Magyar News, 1993. szeptember-1994. augusztus (4. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1994-05-01 / 9. szám

300 other customers. The equipment for Lraining and maintaining the planes are state-of-the-art. The most modern computerized systems make it a leading operation in the area. The 20 employees are highly trained and their expertise is always helpful and at hand. I was considering trying out the flight simulator, but when I saw all the instruments, I shied away. I could push the wrong button and it might take off. I probably wouldn’t know how to land with it.

As I was leaving, I looked at András amongst the planes, and in his eyes 1 saw that he was content that a dream in Hungary became a reality in America.

Joseph F. Balogh

CHAMPIONS

When in Budapest last summer, I had need to phone a friend whose name was Nagy (translate—large, big, tall). I opened the Budapest phone directory. Surprise! There were 22 pages under the name listing of Nagy. Also included in the list was Nagyné (Mrs. Nagy). In four columns to a page there are approximately 240 names to a page. So multiply 22 x 240 = 5,280. This is just a Budapest listing, mind you. The number of people called Nagy for all of Hungary is probably mind-boggling. They are the champs of the phone book contest. Now the name Kis, Kish, Kiss (translatelittle, small, short) has only 12 pages. About 2,880. Sounds good. More tall people (big, too) live in Budapest than shorties. Just for curiosity I checked out a few of the more familiar Magyar names that popped into my head. So take Kovács (blacksmith). Wow, 20 pages = 4,800. Just a whisker behind Nagy. Well, it figures. The Hungary of yore was a people of herdsmen and horsemen and probably needed a lot of blacksmiths. There was also need for hardware to make wagons, gates, doors, etc. We turned to the name Szabó (tailor). Many pages, 19 in all. Counts to about 4,560. In the old days there were no boutiques so the Hungarians needed a lot of people to make clothes.

Now comes my clan, Varga. This includes 1/4 page of Vargha, the orginal spelling and pronounciation. So they want to be different in a sea of Vargó-s. And there are quite a few Vargó-s too. I turned to W. S ure enough there were a few Wargás too. Leaving them out, the count is still 11 3/4 pages, a total of2,820. The name Varga goes back to the nomad days of herds and horses too. Where there are catde there is leather. Those who cured and prepared the hidesand made clothes, shoes, tents, saddles, etc. were called Varghák. Now a Vargha (VARGA) is mostly a shoemaker, like the cipész who only makes shoes and the csizmadia who makes boots only.

Some more names. Farkas (wolf) has 7 pages = 1,680. T akács (weaver) has 4 pages = 960. Fazekas (potter) has 2 pages = 480. Kelemen has 2 pages = 480 (from the proper name Clement). Mostly I looked up names of friends to put it on a postcard as Trivia entertainment. 1 found only 100 Simkó-s. Eleven only Márky and Marki (my better half) and not even one Stiber, Sorry Joe Stiber.

Next time I’ll research to get to some names that must have a long list. Like Tóth (Slovak), Horváth (Croát), Német (German), Orosz (Russian), etc., etc. The first name of a family list usually was an Ádám. A popular name m Hungary. The old Hungarian saying “Adómtól kezdi!” - The beginning is from Adam. I think I’ve counted and written too much for the time being. Look me up in the phone book of Sun City West in Arizona.

Julius Varga Page 5

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