Family Names: Origins, History, Anthropology and Sociology

A special issue of Genealogy (ISSN 2313-5778). This special issue belongs to the section "Family History".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2023) | Viewed by 18518

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of English, University of Chester, Chester CH1 4BJ, UK
Interests: place names and personal names; history of the English language; Middle English vocabulary; Middle English dialectology; the use of onomastic data for the analysis of regional dialect lexis and phonology

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Bristol Centre for Linguistics, University of the West of England, Bristol BS16 1QY, UK
Interests: proper names and name theory; place and personal names; history of western European languages

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We propose to jointly guest-edit a Special Issue of the online periodical Genealogy on the topic of Family Names and Naming. This is a call for papers.

Relatively little is published globally on this topic. We therefore consider that it would be timely to bring together contributions from as many as possible of the different disciplines which have an established or potential professional interest in personal naming at the family level: linguistics/onomastics, lexicography, history, genealogy, social psychology, anthropology, human biology, genetics, computer science and AI, marketing, etc.,  and from as many geographical, linguistic and cultural areas as possible. Much published work involving family names is genealogical (therefore highly specific) and lexicographical (therefore essentially summarizing a current state of historical knowledge).

Seeing just how little is published in comparison with work in toponymy, given-naming and business and institutional naming, for example, we consider that a useful step would be to bring together work of disparate types without a single overarching theme in order to expose scholars in the various fields to the full richness of current thinking about family names and possible directions for further research and cross-disciplinary collaboration. For the purposes of this issue, the Guest Editors will understand “family name” (or “surname”) to include names which perform an analogous role in a range of cultures, such as patronyms and metronyms, clan names, nasab and nisba, etc.—any name, in fact, which explicitly positions the individual within a larger social structure. Lack of family name is also a topic of interest. The Guest Editors will be pleased to consider submissions from any disciplinary area, whether oriented to history, praxis or theory, but will look especially favourably on papers that endeavour to make links across conventional disciplinary boundaries or seek to establish new methodological approaches to the study of family names. We expect submissions may fall into five broad areas:

  1. Projects and methods in family name research;
  2. Systematic aspects of family names and naming;
  3. Linguistic aspects of family names and naming;
  4. Praxis in relation to family naming;
  5. Studies relating to individual family names (in which the focus should be on the  name itself rather than on wider genealogical matters).

We offer a range of references below as an indication of some of the directions that might be followed by contributors, but without seeking to limit submissions to predefined topic areas.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 400–600 words, in English, summarizing their intended contribution, within one month of this call for papers. Please send it to the Guest Editors (richard.coates@uwe.ac.uk and h.parkin@chester.ac.uk) or to Genealogy editorial office (genealogy@mdpi.com). Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editors for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer-review.

For those for whom it is relevant, the policy of Genealogy on article fees is set out at: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/genealogy/apc.

We look forward to hearing from you. Please pass on this call to any scholar you think might wish to contribute.

References: 

Darlu, Pierre, and 17 other authors (2012) The family name as socio-cultural feature and genetic metaphor: from concepts to methods. Human Biology 84.2, 169-214. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22708820/.

Farkas, Tamás (2012) The history and practice of the regulations for changing one's family name in Hungary. Onoma 47, 35–56. https://poj.peeters-leuven.be/content.php?url=article&id=3085138.

Hanks, Patrick (2003) Americanization of European family names in the seventeenth and eighteenth century. Onoma 38, 119-154. https://poj.peeters-leuven.be/content.php?id=2002556&url=article.

Hanks, Patrick, and others (2022) Introduction to the Dictionary of American family names (new edition). New York: Oxford University Press.

Hanks, Patrick, and Harry Parkin (2016) Family names. In Carole Hough, with Daria Izdebska, ed., The Oxford handbook of names and naming. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 214-236. [In the same book, the chapter by George Redmonds on Personal names and genealogy (279-291), and Section 19.2.] Book: https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/34398.

Hanks, Patrick, Richard Coates and Peter McClure, eds (2016) Introduction to the Oxford dictionary of family names in Britain and Ireland. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780199677764.001.0001/acref-9780199677764;jsessionid=BC712D4AF2CB313B21171C53DF5B8553. [Additionally, a version in the Concise edition, ed. Harry Parkin (2021).]

Kohlheim, Rosa, and Volker Kohlheim (2005) Familiennamen: Herkunft und Bedeutung von 20000 Nachnamen. Mannheim: Duden.

Krüger, Dietlind (2011) Familiennamen ostslawischer Herkunft im Deutschen. In: Karlheinz Hengst and Dietlind Krüger, eds., Familiennamen im Deutschen: Erforschung und Nachschlagewerke. Jürgen Udolph zum 65. Geburtstag zugeeignet. Leipzig, 227-249.

Morlet, Marie-Thérèse (1997) Dictionnaire étymologique des noms de famille. Paris: Perrin.

Parkin, Harry (2015) The fourteenth-century poll tax returns and the study of English surname distribution. Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History 48.1, 1-12. https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/843883/the-fourteenth-century-poll-tax-returns-and-the-study-of-english-surname-distribution.

Peters, Eleanor (2018) The influence of choice feminism on women’s and men’s attitudes towards name changing at marriage. Names 66.3, 176-185. https://ans-names.pitt.edu/ans/article/view/2159/2158.

Picard, Marc (2009) Genealogical evidence and the Americanization of European family names. Names 57.1, 30-51. https://pdfslide.net/documents/genealogical-evidence-and-the-americanization-of-european-family-names.html?page=1.

Picard, Marc (2015) On the origin of hagionyms in North American French surnames. Names 63.1, 37-43. https://ans-names.pitt.edu/ans/article/view/2030/2029.

Pilcher, Jane, Zara Hooley and Amanda Coffey (2020) Names and naming in adoption: birth heritage and family‐making. Child & Family Social Work 25.3, 568-575. https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/128781/.

Plant, John S. (2005) Modern methods and a controversial surname: Plant. Nomina 28, 115-133. https://web-archive.southampton.ac.uk/cogprints.org/5462/1/nomina_eprint.pdf.  

Rabanus, Stefan, and Haykanush Barseghyan (2018) Wortbildung der Familiennamen Armeniens. Beiträge zur Namenforschung 53.1, 47-66. https://bnf.winter-verlag.de/article/BNF/2018/1/3

Rambousek, Adam, Ales Horak and Harry Parkin (2018) Software tools for big data resources in family name dictionaries. Names 66.4, 246-255. https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1904/1904.09234.pdf.

Sykes, Bryan, and Catherine Irven (2000) Surnames and the Y-chromosome. American Journal of Human Genetics 66, 1417-1419. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1288207/.     

Tüm, Gülden (2021) Turkish patronymic surnames ending with -oğlu ‘son of’: a corpus linguistic investigation. Names 69.2, 20-32. https://ans-names.pitt.edu/ans/article/view/2278/2269.

Voracek, M., S. Reider, S. Stieger, V. Swami and S. Rieder (2015) What’s in a surname? Physique, aptitude, and sports type comparisons between Tailors and Smiths. PLoS ONE 10 (7), e0131795. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0131795.

Wikstrøm, Solveig (2012) Surnames and identities. In Botolv Helleland, Christian-Emil Ore and Solveig Wikstrøm, eds., Names and Identities. Oslo: University of Oslo. OSLa (Oslo Studies in Language), 257-272. https://docplayer.net/42062637-Oslo-studies-in-language-4-2-botolv-helleland-christian-emil-ore-solveig-wikstrom-eds-names-and-identities.html.

Please note that some of these texts may be accessible online on other sites. Some sites mentioned are paywall-protected.

Dr. Harry Parkin
Prof. Dr. Richard Coates
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Genealogy is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • onomastics
  • anthroponomastics
  • anthroponymy
  • family names
  • surnames

Published Papers (10 papers)

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Research

30 pages, 607 KiB  
Article
The Commemorability Principle in Akan Personal Name Construction
by Yaw Sekyi-Baidoo
Genealogy 2024, 8(2), 48; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy8020048 (registering DOI) - 28 Apr 2024
Viewed by 262
Abstract
The movement from regular lexicon to onomasticon, especially anthroponomasticon, is often mediated by cultural principles which may determine which concepts could normally be selected for the formation of personal names. Restrictive traditions have guiding principles making some concepts acceptable or not, and some [...] Read more.
The movement from regular lexicon to onomasticon, especially anthroponomasticon, is often mediated by cultural principles which may determine which concepts could normally be selected for the formation of personal names. Restrictive traditions have guiding principles making some concepts acceptable or not, and some names central or peripheral. In this paper, I discuss the principle of commemorability as gatekeeping the selection of concepts for the formation of personal names in Akan; and, having established the restrictiveness of the Akan anthroponomastic system, I identify the two considerations of honourability and preservability as making up the commemorability principle. The study is inductive, establishing the theory that explains the principles for the selection of appropriate concepts for the construction of personal names, and it relies on ethnographic resources including observation, interviews, and focus group discussions supported by name content analysis to generate the theory. The paper establishes that commemorability is founded on a general philosophy that upholds the societal, effort and perseverance, and social cognitive value in the selection of concepts for constructing personal names. Guided by these considerations, concepts are placed within a value ranking system to determine their ‘commemorability’, with items that rank as ‘honourable’ normally selected and processed as personal names. In the construction itself, there is a preference for the cognitive over the physical and the general beyond the specific, and there is an overriding preference for the use of general commemorability concepts which represent excellence, prominence, fullness, abundance, inexhaustibility, strength, endurance, and resilience, among others, which are used both as base-concepts for family names or as ‘amplifier’ concepts in the construction of extension names. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Family Names: Origins, History, Anthropology and Sociology)
18 pages, 1676 KiB  
Article
Toward an Onomastic Account of Vietnamese Surnames
by Viet Khoa Nguyen
Genealogy 2024, 8(1), 16; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy8010016 - 05 Feb 2024
Viewed by 1885
Abstract
This article presents a comprehensive exploration of Vietnamese surnames, with a specific focus on those attributed to the Kinh people, from an onomastic perspective. Beginning with a broad overview of general studies on Vietnamese names, the paper introduces the prevailing name structure, which [...] Read more.
This article presents a comprehensive exploration of Vietnamese surnames, with a specific focus on those attributed to the Kinh people, from an onomastic perspective. Beginning with a broad overview of general studies on Vietnamese names, the paper introduces the prevailing name structure, which follows the format [Surname + (Middle name) + Given name]. The study then delves into a careful examination of Vietnamese surnames, addressing key facets such as their origin, distinctive characteristics, quantity, and distribution. Notably, the article emphasizes the widespread usage of the Nguyễn surname, offering arguments and insights into its prevalence. Furthermore, the paper discusses the intricate nature of the meanings associated with Vietnamese surnames and highlights the legal considerations surrounding them. By combining historical context with cultural significance, the article aims to provide valuable insights into the complexities inherent in Vietnamese surnames. Ultimately, this research contributes to a deeper understanding of the historical roots and cultural significance of Kinh group surnames within the broader context of Vietnamese onomastics. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Family Names: Origins, History, Anthropology and Sociology)
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24 pages, 381 KiB  
Article
Canadian Brides’-to-Be Surname Choice: Potential Evidence of Transmitted Bilateral Descent Reckoning
by Melanie MacEacheron
Genealogy 2024, 8(1), 13; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy8010013 - 01 Feb 2024
Viewed by 1387
Abstract
Women’s marital surname change is important, in part, because it affects how often only husbands’ (fathers’) surnames are passed on to offspring: this, in turn, affects the frequency of these “family” names. Brides-to-be, novelly, from across especially western and central Canada (N [...] Read more.
Women’s marital surname change is important, in part, because it affects how often only husbands’ (fathers’) surnames are passed on to offspring: this, in turn, affects the frequency of these “family” names. Brides-to-be, novelly, from across especially western and central Canada (N = 184), were surveyed as to marital surname hyphenation/retention versus change intention, and attitude towards women’s such choices in general. Among women engaged to men, the hypothesized predictors of income and number of future children desired were positively predictive of marital surname retention/hyphenation under univariate analysis. Under multiple regression analysis using these and other predictors from the literature, previously found to be predictive of this DV under univariate analysis, only some of these other predictors were predictive. Of greatest predictiveness was the bride-to-be’s own mother’s marital surname choice (with brides-to-be, more often than would otherwise be predicted, following their mother’s such choice), thus suggesting a possible shift to a transmitted manner of bilateral descent reckoning, towards greater bilateral such reckoning, among a portion of the population. Reported, general attitude towards women’s marital surname retention was predictive of participant brides-to-be’s own reported (imminent) marital surname retention/hyphenation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Family Names: Origins, History, Anthropology and Sociology)
11 pages, 3724 KiB  
Article
Evolution of Armenian Surname Distribution in France between 1891 and 1990
by Pierre Darlu and Pascal Chareille
Genealogy 2024, 8(1), 7; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy8010007 - 05 Jan 2024
Viewed by 1280
Abstract
The evolution of the Armenian presence in mainland France from 1891 to 1990 is described on the basis of an inventory of more than 7000 family names of Armenian origin extracted from the INSEE surname database. Several surname samplings are proposed, and parameters [...] Read more.
The evolution of the Armenian presence in mainland France from 1891 to 1990 is described on the basis of an inventory of more than 7000 family names of Armenian origin extracted from the INSEE surname database. Several surname samplings are proposed, and parameters such as the number of different Armenian names, the number of births with these names and their proportions are used as descriptors for each of the 320 French arrondissements and the four successive 25-year periods between 1891 and 1990. Before 1915, Armenian surnames and births with these names are infrequent and almost exclusively located in Paris and the arrondissements of Marseille. From 1915 onwards, subsequent to the genocide in Turkey, the number of births and the diversity of Armenian surnames rose sharply until 1940, before stabilizing thereafter. The diaspora remains essentially centred in Paris, Lyon, and Marseille, with little regional extension around these poles. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Family Names: Origins, History, Anthropology and Sociology)
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28 pages, 5321 KiB  
Article
Family Name Adoption in the Dutch Colonies at the Abolition of Slavery in the Context of National Family Name Legislation: A Reflection on Contemporary Name Change
by Leendert Brouwer
Genealogy 2023, 7(4), 96; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy7040096 - 04 Dec 2023
Viewed by 1675
Abstract
Name change can only take place in the Netherlands under strict conditions and according to patronizing regulations. At the moment, an amendment of name law is being drafted that would give descendants of Dutch citizens whose ancestors lived in slavery an exemption. If [...] Read more.
Name change can only take place in the Netherlands under strict conditions and according to patronizing regulations. At the moment, an amendment of name law is being drafted that would give descendants of Dutch citizens whose ancestors lived in slavery an exemption. If they have a family name that their ancestors received upon their release, they may change it free of charge. It remains to be seen, however, whether the desire to adopt new names in keeping with a reclaimed African identity can also be granted. After all, that would conflict with the general regulations when creating a new name. The whole issue shows political opportunism. First, it would be useful to get a good picture of name adoption in light of surnaming in general. Is it right to consider the names in question as slave names? Are they really that bad? It is more likely that precisely the exceptional position now obtained leads to undesirable profiling. In fact, the only solution to embarrass no one is a wholesale revision of the name law that does away with outdated 19th century limitations. Why should anyone be unhappy with their name? Why should someone who insists on having a different name be prevented from doing so? This essay examines the announced change in the law against the background of surnaming in general and the acquisition of family names in Suriname and the Netherlands Antilles in particular. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Family Names: Origins, History, Anthropology and Sociology)
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17 pages, 322 KiB  
Article
Surnames in Adoption: (Re)creating Identities of Belonging
by Jane Pilcher, Jan Flaherty, Hannah Deakin-Smith, Amanda Coffey and Eve Makis
Genealogy 2023, 7(4), 92; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy7040092 - 21 Nov 2023
Viewed by 1698
Abstract
Names are increasingly recognised in sociology as important routes for understanding family relationships, as well as familial and individual identities. In this article, we use qualitative ‘name story’ data to examine the meanings of surnames for adults who were adopted as a child [...] Read more.
Names are increasingly recognised in sociology as important routes for understanding family relationships, as well as familial and individual identities. In this article, we use qualitative ‘name story’ data to examine the meanings of surnames for adults who were adopted as a child and for adults who have adopted a child. Our findings suggest that adult adoptees and adopters can feel differently about surnames and how these connect them—or otherwise—to familial identities of belonging and to their own individual identities. Especially for adopters, shared surnames are understood as important for ‘family-making’ through the way they cement and display familial belonging. Adult adoptees’ feelings about belonging, birth surnames and adoptive surnames appeared more complicated and often changed over time. For some, adoption enabled a flexibility in the choice and use of different surnames. Cultures of patronymic and patrilineal surnaming meant that women adoptees and women adopters also faced an additional layer of complexity that shaped decisions made about surnames and family belonging. Through examining experiences of and feelings about family names in adoption, our article highlights the complexities of surname praxis in identity construction, adoptive family life and lineages. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Family Names: Origins, History, Anthropology and Sociology)
15 pages, 304 KiB  
Article
Lithuanian Feminine Surname Debates from a Central European Perspective
by Justyna B. Walkowiak
Genealogy 2023, 7(4), 88; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy7040088 - 17 Nov 2023
Viewed by 1464
Abstract
Contemporary Lithuania remains the only European country in which official feminine surnames indicate their bearers’ marital status, and this has been the object of fierce public debates over the past decade. Czechia and Slovakia grapple with surprisingly similar issues, even though Czech and [...] Read more.
Contemporary Lithuania remains the only European country in which official feminine surnames indicate their bearers’ marital status, and this has been the object of fierce public debates over the past decade. Czechia and Slovakia grapple with surprisingly similar issues, even though Czech and Slovak feminine surnames do not reveal marital status. Similar debates in Poland took place a century earlier, a fact which may indicate the possible direction of the changes in the three countries studied. The aim of this article is to present debates concerning feminine surnames in Lithuania from a wider perspective, regarding contemporary Czechia and Slovakia, as well as Poland in the interwar period, and to show from a wider Central and Eastern European perspective that, despite the obvious differences in naming patterns, Lithuanian discussions are not exceptional, and they are part of a larger tendency towards more freedom in the choice of official surname forms for women. It is evident that, although female surnames are inexorably embedded in the language systems of the countries in which they function, their future largely depends on extralinguistic factors such as societal attitudes. While feminine surnames in European states generally seem to be on the decline, the most controversial remain those types that reveal marital status or imply male possession of women, though pragmatic factors might play some role as well, particularly in the case of minorities. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Family Names: Origins, History, Anthropology and Sociology)
9 pages, 272 KiB  
Article
A 150-Year Debate over Surnames vs. Patronymics in Iceland
by Kendra Willson
Genealogy 2023, 7(4), 85; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy7040085 - 14 Nov 2023
Viewed by 1147
Abstract
Iceland stands out in today’s Europe due to the fact that most Icelanders use patronymics rather than surnames. However, a small percentage of Icelanders do have surnames inherited in a fixed form. The first surnames were adopted in the 17th and 18th centuries. [...] Read more.
Iceland stands out in today’s Europe due to the fact that most Icelanders use patronymics rather than surnames. However, a small percentage of Icelanders do have surnames inherited in a fixed form. The first surnames were adopted in the 17th and 18th centuries. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, increasing numbers of Icelanders were taking up surnames, often Danicized or Latinized versions of Icelandic patronymics or place names. The practice became controversial with the rise of the independence movement, which was closely connected to linguistic purism. The use of surnames in Iceland has been debated since the 19th century. Whereas the other Nordic countries introduced legislation requiring citizens to have surnames, Iceland went in the opposite direction, forbidding new surnames starting in 1925. However, the surnames that were already in use were allowed to remain in circulation. This created an inequality which has haunted Icelandic name law discourse since. Having a surname in Iceland has often been linked with social prestige, and surnames have been perceived as a limited good. Since the 1990s, the fraction of Icelanders with surnames has increased through immigration and some liberalizations in the rules regarding the inheritance of existing Icelandic surnames. In the name of gender equity, surnames can be inherited along any line, not only patrilineal. Since 1996, immigrants seeking Icelandic citizenship are no longer required to change their names, and their children can inherit their surnames. The category of millinöfn (middle name), surname-like names that are not inflected for gender, was introduced in the 1996 law; some Icelanders with millinöfn use them as surnames in daily life even if they officially have patronymics. Despite the expansion in eligibility to take surnames, the basic principle that no new Icelandic surnames are allowed remains in the law and remains a point of contention. Many of the same themes—individual freedom vs. the preservation of cultural heritage, national vs. international orientation, gender equity—have recurred in the discourse over more than a century, reframed in the context of contemporary cultural values at any given time. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Family Names: Origins, History, Anthropology and Sociology)
10 pages, 1166 KiB  
Article
Jewish Surname Changes (Sampling of Prague Birth Registries 1867–1918)
by Žaneta Dvořáková
Genealogy 2023, 7(4), 77; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy7040077 - 13 Oct 2023
Viewed by 2338
Abstract
The study focuses on changes of surnames among Czech and Moravian Jews. The changes are tracked until the start of the German occupation in 1939. The source material is comprised of Jewish birth registers from 1867 to 1918 from Prague, as this was [...] Read more.
The study focuses on changes of surnames among Czech and Moravian Jews. The changes are tracked until the start of the German occupation in 1939. The source material is comprised of Jewish birth registers from 1867 to 1918 from Prague, as this was the most populous Jewish community of the region. These records are part of fund No. 167 stored in the Czech National Archive. More than 17,000 Jewish children were born in Prague during this period and only 350 of them changed their surnames. Surnames were mostly changed by young men under the age of 30. A large wave of renaming occurred mainly at the beginning of the 1920s shortly after the formation of Czechoslovakia (1918). Renaming was part of the assimilation process but was not connected to conversion to Christianity. The main goal was the effort to remove names perceived as ethnically stereotypical, which could stigmatize their bearers (e.g., Kohn, Löwy, Abeles, Taussig, Goldstein, etc.). Characteristic of the new surnames was the effort to preserve the same initial letter from the original surname. The phenomenon is compared with the situation in neighboring countries (Germany, Hungary, and Poland). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Family Names: Origins, History, Anthropology and Sociology)
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28 pages, 1017 KiB  
Article
Surnames of Georgian Jews: Historical and Linguistic Aspects
by Alexander Beider
Genealogy 2023, 7(3), 68; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy7030068 - 20 Sep 2023
Viewed by 3929
Abstract
The article provides an analysis of several aspects of the corpus of surnames used by Jews who lived after the end of the Middle Ages in the territory that today corresponds to the Republic of Georgia. One section covers historical aspects: the earliest [...] Read more.
The article provides an analysis of several aspects of the corpus of surnames used by Jews who lived after the end of the Middle Ages in the territory that today corresponds to the Republic of Georgia. One section covers historical aspects: the earliest attestations and their exact status and the period when the use of surnames became stabilized. The next two sections discuss morphological aspects: the endings found in the surnames and historical, linguistic, and social explanations of the distribution observed, compound names, names with demonymic suffixes, and those based on hypocoristic forms of given names (a detailed coverage of methods of constructing such forms is also provided). In the remaining sections, the reader will find an analysis of phonetic peculiarities found in Georgian Jewish surnames, the types of surnames with their statistical distribution, as well as the description of surnames that were not created in Georgia but were brought as ready-made forms by Jews who migrated during the 19th–20th centuries to Georgia from other territories. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Family Names: Origins, History, Anthropology and Sociology)
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