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A Survey for you: Traditional Carpatho-Rusyn Given Names

  • 06 May 2021 3:52 PM
    Reply # 10448805 on 9545409

    I've researched several of my maternal ancestries for a few years now and was fortunate to have located their villages, names, and traditions with a few twists here and there. ..their Surnames and villages were as followed: Koczo, Durkot(h) and Piros, all from Orosz-Ruszka, Zemplen, Austria Hungary (Ruske, Snina, Slovakia); Ratz (Racz) from Kis-Azar, Zemplen (Male Ozorovce, Slovakia); Milyo from  Baisko, Zemplen (Backov, Slovakia), and finally, Hricko from Margitfalu, Szepes (Margecany, Slovakia). 

    I did notice a few naming trends among the Koczo and Racz families that eventually carried over from Slovakia to America.  My great-great grandfather, Michael Koczo and his brother, Georgius Koczo whom they shared the same household, pretty much named their sons along the same consistency to some degree: Joannes, Georgius, Michael, Theodius, Basilius while their daughter's named varied: Anastasia, Helena, Maria, and Anna.  My other great-great grandfather, Josef Ratz's (Racz) family who came from Kis-Azar had consistent naming tradtions for a couple generations that carried over into America as well: Josef, or Joseph, George, Michael, Anna, and Maria.  Most of these names I had listed were the popular names that remained consistent among these two villages at the time. 

    One striking twist that I found between my great-great grandfather Michael Koczo and his brother, Georgius was that the both named their first male born, Joannes, which I would think would have been the name of their father given that it was consistent with the Rusyn tradition, per se.  However, both Michael and Georgius identified their father in each of their marriage record as Petro or Petrus Koczo and only one of them (Georgius) named his third born son, Petrus.

    I also found that my great-grandfather, Michael was the second born male, named after his father, my great-great grandfather and while in America, they named all their sons consistently: Joannes (my grandfather), Georgius, Michael, and their daughters were, Maria, Annie, Julia (after my great-grandmother's mother), Anna, and lastly, Suzanna (with two others still not identified yet). Those naming traditions did end, however, during my mother's generation as my mother and her three other sisters names did not follow any of their grandparents or aunts, and the same thing applied to the following generations.

    While scouring through these records from Ruske and Kis-Azar from the LDS films, I did find that these naming traditions were most consistent throughout these Rusyn / Greek Catholic villages for many families living there.  It was unclear if these traditions were consistent among the non Greek Catholic communities such as in another of my ancestors who came from Margecany, whom many were Roman Catholics.   

  • 31 December 2020 4:53 PM
    Message # 9545409
    Anonymous member (Administrator)

    It would make for a very interesting research project to see what naming traditions you have observed in your villages.    Names may be relevant for only your village and for a certain period of time.   From here we can assert whether or not generalizations can be made, such as those described at http://www.rusyn.com/crgiven.htm are .

    Please reply to this message and enclose the following information

    1. Village Name

    2. Years these names were in use

    3: Sons names, in order of birth and if they appear to be named after the father, father's father, mother's father or other relative

    4. Daughters, in order of birth.  (i.e., Mary, Anna, Helen as hypothesized).  

    5. Do these names apply only to your family, one or more generations?

    6. Have you looked through the complete set of books for this village and are these names and order a fair representation of the village at large?

    If you  can identify a tradition that was used in your family or in the village, this may help you identify "missing" family members, such as an infant or child that dies young.


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