ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2573 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2573 ************************************ 22 Aug 2002 From: Josh Mittleman Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for a Hungarian man in our period, and when it might have been used. Here is what we have found. Before we start, we would like to apologize for the time it's taken us to answer your question. We have found no evidence that is a Hungarian name. It looks like it might be a Latinized form of a word meaning "the Vlach", i.e., "the Wallachian". The Wallachians were the forerunners of the modern ethnic Romanians. As far as we can tell, though, this term doesn't exist in Hungarian: We also find no word in Hungarian that starts with . The most similar-sounding Hungarian name that we can recommend is . That name was used from a fairly early period and was probably in use throughout our period; it derives from a word that means "wolf" [1, 2]. The surname means "from Nadasd", a town in the district of Vas in western Hungary. We have found an example of the surname in 1496 and several in the 16th century [1]. As we noted earlier, Hungarians were known by only a single, given name until the first half of the 13th century. Bynames came into use over the next century-and-a-half, and inherited family names arose among the nobilty in the 14th century and spread to the rest of society in the 15th [2]. In Hungarian contexts, the surname usually preceded the given name. In non-Hungarian documents, the normal European word order was often used. Thus, for any time from the late 13th century on, is probably a fine Hungarian name. If you are flexible about your period, then it would be best to set it in the late 15th century or later, when we have clear evidence of the surname. The name was pronounced roughly \NAW-dawsh-dee FAWR-kawsh\. \AW\ here represents the vowel in . We hope this letter has been useful. Please write us again if any part of it has been unclear or if you have other questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Walraven van Nijmegen, Talan Gwynek, and Ursula Georges. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 22 Aug 2002 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Ka/zme/r Miklo/s, "Re/gi Magyar Csala/dnevek Szo/ta/ra: XIV-XVII Sza/zad" (Budapest, 1993). He has an example of from 1389. [2] Ka/lma/n, Bela, _The World of Names: A Study in Hungarian Onomatology_ (Budapest: Akedemiai Kiado, 1978), p.43. He describes as an "old name". [3] Ka/lma/n, p.58.