Imiennictwo Żydów białostockich w latach 1886-1939

Abstract

The names given to the Jews in Białystok were basically those of Old Hebrew and German ethymology. The most popular names among the Jews in the studied period were the following: for men - Mojżesz, Abram, Jakub, Hersz etc.; for women - Sara, Chaja, Chana, Szejna etc. The shaping of the Jewish antroponimie system is closely associated with the history of the nation, that is its life in the Diaspora in various parts of Europe and elswhere. As it seems, the main influence on the first names of the Białystok Jews was exerted by three languages : German, Russian and Polish. The influence of these languages was manifested in various ways : 1) there was an influence of both official language and colloquial speech. 2) the Białystok Jews introduced to their antroponimie system names used by Germans, Poles, Russians and Belorussians; 3) calking the names and introducing appellatives of the given language: in this way variants of names were created expressing the same contents, but different in sound, for example Cypora (Hebr.) - Frajda (German), Golda (German) - Zlata (Slav.), Brajna (German Braune) - Czerna (Slav.), Bella (Bejla) (Ital.) - Krasna (Slav.) 4) from the neighbouring nations Jews to ok over the habit of applying diminutives to children's names through endings and suffixes (compare suffix -el of German origin in names Berel, Herszel, next to Ber, Hersz; suffixes -ek, -ko known in the Polish language occur in names Berek, Icko; suffix -ka, used to construct a diminutive of masculine names in Belorussians and Russian, can be found in name Biszka, Hercka; feminine names are most frequently put inte diminutive with the suffix -ka ; Bejlka, Esterka, Tamarka etc.; 5) public registers include also diminutives of names popular in the studies period typical for Poles, Russians and Belorussians as well as Anglo-Saxons : Sasza, Tania, Bronia, Jadzia, and Betti, Polli (next to Pola), Fanni (next to Fania); 6) obvious influence of Polish and Russian can be observed also at the change of finał sound -e into -a as well as -el into -la in women's names (Bejle - Bejla, Broche - Brocha, Brajdel - Brajndla, Ejdel - Ejdla). The collection of antroponims of the Białystok Jews testifies to the chaos governing their antroponimie system. No other national-religious group in Białystok introduced to public registers so many diminutives, hypocoristic and transformed names. This situation is deplored by the authors of the Register of Jewish Names who, attempting to put some order into the system, intructed rabbis and officials „to watch over the spelling and transcription of names in Polish". Adoption of name from the neighbouring nations by the Białystok Jews on one hand enriched the antroponimie system; on the other hand, however, the existence of several variations of one name, not always sounding well from the point of view of the aesthetic values of a given language, caused the owners of these names a lot of problems in non-Jewish environment. Some of these names entered Polish language undergoing apellative processes, and obtained - usually pejorative - meaning (e.g. chaja, icek, srul, ślojma).