Names of Property Owners in Northern Hungary, 1427

by Kolosvari Arpadne Julia (Julia P. Szent-Györgyi), © 2008.

The following data come from Engel Pál: Kamarahaszna-összeírások 1427-ból (Akadémiai kiadó, Budapest: 1989). This is an annotated edition of a primary source, namely, the five surviving booklets detailing the collection of a royal property tax in 1427. [1] The booklets were written up by county: Abaúj, Gömör, Sáros, Torna, and Ung. These counties cover an area which is mostly in modern Slovakia, though parts of Ung county are in Ukraine now, and 131 of the mentioned towns and villages are within Hungary's modern boundaries.

The documents are written in Latin, and all five booklets follow the same format: the county is divided into "circuits" (reambulatio), and after giving the name of the circuit judge (iudicis or iudicis nobilium, Hungarian "szolgabíró"), the scribe gives a list of items consisting of a placename, the name of the owner of property there, and the number of units assessed in that place under his name. [2] Because of this format, most of the names are in Latin genitive (possessive) case. The places are listed in no particular order, except for sections of Ung county, which show some effort to sort places by property owner. [3]

Notation: square brackets around a period spelling of a name (or part of a name) are reproduced from my source; I believe they indicate editorial expansion of an abbreviation or unreadable section. If a modern Hungarian name is in square brackets, it means the name is not in use modernly (or not with the same gender). Latin nominatives in square brackets indicate the expected fully-Latinized form of names which don't really look Latinized in the data.

Contents

• Name Patterns
• Masculine Given Names
• Feminine Names
• Patronymic Bynames
• Descriptive Bynames
• Locative Bynames
• Undeciphered Bynames

Name Patterns

The following are the most common broad patterns of names found in this set of documents.

Other patterns include those where the taxpayer is not identified by name, for example (Nagbrezna) Pazkasie ... (Kysbrezna) eiusdem "(Greater Brezna) Pazkasia's ... (Lesser Brezna) the same's" (64 examples, 5%); specifically feminine taxpayers such as relicte Jacobi "Jacob's widow's" or domine Cristine "lady Christina's" (57, 4%); and given names with multiple bynames, such as Petri filii Sebastiani de Belse "of Peter son of Sebastian of Belse" (7 examples, all but one of them circuit judges; 0.5%). Note that in this last pattern, all the examples are of the form GXdL, where X is D, B, (f)G, or P.

Key:

• G: given name in Latin genitive case (e.g. Georgii "George's")
• L: Hungarian placename
• B: Hungarian byname (e.g. Cinege "titmouse")
• D: Latin description (either an office or title like prioris "prior's" or a translated byname like magni "the greater's")
• P: Hungarian patronymic (father's name)
• f: filii "son's"
• d: de "of"
• de eadem: roughly, "of the same (place)"
• eiusdem: "as before, see previous item"

Special Note on Feminine Name Patterns: Of the 1300 or so items in the data, only about 60 belong to women, and only 10 of them name the woman in question. Of these ten, six are given the title domine "lady's", one is described as relicte "widow's", and three are listed with just the lady's given name. Most of the remaining women are listed using some version of the formula relicte [husband's name]: rG (21), rGX (25), and even (in one instance) rB.

Masculine Given Names, sorted by frequency

I counted each property owner (as identified by the editor in the index) only once, to prevent the richer landowners' names from skewing the numbers. I did keep track of the number of occurrences of each given name, and of the frequency of each variant spelling. The first column gives the modern Hungarian form of the name, and the next one is the most probable or usual Latin nominative form.

The following each occurred as the name of a single individual.

Feminine Names

Four feminine given names occur in the data, each as the name of a single individual: Kathkow, modern Hungarian Katkó, a diminutive of Katalin, Latin nominative Catherina; Cristine, modern Krisztina, Latin nominative Cristina; Marthe (twice) and Marte (once), modern Márta, Latin nominative Martha; and Pascasye, Pazkase, Pazkasie, Pazkasye, or Paskhasye, which the editor translates as Paska. [j]

Based on other contemporary documents, the editor gives names for a few women who are mentioned in the data only by description or relationship (usually as relicte X "X's widow's"). These are: Anna (three individuals, Latin Anna), Dorottya (one person, Latin Dorothea), and Margit (one person, Latin Margaretha).

Patronymic Bynames

Most of the names occurring as patronymics (father's names) occur also as given names, but there are examples of what Kázmér Miklós categorizes as "old secular" names, most of which went out of use during the 1300s. The first column below gives the relevant (modern Hungarian) header name from Kázmér's Régi Magyar családnevek szótára (Dictionary of Old Hungarian Family Names).

The following each occurred once. Names in parentheses are the relevant (modern Hungarian) headwords in Kázmér. Adfya (Ad), filii Anthoni (Antal), filii Blasii (Balázs), filii Beke (Beke), Bewkes (Benkes), Bodou (Bodó), Boni (Bon, short for Bonifác), Bonch (Bonc), Ders (Derzs), Dettricy (Detre), filii Dominici (Domonkos), filii Egidii (Egyed), Farkas (Farkas "wolf"), Forgach (Forgács), filii Georgii (György), Jwga ([k]), Kompolth (Kompolt), Makow (Makó, dim. of Makarius), filii Mathyus (Mátyus), filii Nicolai (Miklós), filii Petri (Péter), Vyd (Vid), filii Wylhelmi (Vilmos).

Descriptive Bynames

The following Hungarian bynames describe some aspect of the bearer (or an ancestor of his; some of these may be inherited). Some of them can also be patronymics, usually based on "old secular" names. The first column is the (modern Hungarian) byname as given by Engel in the index of landowners, and the third column is derivation information from Kázmér under that heading (or under a cross-reference).

It's a stretch to consider them names, really, but the following Latin words occur as descriptions accompanying a given name. Both the given names (represented here as G) and the descriptions are in Latin genitive case. (In the last item, condam is a misspelling of Latin quondam 'formerly'.)

In addition, the following Latin titles or positions occur alone or with non-personal names (usually with placenames: abbatis de Sceplak, civitatis Cassa, episcopi Agriensis, etc.): abbatis 12 times (4 individual entities; "abbot's"), capituli 3 (1, "chapter's"), civitatis 1 ("of the citizens"), despotis 7 (2, "governor [of Serbia]'s"), dominorum 61 (10, "of the lords"), episcopi 3 (2, "bishop's"), heremitarum 1 ("of the anchorites"), nobilium 28 (23, "of the nobles"), and prepositi 26 (5, "provost's"). There are also ten mentions of the king and queen, none of them by name: domine regine 2, regine 2, regis 6.

Locative Bynames

Engel's placename index lists nearly 1300 towns where tax was collected. Analyzing their names is beyond the scope of this article; I have restricted myself instead to listing the places which occur more than once in locative bynames of taxpayers. (A locative byname is based on the name of a place, and identifies where the person came from, where he lives, or where he owns property.) The modern placenames in the first column are based on the modernized names found in the index of property owners. For those places that appear in the placename index, I've noted the relevant county or counties (by initial: Abaúj, Gömör, Sáros, Torna, Ung).

Undeciphered Bynames

For completeness, the following are the fourteen bynames (27 occurrences, 2%) which I have been unable to decipher with any certainty. Names in parentheses are the forms (if any) found in the index of property owners. All but Bebek and its variants [m] occur for a single individual: Akor (Akor); Bako (Bakó); Bebek 2, Bebuk, Bubek 4, Bwbek 3, filii Bebek (Bebek); Bodolo (Bodoló); Bonch; filii Buken; filii Fykche; Kecher 2, Kekcher 2 (Kecer); Koporch (Koporcs); Lanchelath (Lancelát); Ozolch (Osolt); Sor (Szor); Vidar (Vidar); Zobona (Szobonya).

Notes

[1] The tax was called in Latin lucri camare "profit of the chamber", since it went directly to the royal treasury (called Kamara in Hungary up to the 19th century). The tax was assessed according to the number of "portals" or "gates" (Latin porta) belonging to a particular person. It didn't matter if two or more houses used one gate, or if one house had more than one gate.

[2] The use of the masculine pronoun is not accidental: only 5% of the property owners are women, all but two of them identified as widows - and one of the exceptions is the queen.

[3] Engel (the editor) hypothesizes that the random order is a result of the method of data collection, which probably involved some sort of improvised record at the scene of tax collection (perhaps slips of paper, perhaps even sticks of wood with the information carved onto them using the old Hungarian runic alphabet). The booklets are all in one scribe's handwriting, and appear to have been written up as a continuous task, with an eye toward permanence and presentability.

[a] Kázmér s.n. Sinka: < Sinka ~ Simka hypocoristic (shortened form of Simon, or possibly Simjén < Lat. Simeon, old ecclesiastic personal name + -ka diminutive suffix).

[b] Engel treats Frank as a different name from Ferenc (Franciscus); two landowners are named as the former, one as the latter.

[c] Kázmér s.n. Erne: < Erne ~ ? Ernye old secular personal name. Engel notes that this name was written in error for Emerici.

[d] Kázmér s.n. Herke notes that Henrik had a variant Herrik.

[e] Kázmér s.n. Józsa indicates that this can be a pet name for either Joseph or Johannes. Modernly, Józsa has changed genders: it's now used as a feminine counterpart of József "Joseph".

[f] Kázmér s.n. Majos indicates that this is a variant of Moses (through the form Moyses, shortened to Mojs ~ Majs). It's not uncommon as a patronymic.

[g] Kázmér s.n. Gyula: < Gyula old secular personal name. As a patronymic, it's usually spelled Gyula or Gywla, or sometimes Giula. In 12th-13th century documents, it appears as Giula, Gyula, Gula, and Iula. Its occurrence here as a given name is very surprising: like most "native" (non-Christian) names, Gyula went out of fashion during the 1300s, and wasn't revived until the 1800s. The name is modernly sometimes translated Julius.

[h] Ladó says Hungarian Sándor derives from an Italian or German diminutive of Alexander. The equivalence is not in question, but I have been unsuccessful so far in locating an example of a man identified both ways, or even of Alexander in use later than the 13th century.

[i] Kázmér says Tivadar derives from Latin Theodorus. Ladó concurs, and adds the derivation sequence Teodor, Tiodor, Tiadar, Tivadar.

[j] This is not a name that made it into the modern Hungarian name pool, and Kázmér doesn't mention it as a feminine name. (This individual is clearly a woman: she's called domina 'lady' several times.) Kázmér s.n. Paska: < Paska ~ Páska prob. hypocoristic (from Paszkál ~ Lat. Paschalis old ecclesiastic personal name's earlier Paskál ~ ? Páskál variant). For a nominative form, my best guess is to replace the final 'e' with 'a': Pascasia and variants.

[k] The editor identifies this person as the son of Juga, from Slavonia.

[m] According to Kiss Lajos, there is (modernly) a hill called Bebek in the Bükk mountains, between the Szamos and Kraszna rivers (near modern-day Romania, I think), and another peak called Bebek-tető in Gömör county (modern-day Slovakia). He derives the placename from a personal name recorded in 1325: Dominicum, dictum Bebek, and says the personal name is of Slavic origin. Whatever its origins, the name is clearly functioning in these records as an inherited family name. It was a prosperous family: it's represented by four individual property owners, along with many items belonging to the family as a whole.

Bibliography

Engel Pál: Kamarahaszna-összeírások 1427-ból. Part of a series: Új Történelmi Tár: Fontes Minores ad Historiam Hungariae Spectantes. Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 1989.

Fehértói Katalin: Árpád-kori személynévtár (1000-1301). Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 2004.

Kázmér Miklós: Régi Magyar családnevek szótára, XIV-XVII. század. Magyar Nyelvtudományi Társaság, Budapest, 1993.

Kiss Lajos: Földrajzi nevek etimológiai szótára. 2 volumes: A-K, L-Zs. Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 1997.

Ladó János: Magyar utónévkönyv. Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 1984.