Romanian surnames are hereditary last names that originate from the Eastern European country of Romania, as well as in neighboring Moldova and the Romanian diaspora in Europe, North America and Australia, especially Italy, Spain, Ukraine, and Germany, where million of Romanian and Moldovan emigrants have settled. These surnames can also be found in indigenous Romanian-speaking populations in Serbia (Vojvodina), Ukraine (Bukovina and Odessa) as well among the Aromanians, an ethnic group native to the southern Balkans who speak Aromanian, an Eastern Romance macro-language very closely related to Modern Romanian and considered by some linguists a dialect of the Romanian language. These surnames can be a valuable resource for genealogical research, as they often provide clues about an individual's family history, occupation, and place of origin, in a country whose borders have changed dramatically since the Middle Ages. Understanding the history and conventions surrounding Romanian surnames can help researchers uncover new information about their ancestors and build a more complete family tree.
History of Romanian surnames
The use of surnames in Romania dates back to the Middle Ages like in most of Europe when people began adopting last names to distinguish themselves from others with the same given name. Last names were initially derived from various sources, such as occupations, personal characteristics, ethnic origin or geographic locations. As time went on, these surnames became hereditary, passed down from one generation to the next. However, until the 19th century, the names were primarily of the form "[given name] + [father's name] + [grandfather's name]", with the few exceptions usually taken by the Boierul, the Romanian landowner nobility known in English as Boyars. The name reform introduced around 1850 made hereditary surnames mandatory, adopting the western standard for names. However, some of the oldest Romanian surnames are related to the Cumans, a Turkic nomadic people who arrived to the Carpathian Alps in the early 13th century; some Cuman-related surnames are Coman, Comanescu and Comaneci.[1]
Spelling variations for Romanian surnames
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The borders of what today is Romania have changed many times throughout history; the modern Romanian state was founded in 1862, when the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia formally unified into the Romanian United Principalities, a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire. The Western part of the country, Transylvania, was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until the end of World War I, when it was incorporated into Romania. On the Eastern part of the country, Bessarabia (today Moldova) was separated from the rest of the Principality of Moldova and annexed to the Russian Empire in 1859, following the end of the Crimean War. Later, the Banat region was divided between Romania, Hungary and Yugoslavia after World War I,[2] and in World War II, Romania lost Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina to the Soviet Union, and Northern Transylvania to Hungary, with the remaining territory under Romanian sovereignty being reduced after the war, by ceding the Southern Dobrudja to Bulgaria.[3]This fragmentation of the Romanian-inhabited regions into different states with different spelling conventions (German and Hungarian in Austro-Hungary, Romanian in Romania, Serbo-Croatian in the former Yugoslavia, and Russian in the Russian Empire and later the Soviet Union) causes some surnames to be spelled very differently in historical documents, even if they belong to the same person but were issued by different authorities before and after a change in the borders of Romania; for example, the surname Guțu is spelled in Ukrainian and Russian Гуцу (Gutsu), whereas in German is spelled Huzu and in Hungarian and Serbo-Croatian might be spelled Gucu and when immigrating to an English-speaking country is spelled Gutu as the letter ț is not used there. These spelling differences must be taken into account when researching a Romanian surname.
Romanian naming conventions
Like in most of Europe, Romanian surnames typically follow a few common conventions, with children taking the father's surname, and wives adopting their husband's surname. In cases where paternity is not established, the child takes the mother's surname. The law however is flexible,[4] allowing for the couple to choose their family name, and thus the surname they would use for all their children. Typically it is the father's surname (in keeping with the tradition), but parents may also opt to use the mother's surname; or for both of the spouses to have both surnames; or for one spouse to use a double-barrelled name. Romanian law does not require any of the spouses to change their surname, but in practice, in most families both spouses will have the husband's original surname. If parents have different surnames, a child will have either the surname of one of them, or both surnames. Romanian surnames remain the same regardless of the sex of the person. After a divorce, the spouse who changed the surname (usually the wife) will generally revert to the original surname. However, the married surname can be retained, either with the consent of both spouses, or by court order.
Romanian surnames of ethnic origin
Some Romanian surnames are related to the ethnic origin of the bearer. like Rusu, meaning "the Russian""; Muscalu, an ancient name in the Romanian language used to denote Muscovites (people from Moscow, i.e., Russians); Cazacu, "Cossack population"; Sarbu, meaning "the Serbian"; Tataru, from the Tatar people, the umbrella term for different Turkic ethnic groups living between Crimea, and the Volga river basin in Russia; interestingly enough, there are separate surnames indicating a Turkish origin, like Turcu and Turculet. [1]
Romanian surnames of occupational origin
Romanian surnames of patronymic origin
A majority of Romanian surnames are patronymic, meaning they are derived from the father's first name or occupation. For example, the surname Constantinescu means "son of Constantin," with "Constantin" being a common Romanian first name; Romanian patronymic surnames are created by adding the suffixes -așcu or -escu, meaning "child of". Other common Romanian surnames of patronymic origin are:
Romanian surnames based on a given name
Some Romanian surnames evolved from a given name, such as Olah (which in turn means "Romanian" in the Hungarian language) or Roman, whereas Vlase, Vlahopol or Valahul are derived from Vlah, the exonym used from the Middle Ages until the Modern Era to refer to speakers of Romanian language and its dialects living in the Balkans and north of the Danube river.[1] Today, this name is used to refer to speakers of the Eastern Romance languages (all close to modern Romanian) who live south of the Danube River, in Albania, Bulgaria, northern Greece, North Macedonia, and eastern Serbia. Other Romanian surnames based on a given name are:
A few of them are based on female given names, like Mărgărit.
Romanian surnames of toponymic origin
Some surnames are also derived from geographic locations, like for instance Sasu and Neamțu, which can indicate the bearer descends from the early settlers from Saxony,[1] as well as Ardelean, which comes from Erdély, the Hungarian name from Transylvania.[5] Other Romanian surnames indicating a regional origin are Moldoveanu (from Moldova), Mureșanu (from Mureș), Sadoveanu (from Sadova) and Țăranu (someone from a village). Many toponymic surnames have the suffixes -anu and -an, both denoting location.
Romanian surnames of descriptive origin
Popular Romanian Surnames
A majority of the most popular Romanian surnames are derived from given names associated with the Romanian Orthodox calendar of saints:[6]
- Popa, meaning "priest"
- Popescu, meaning "son of the priest" (Priests are allowed to marry in the Orthodox Church)
- Radu, a given name meaning "glad"
- Dumitru, the Romanian form of the given name Demetrius
- Stan, a shortening of the Romanian form of the given name of Slavic origin Stanislav
- Stoica, meaning "impassive"
- Gheorge, the Romanian form of the given name George
- Mihai, the Romanian form of the given name Michael
- Matei, the Romanian form of the given name Matthew
- Ciobanu, meaning "shepherd"
- Ionescu, meaning "son of Ion"
Geographic Locations for Romanian Surnames
Romanian surnames can be found throughout the country, with some regional variations, like the surnames Maghiar, Ungureanu, and Secui, all indicating a distant Hungarian origin, as well as Trotu, which refers to an ancient Slovak origin. All of these surnames are found in people from Transylvania.[1]
Celebrities with Romanian surnames
- Nadia Comăneci, 5-time Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast and the first ever gymnast to achieve a perfect score
- Sebastian Stan, actor, best known for his role of Winter Soldier in the Marvel Cinematic Universe media franchise
- John Zachary Delorean, founder of the DeLorean Motor Company
- Angela Gheorghiu, soprano
See also
Explore more about Romanian surnames
- Last names on MyHeritage
- Historical records from Romania on MyHeritage
- Historical records from Moldova on MyHeritage
- National Archives of Romania
- National Archives of Moldova
- Romanian Genealogy Society
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Romanian Surnames. Radio Romania International
- ↑ How the borders of the Bulgaria and Romania changed during the Middle Ages
- ↑ Treaty of Paris
- ↑ Art. 282 Noul cod civil Alegerea numelui de familie Formalităţile pentru încheierea căsătoriei Încheierea căsătoriei
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Romanian Surnames. Behind the name
- ↑ CELE MAI COMUNE NUME DE FAMILIE DIN ROMANIA