Proper names referring to Ruthenians in the 16th century in Bereg county

Abstract

Proper names referring to Ruthenians in the 16th century

The 1570 year’s register lists names from the estate (dominium) of Szentmiklós in the former Bereg county. Ruthenian villages were formerly led by judges (judex). Those in the 16th century, however, were governed by the leaders of the settlers. The paper examines place-names as well as personal names. The stock of surnames is linguistically varied. Though dominated by Ruthenian elements, it also includes names of Hungarian and Slovakian origins, with much rarer examples of Croatian, Polish, German, Rumanian and Ukrainian names. The author focuses on the motives behind the name giving processes, even if the real motivations can only roughly be identified after 400 years. Christian names of the period are also varied.