In Romania,
like
in
most
of
Europe, a child
inherits his father's family name, and a wife takes her husband's last
name.
There are however exceptions and social pressure to follow this
tradition is
not particularly strong in most families.
For other uses, see Europe (disambiguation). ...
Until the 19th century, the names were primarily of the form "[given
name]
[father's name] [grandfather's name]". The few exceptions are usually
famous people or the nobility (boyars). The name reform introduced
around 1850,
had the names changed to a western style, most likely imported from
France,
consisting of a given name followed by a family name.
As such, the name is called prenume (French prénom),
while
the
family
name
is
called
nume or, when otherwise ambiguous, nume
de
familie ("family name"). Although not mandatory, middle names
(Romanian numele mic, literally, "small name") are common.
Historically, when the family name reform was introduced in the mid
19th
century, the default was to use a patronym, or a matronym when the father
was dead or unknown.
The typical derivation was to append the suffix -escu to the
father's
name, e.g. Anghelescu ("Anghel's child") and Petrescu
("Petre's child"). (The -escu seems to come both from Old Slavonic-ьскъ
and/or from Latin -iscum, thus being cognate with Italian -esco
and French -esque.) The other common derivation was to append
the suffix -eanu to the name of the place of origin, especially
when one came from
a different region, e.g. Munteanu ("from the mountains") and Moldoveanu
("from Moldova"). These uniquely Romanian suffixes strongly
identify ancestral nationality.
A patronymic is a personal name based on the name of ones father. ...A
patronymic is a personal name based on the name of ones father. ...Old
Slavonic may refer to: Old Church Slavonic language Common Slavonic
language
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pages that
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There are also descriptive family names derived from occupations,
nicknames,
and events, e.g. Botezatu ("baptised"), Barbu
("bushy bearded"), Prodan ("foster"), Bălan
("blond"), Fieraru ("smith"), Croitoru
("taylor").
Romanian family names remain the same regardless of the sex of the
person.
Although given names appear before family names in most Romanian
contexts,
official documents invert the order, ostensibly for filing purposes.
Correspondingly, Romanians often introduce themselves with their family
names
first, especially in official contexts, e.g. a student signing a test
paper in
school.
Romanians bearing names of non-Romanian origin often adopt Romanianised
versions of their ancestral surnames, such as Jurovschi for
Polish Żurowski,
which preserves the original pronunciation of the surname through
transliteration. In other cases, as with Romanians of Hungarian origin,
these
changes were often mandated by the state, as was the practice during
the period
of communist rule[9].