Registers of population and reports of canonical visitations in the 18th century as sources of onomasociology
Abstract
Registers of population and reports of canonical visitations in the 18th century as sources of onomasociology
In onomastics the sociological aspect of consideration can be adopted, for the most part, when one observes Christian names. It is still problematic, however, whether family names display any difference according to denomination, and if they do, what factors (settling, immigration, re-Catholicization) have formed them in social history. This study suggests that in the 18th century not only people who belonged to the Reformed Church, but also evangelical and orthodox persons bore mostly Hungarian family names. Half of Jewish people preserved their traditional family names based on the Old Testament, the other half adopted either Yiddish or Hungarian family names (Andó, Czimbalmos, Farkas, Ferentz, Szarvas, Zsidó). Almost all of the Gypsies settled in or infiltrated into Hungary used Hungarian family names, half of which developed from names of settlements (Árvai, Darnoczj, Henye, Hodosy etc.).
