Ferenc Vörös: Family names in Western Slovakia in time dimension
Examinations on family names on Hungarian territories of Western Slovakia (Balony, Diósförgepatony, Kiscétény, Nagycétény). Research sub-periods. Frequent names. Characteristic names. Primary names. Groups of name categorisation: 1. by ethnicity, 2. by profession, 3. by folklore, 4. by proper name, 5. by origin, 6. by referring to figure of a person. Statistical processing of results.
It is a well-known fact that certain family names originate from a characteristic region or even concrete settlement, others from an entire linguistic territory. Although in consequence of the moving of population from time to time changes in names occur in every territory. In his study the author tries to find out which family names can be considered to be frequent, characteristic, or primary on four Western Slovakian territories (Balony, Diósförgepatony, Kiscétény, Nagycétény) from the end of the 19th C to the present (dividing the given time period into seven sub-periods). The sources of the study were Turkish defters, urbaria, several lists, religious and state registries.
By the author frequent family names are considered those names that are heavily burdened and within a given time interval in the circle of the bearers of the particular name are ranked in absolute order of rank in the first 10-15 names.
Characteristic names are those that on the given settlement, differ from names generally used in other geographical units, environments.
Primary names are by the author considered old native names of the given territory, regardless of the frequency of the name.
In all the four villages there are family names that are considered to be primary names, evidenced by sources that remained from earlier centuries, although there is a number of such names that were revealed during the researched time interval for the first time.
The author introduces five main groups of names that refer to: 1. ethnicity, 2. profession, 3. folklore, 4. proper name, 5. origin, 6. figure and reveals their frequency.