Name giving practices in a Roma ethnic group

Abstract

Name giving practices in a Roma ethnic group

This paper discusses the Christian name giving practices of the Roma inhabitants of Túristvándi (a little village in Eastern Hungary). Contrary to some expectations (i.e. in Roma communities a very important factor in name choice is to adopt names of film characters) the Roma inhabitants of the village claim to give the names of their ancestors and relatives (34,5%) or the names they like (34,5%) to their children. The author identifies other influencing factors in name giving practices, e.g. the number of children in the family, the age of the mother, the namer, the date of name choice (planned or spontaneous), the frequency and the meaning of the name, and the harmony of the Christian name and the surname. The author also briefly looks at bynames used often in Roma communities, adding a corpus of spoken language to the analysis.