Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 823

Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 823

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/823

Some of the Academy's early reports contain errors that we haven't yet corrected. Please use it with caution.

Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!

You asked us about the Hungarian name <Hunyadi Zapolyie>:

The name element <Hunyadi> appears in that spelling by at least 1482. It appears to be an old aristocratic family name [1,2], and became well known because of Hunyadi János (regent of Hungary from 1446 to 1453) and his son Matthias (called Corvinus, king of Hungary 1458-1490). The name was applied to the family faction backing Matthias' claim to the throne. Because of the historical importance of the Hunyadi family, we recommend avoiding their name in Society recreations.

The modern name element <Zápolyai> is period, and is recorded in the following spellings [3] (a 'y:' indicates a 'y' with an umlaut): Zapolyay, Zapoly:ay:, Szapollyai, Szapolyai

Unfortunately, both elements are surnames derived from the names of places (locatives), so the two elements together could not make an appropriate name anyway. Your client would need a first name, and could combine it with some form of <Zapolyay>. A sample list of Hungarian first names from the 16th century is available on-line through the Academy library [4].

We hope this has been helpful, and that we can continue to assist you. Livia Montgomery and Arval Benicouer contributed to this letter.

In service,
--Walraven van Nijmegen
Academy of S. Gabriel


[1] Peter F. Sugar, Péter Hanák, & Tibor Frank. "A History of Hungary"

Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 1990.

[2] Kálmán Bela. "The World of Names: A Study in Hungarian Onomatology"

Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 1978.

[3] Kázmér Miklós. "Régi Magyar Családnevek Szótára: XIV-XVII

Század" Magyar Nyelvtudományi Társaság, Budapest, 1993.

[4] Walraven van Nijmegen. "Hungarian Personal Names of the 16th Century"

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/1336/magyar16.html