Jewish Name Magyarization in Hungary

Abstract

This article presents the surname changes of the Jews as formal acts which served as a means of assimilation, and which resulted in a characteristic phenomenon of the history of Jewish communities as well as of the surrounding society of the majority. Surname changes as the sign of forming cultural and national identities were used for an individual crossing of a conceptual borderline between ‘they’ and ‘us’ in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Hungarian society. The paper is based on research in different fields of scholarly studies, applying multi- and interdisciplinary standpoints. It focuses on the Name Magyarization process, but also makes comparisons with the name changes of the Jews in other countries. It applies different sources to investigate the social, historical, cultural and ideological background, context and the characteristics of the nominal assimilation of the Jews. It analyzes their names as ethnic symbols, and presents the reasons that made the surname changes so typical for them. It presents the assimilation process of Jewish persons and their personal names in general, and the history of their surname changes in Hungary. The characteristic features of the surnames chosen and their typical motivations are also analyzed, in comparison with those of the non-Jews in the country.