So, I’ve been living in Hungary for 20 years almost (and became a citizen not six months ago). Been here awhile. I’m a university teacher by trade so I see and meet a lot of young adults, and I’ve noticed some naming trends have changed since I got here.
Specifically, a couple of older, “historical” names are popping up again on my roster. For example, I’ve seen more Hunors these days (Hunor is the name of the son of Magog that supposedly is the progenitor of the Huns, and of course, the Huns figure strongly in Hungarian origin stories; weirdly, his brother, Magor, never has anyone named after him). I also have seen some Álmoses and Emeses from time to time (Álmos was the leader of the Hungarians before they made it to the Carpathian Basin; Emese was his mother).
I also see Géza creeping back into usage (Géza being the father of King István I (Stephen I, who became the first king and also Christianized Hungary)). I even saw one kid named Vajk (the birth name of King Stephen, but I’ve never seen it again and I wonder what sort of parents he had). I don’t know WHY these names are back in vogue but I’m starting to see them.
These are all, by the way, names from somewhere between 800s-1000s.
Any really old names making a comeback?
12 comments
Here in Italy there has been a resurgence of roman and ancient Greek names recently. I have seen kids with names like Enea, Atena, Elettra, Diana.
Until a few years ago aside some classics like Cesare o Giulia, people avoided names that sounded too Roman because it was seen as a far right thing.
In Sweden we are back to Viking names but that isnt that weird, when most countries had surge of nationalism in 1900 , a lot of old names came back. Now people are naming their kids after great-grandparents who had those names.
From personal observation, in Greece it has become the fashion to choose ancient names for children. It was always the case that you would hear ancient names like Helen, Alexander, Odysseus, Penelope, etc., but now it seems that more and more people are consciously making a choice to go with such names (from an expanded repertoire – for example, Danae, Chryseis, etc.) rather than naming their children after their grandparents, as had been the tradition, or choosing names that are more closely identified with the church.
All of them. All Greek ancient names have made a comeback. From the most common like Leonidas and Danae to the most obscure thirteenth nymph daughter of some god who got knocked up by another dog and married the king of a random city whatever.
New names pop up all the time. I work with kids and I’ve studied Ancient Greek and every time I come across names that I’ve literally never heard of.
Irish language names go through phases of becoming popular. Although they often then get mangled a bit when people try to anglisize the name later on (please don’t).
Traian (Trajan), Ovidiu (Ovid), Aurel (Aurelius), Cornel (Cornelius), Liviu (Livius), Claudiu, Marius, Marian, Adrian, Octavian, Cezar, Iulian, Florin/Florian, Valeriu/Valerian, Flavius, Ciprian, Silviu, Tiberiu, Anton, Sebastian, Laurentiu, Valentin are all pretty common first names in Romania and of Roman/Latin origin.
Some common female names of the same origin: Octavia, Flavia, Claudia, Cornelia, Iulia, Valeria, Valentina, Florina, Camelia, Laura, Livia, Lavinia, Victoria, Alina, Florentina, Adriana, Silvia, etc.
We also have a lot of names of Greek origin.
They were always used and still are, some more than others.
Personally, I haven’t noticed. Nowadays, many 19th-century names seem to be dying out (“noble” and “bourgeois” names, literally imported from France at certain times, fit here), as do mNy German names in the border regions.
Old Slavic names have remained relatively popular since the Romantic Revival, with some more so than others – they don’t really come as a surprise, although some of them are indeed unusual.
A few old fashioned Catalan boys names seem to have made a comeback over the last 20 years: Arnau, Blai, Cosme, Oriol etc
I feel like Nordic and specifically Swedish names are becoming more popular in Germany. I’ve seen a couple of kids named Jonte, Henja, Imke, Milla, Ilva/Ylva, etc.
Other than that, old-timey names like Peter are back, which I associate more with the generation of my grand- and great-grandparents. I guess those could fall under “ancient”, since they’re biblical, but they never fully went away either. I don’t think I’ve seen any genuinely ancient names.
Quite a few old school named are popular now : Marius, Jules, Louis, Gabin, Gaston…
But not all of them. Some remain very outdated.
The names of Croatian medieval nobility were revived in the 19th century and never went out of fashion. Tomislav, Zvonimir, Mislav, Branimir, Domagoj, Borna, Krešimir being the most common ones. Others like Višeslav, Zdeslav or Trpimir are a bit rarer, but still completely normal. Some are absolutely fucking weird and never used though, like Svetislav, Držislav, stuff like that.
Many traditional Catholic names lost a lot of popularity in the last century. Idk if they are making a comeback. Even some previously VERY common Catholic names became less common among gen Alpha; Marija, for instance.
No, unfortunately, traditional Slavic names are extremely rarely used for newborns in Croatia. Especially for girls, if you look at the Top 50 most popular names, I think Mila is the only Slavic name on that list, and most other names are just basic 3 or 4 letter trendy names such as Ema, Lana, Nika, etc. I can’t imagine a newborn Slavko or Zorica.