Slovakia Naming Customs: Difference between revisions

The names of all these people were changing according to social, ethnic, historical, and political conditions. The name of each family developed in its own way. Many descendants of German families have preserved their original German names. In rare cases, we are able to define locality, period, and special circumstances of their creation from the names themselves. In the majority of cases, however, we can do this only approximately. Let's mention just several characteristics that will enable us to do the basic classification of Slovakian surnames.  

There is just one group of surnames that often strictly reflects the ethnic background of the family ancestor: surnames derived from ethnic names ''Slovák, Tóth, Nemec, Polák, Rusnák, Chorvát, Horváth'', etc. They tell us very clearly that the bearer of such a name settled individually in a community of different ethnicity. According to the language of this name, we can also guess the nationality of his neighbors (for example, Tóth could be a Slovak settled among Hungarians, because Tóth is a Hungarian word a Slovak).  

In some cases, we are even able to guess the period of such a surname creation and thus also the period of the ancestor's settling in Upper Hungary. For example, the surnames designating Croats (Horváth, Chorváth, etc., very often appeared in the 16th and 17th centuries, during the mass immigration of Croats into the northern parts of Hungary.  

A large group of surnames has been derived from first names (of men, less often of women). As an example, we can mention the common names  

*''Detrich, Meško'', derived from old first names almost unused today

In Slovakia, surnames derived from localities are very frequent. The oldest ones were created among the nobility. Such names as ''Kubíni, Ostrolúcky, Sentiváni, Divéky'' were usually derived from small localities. Surnames such as ''Sučansky, Trenčiansky, Lipták'' refer to the local or territorial origin of the ancestor as well as to his migration from the particular locality or area; Sučansky from Suča or Sučany, Trenčiansky from Trenčin or the county of Trenčin, Lipták from the region of Liptov.  

A further large group consists of surnames derived from occupations ''Kováč, Mlynár, Minárik, Švec, Szabó, Schmidt'' etc. They usually appeared in later centuries and reflect the family ancestor's occupation.  

This is the extract of a lecture ''Slovak Surnames: What They Can Tell a Family Historian'' by Milan Šišmiš, presented at the FEEFHS Convention, Minneapolis in 1996. To read the article in its entirety see FEEFHS Journal 4:4 (March 1997).

== Male Given Names  ==