ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 894 http://www.s-gabriel.org/894 *********************************** ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Some of the Academy's early reports * * contain errors that we haven't yet * * corrected. Please use it with caution. * * * ************************************************* 11 Apr 1998 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked us to look again for as an early medieval Hungarian feminine name. Here is what we have found. Before I start, I'd like to address an unrelated point. In your letter, you indicated that you want a Romany (Gypsy) name. The Gypsies are not ethnically Hungarian, though some of them may have lived in Hungary at various times in history. They have a different language and different naming practices. Much of their culture is not documented, so we don't know a great deal about their names. We do know that Gypsies used at least two names: one in their own language, which they used only among themselves, and one in the vernacular of the country where they lived. If you want to a name appropriate for a Hungarian Gypsy, then you should choose a Hungarian name, since that it what such a woman would have used when dealing with the outside world. Our references do not support your friend's statement that native Hungarian women's names were banned by the church. We have several books which discuss the history of Hungarian names, and none of them mention any such ban. One of them shows Magyar feminine names which were apparently in use in the late Middle Ages [1]. We are always looking for new information about medieval naming, so would be very interested to know your friend's sources. It is certainly true that names from other cultures were imported to Hungary during the Middle Ages, especially names of Biblical or Latin origin. This process occurred throughout Europe, but does not seem to have been particularly more significant in Hungary than in other countries. It certainly resulted in a significant decrease in the number of people using names derived from the ancient Magyar namestock, but we find no evidence that this development was imposed. As elsewhere, it seems simply to have been a natural result of changes in society: the conversion to Christianity, the intermarriage of the Hungarian nobility with other European noble families, and the growth of commerce with neighboring countries. We still have not found as a given name. We did find the similar adjective , which means "clean", and which was used as a descriptive byname as early as 1450 and later as a surname [1, 2]. We also found a fairly similar-sounding modern given name, , pronounced \TEETS-eeyaw\ as opposed to \TEES-taw\. (\aw\ represents the vowel sound in .) Unfortunately, appears to have be only a modern name [3]. Without knowing more about your friend's book, we can't say for certain what name was in it or how it was used; but we can suggest several possibilities. It could have been an allegorial name for a character in a story, easily mistaken for a real name. It might have been a surname re-used as a given name. It might even have been mis-understood as a given name because modern Hungarian naming practice places the given name _after_ the family name, like . This last possibility may offer a solution to your dilemma: Use as a byname and choose a given name to go after it. Any of the names we suggested in our last letter would be appropriate. You can find a copy of that letter at: http://www.panix.com/~gabriel/public-bin/showfinal.cgi?815 I 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 Walraven van Nijmegen, Talan Gwynek, and Alan Fairfax. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Ka/lma/n, Bela, _The World of Names: A Study in Hungarian Onomatology_ (Budapest: Akedemiai Kiado, 1978). [2] Ka/zme/r Miklo/s, "Re/gi Magyar Csala/dnevek Szo/ta/ra: XIV-XVII Sza/zad" (Budapest, 1993). [3] Hadju/ Miha/ly, _Magyar-Angol, Angol-Magyar Keresztne/vszo/ta/r_ (Budapest : ELTE Magyar Nyelve/szeti Tansze/kcsoport Ne/vkutato/ Munkako:zo:sse/ge, 1983). - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -