In a message dated 2/20/2006 9:55:33 PM Eastern Standard Time, southwick@voyager.net writes: > when communism reigned in Hungary people with surnames ending in "y" > changed to "i", as the "y" denoted royality and they did not want the communists to > know who was of royal bloodlines Dear Tina: My mother-in-law's maiden name was NAGY, which ends in a y and means small, I believe. I understand that NAGY is the most common name in Hungary. It would seem that people bearing the most common name would not descend from royalty. I don't mean to dispute what you wrote, but to say that there are probably some exceptions. What do you think? Actually, my mother-in-law is descended from GHIKA princes who ruled Moldavia and Wallachia, parts of present-day Romania, off and on over several past centuries, and this descent melds with the NAGY line three generations back, but the royal name is GHIKA, not NAGY. The GHIKAs were minor princes, though, not full-blown royalty like the Hapsburgs, because they ruled at the whim of the Turkish Porte. I have noticed that some online lists of European royalty do not even mention the GHIKAs. Jayne perllan987@aol.com

I don't think that Everyone changed their surname ending from "y" to "i"... Here is what my friend Laci (Fuzi Laszlo) living in Budapest wrote to me a little over a year ago explaining the surnames: "The difference between Fuzi and Fuzy is only in written, the surname itself is the same. In Hungary a big part of the names are ending with i or y. Mostly of these names means that person is from the place which comes before the "i" or "y". For example the name Pecsi Andor is in English: Andor of Pecs (Pecs is a city in Baranya County), or our present prime minister is Medgyessy Peter in English: Peter of Medgyes (a shortened name of a village), or in the history of the middle age the name of Hunyadi Janos, who beat the Turkish army at Nandorfehervar (today it is Beograd, the capital of Serbia/Montenegro - the former Yugoslavia) is: John of Hunyad (it's a wonderful castle at the southern former Great-Hungary, now in Rumania) As I know the name Fuzi is not like those above, because Fuz does not equal to any settlement. It could have a different story. Let's go further: generally in Hungary before WW2 the noble families wrote their names ending with "y" instead of "i" (In the case where the name normally would had ended with "i") So if their name did not normally end with "i", like for example Szabo Istvan (where Szabo means Taylor, Istvan is Steve), then they made a pre-surname mentioning their local landed property-place, like: Nagyvarady Szabo Istvan. This name shows that this man is from Nagyvarad, he is a noble and his original name is Szabo Istvan. My great-grandfather's name was Kapuvari Fuzy Menyhert. His first name Menyhert is an old Hungarian name, the "y" in Fuzy and the pre-surname (Kapuvari Fuzy = Fuzy of Kapuvar) are signals of his noble ranking." I hope this helps. I typed it exactly as he had written it to me. Tina ----- Original Message ----- From: Perllan987@aol.com To: HUNGARY-L@rootsweb.com Sent: Tuesday, February 21, 2006 11:15 AM Subject: Re: [HUNGARY-L] Names and royal descent In a message dated 2/20/2006 9:55:33 PM Eastern Standard Time, southwick@voyager.net writes: > when communism reigned in Hungary people with surnames ending in "y" > changed to "i", as the "y" denoted royality and they did not want the communists to > know who was of royal bloodlines Dear Tina: My mother-in-law's maiden name was NAGY, which ends in a y and means small, I believe. I understand that NAGY is the most common name in Hungary. It would seem that people bearing the most common name would not descend from royalty. I don't mean to dispute what you wrote, but to say that there are probably some exceptions. What do you think? Actually, my mother-in-law is descended from GHIKA princes who ruled Moldavia and Wallachia, parts of present-day Romania, off and on over several past centuries, and this descent melds with the NAGY line three generations back, but the royal name is GHIKA, not NAGY. The GHIKAs were minor princes, though, not full-blown royalty like the Hapsburgs, because they ruled at the whim of the Turkish Porte. I have noticed that some online lists of European royalty do not even mention the GHIKAs. Jayne perllan987@aol.com