Hungarians typically selected names for their children from a rather short list. In most families a son was named for his father and a daughter for her mother. Other children were often named for grandparents or aunts or uncles. Often when a child died very young, that child’s name was later given to another baby.
Saints names were popular, and for boys, names of famous Hungarians especially kings. Church and civil records were often recorded in Latin so the names were listed in the Latin version.
Among the 54 direct ancestors identified in our family tree, the most popular name for girls was 3 for variations of Rosalie, Rózsa and Rosina.
Other popular girls names, with 2 each were; Anna, Katalin (Catherine), Erzsébet (Elizabeth), Eva, Julianna, Maria and Theresa (Teréz, Terézia).
Among the boys Joseph won with 4, listed in Hungarian as József, and in Latin as Josephus.
There were 3 named Gregory, listed as Gergely and Gregorius. Also 3 each of George (György, Georgius) and Zsigmond (Sigismundus).
The same name would appear on different sides of the family, in distant parts of the Kingdom of Hungary. Although all Gregorys were Edes, The Josephs came from areas that are now in Serbia, the Czech Republic and from Zala county in western Hungary.
Sometime I may try this exercise again with including aunts, uncles and cousins. But for now, here you have the A to Z of the Édes -Orbán-Kancsal-Nagy ancestors.
You are so fortunate to have your mother’s book (that you mentioned in your “About” statement). It certainly gave you a head start in researching your roots.
How interesting to see your lines including such a limited range of given names. I’ve seen that limitation in Irish records, too, while researching my husband’s family roots. I struggle so much more in attempting to decipher my own father’s Polish roots, and seeing name varieties such as Zsigmond remind my of my attempts at figuring out the connections between the many children of some of these Polish families. Sometimes, I get the distinct feeling that I am researching not one, but two people with that same name and identity! Perhaps, with early childhood deaths, and re-use of given names, that may just be what’s happening!
I found your blog today through a mention at GeneaBloggers. Best wishes to you as you continue your research and sharing the results via your blog!
Welcome to Geneabloggers. This is a great blogging community. I’ve been a member for about seven months.
Regards, Grant
http://thestephensherwoodletters.blogspot.com
Delighted to see someone writing a blog focused on Eastern European genealogy! Welcome to GeneaBloggers and best of luck with your new venture.
I found your post to be very interesting. The re-use of names in my husband’s genealogy makes things difficult, too. My own family tree is a little easier to figure out, but his family had grandpas, brothers, uncles, male cousins, etc. all having the same short list of names (Dennis and Joel and a few others). Add in the changing of the spelling of their surname (McClendon) over the centuries, it is quite an adventure. It makes it very hard to figure out who is who!
The names that show up frequently in my family tree are the female names of Maggie, Rose/Rosa, and Elizabeth. I have a great-great-grandmother and her daughter named Maggie on my daddy’s side and a great-great-grandmother and grandmother on my mama’s side also named Maggie. Now, my daughter is also added to the Maggie list. 🙂
I enjoyed reading your post and found you through Geneabloggers. I am following you via the Feedly reader. Best wishes to you on your genealogy adventure.