early 16th century geographical names became common, especially among the szlachta. Initially the surnames were in a form of Jan z Kolna (meaning John of Kolno ), later most of the surnames were changed to adjective forms (Jakub Wislicki - James of Wisla, Zbigniew Olesnicki - Zbigniew of Olesnica) with suffixes -ski, -cki and -dzki.
A separate class of surnames is constituted by names derived of the names of szlachtas coats of arms. These are used either as separate names or the first part of a double-barrelled name. This way persons named Jan Nieczuja and Krzysztof Nieczuja-Machocki might be related. Similarily, after World War I and World War II many members of the underground organizations adopted their war-time pseudonyms as the first part of their surnames. This way Edward Rydz became the later Marshal of Poland Edward Smigly-Rydz and Jan Nowak became Jan Nowak-Jezioranski .
| Politics | Business | Finance |
 |
 |
 |