Névtani Értesítő (Dec 2012)
Zsidó személynevek és névmagyarosítás a 19. század végi magyar élclapokban
Abstract
Jewish personal names and the adoption of Hungarian family names in the late 19th-century Hungarian humour magazines This paper examines the Jewish personal names found in the 1898 volume of the antisemitic humour magazine entitled Herkó Páter [‘Father Herkó’], and presents contemporary judgements about the adoption of Hungarian family names. In the investigation, the author compares her previous observations based on relevant name stocks gained from two non-antisemitic humour magazines (Borsszem Jankó [‘Tom Thumb’] and Üstökös [‘The Comet’]) with the results of her present enquiry into Israelite names. The author points out certain similarities in the naming strategies adopted in the antisemitic and non-antisemitic humour magazines: individual names of biblical origin, family names of similar types, and identical elements in names are observed in both types of magazines. However, some characteristic differences are also demonstrated: in Herkó Páter, there are fewer multi-element family names and surnames containing Yiddish-German elements; telling names – often having scornful meanings in the other two magazines – appear less frequently, and so family names used in Herkó Páter usually sound much less offensive. At the same time, the attitude towards the adoption of Hungarian family names in Herkó Páter – in contrast with the judgement expressed in the above mentioned other magazines – is undoubtedly negative.
