A Békés Megyei Múzeumok Közleményei 2. (Békéscsaba, 1973)

†Banner József: Elek község német személynevei

German personal names in the village of Elek JÓZSEF BANNER A study is made of the personal names of the German population indigenous to the village of Elek in the county of Békés for the period between 1734 and 1945. The year 1734 was chosen as the starting-point of the study for the reason that accurate parish registers detailing the inhabitants of Elek are available from that time. The article deals with naming as the active manifestation form of general taste and of the intellectual aspect of a community (christian names, nicknames, and Magyarization of surnames), but it also gives an account of surnames with regard to their frequency. The author distinguishes three periods in the history of Elek, on the basis of the composition of the inhabitants: (1) the Elek of the Middle Ages, which was destroyed after the affair of Gyula (1566); (2) the Harruchern-period Elek. Frank settlers moved to the site of the Middle-Age village in two waves (1724 and 1744), and founded the still existing village; (3) the development of the „four-nationality" Elek after 1946. The article examines the second of these three periods ; the registers indicate that in this period, for a century following the settlements, the population of the village became firmly established, and as regards the farm-working inhabitants this had already happened by the end of the 18th century. The 19th century settlers pursued trades or other middle-class occupations, and became assimilated with the indigenous inhabitants within one or two generations. The most frequent surnames at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century were all of 18th century origin. The part dealing with the christian names uses the data in the registers to analyse the frequencies of occurrence of male and female names and their interrelation in the 18th

— 19th centuries, and refers to the factors influencing the use of the names. The investigations concerning nicknames extend to the development of the names and their social role. The author systematizes the nicknames and discusses their different types. He turns to linguistic questions of the use of names, and finally to the problem of the Magyarization of names too. 215