Personal names in space and time

A complex analysis of the personal names of the early 18th-century Carpathian Basin based on the Atlas of Historical Surnames in Hungary. A summary of a habilitation dissertation

Abstract

Personal names in space and time. A complex analysis of the personal names of the early 18th-century Carpathian Basin based on the Atlas of Historical Surnames in Hungary. A summary of a habilitation dissertation

This habilitation dissertation presents the findings of the research project of the Atlas of Historical Surnames in Hungary (AHSH). The initial section of the thesis outlines the various stages of the decade-long research project, including the construction of historical Hungarian personal name databases, the creation of the mapping program, and the elaboration of the potential applications of the historical data sets. Since the inception of the research programme, the intricate relationship between name and ethnicity has constituted a pivotal area of inquiry. The historical personal name databases constructed have enabled an investigation into the correlation between personal names and ethnicity by utilising the collected data. Ethnic reconstruction methods based on personal names have been used in the past to draw conclusions regarding the ethnic make-up of parts of Transylvania, Szeklerland, and Moson County. The other principal topic of the dissertation was the application of the results of the geography of family names to dialectology. The discussion focused on two key areas: the dialectal characteristics of the observed family names and the geographical approach to diachronic changes in the family name stock. Meanwhile, particular attention was paid to the definition of the concept of onomastic dialects. As a third area of interest, the author demonstrated the interrelationship between name geography and word history, including etymology and the history of meaning, with the help of various examples. The aim was to illustrate how data on the geographical features of personal names can contribute to the clarification of certain historical linguistic issues.