Romania Personal Names

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 * Behind the Name: Romanian Surnames
 * Behind the Name: Romanian Given Names

Surnames

 * Like in most of Europe, in Romania it is customary for a child to take the father's surname, and a wife her husband's surname. In cases where paternity is not established, the child takes the mother's surname. The law however is flexible, allowing for the couple to choose their family name, and thus the surname they would use for all their children.
 * Until the 19th century, the names were primarily of the form "(given name) (father's name) (grandfather's name)".
 * The name reform' introduced around 1850 had the names changed to a western style consisting of a given name followed by a family name (surname).
 * Many Romanian names are derivative forms obtained by the addition of some traditional Romanian suffixes, such as -escu, -ăscu, -eanu, -anu, -an, -aru, -atu, or -oiu. These uniquely Romanian suffixes strongly identify ancestral nationality.
 * 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. '''A typical derivation was to append the suffix -escu to the father's name, e.g. Ionescu ("Ion's child") and Petrescu ("Petre's child").
 * Another common derivation was to append the suffix -eanu or the simpler forms -anu and -an to the name of a place, river, village, or region, e.g. Ardeleanu (from Ardeal), Moldoveanu (from Moldova), Mureșanu (from Mureș), Sadoveanu etc. (cognate to Italian -(i)ano). They may indicate a country or ethnic origin (e.g. Grecu - from Greece, Ungureanu - from Hungary, Rusu - from Russia).
 * The suffix -cea (as in Mihalcea, Grigorcea, Neculcea, Oncea, etc.) is Slavic. Furthermore, the Slavic influence on Romanian has manifested itself by way of the emergence of Romanian surnames of Slavic origin (as in Bucinschi, Chirilov, Covaci, Levandovschi, Marcovici, Novac, etc.).
 * There are also descriptive family names derived from occupations or nicknames, e.g. Ciobanu/Păcuraru ("shepherd"/"pitch-maker/pitch-vendor"), Croitoru ("tailor"), Fieraru ("smith"), Moraru ("miller"), Bălan ("blond"), Țăranu ("villager") etc.
 * Also some Romanian surnames come from various animals and plants, most probably being former nicknames, with or without the addition of various suffixes, e.g. Bourean(u) ("ox"), Căpreanu ("goat"), Jderoiu ("marten"), Lupu ("wolf"), Ursu ("bear"), Zimbrean ("bison"), Vidraru ("otter").
 * Some surnames come from colors: e.g. Roșu (Red), Negru (Black), Albu (White).

Given Names
Given names Romanians have one, two or more given names, e.g. Ana Cristina Maria (three given names), all being chosen by the child's parents. One of them, usually the first, is used in daily life while the others are solely for official documents, such as birth, marriage, or death certificates.

Traditionally, most people were given names from the Romanian Orthodox calendar of saints. Common names of this type are Ion or Andrei for males and Maria or Elena for females. Given names with a Christian lineage have an identifiable English equivalent: Andrei (Andrew), Constantin (Constantine), Cristian (Christian), Daniel/Dan (Daniel/Dan), Gheorghe/George (George), Grigore (Gregory), Ilie (Elijah), Ion/Ioan (John), Iacob (Jacob/James), Laurențiu (Lawrence), Luca (Luke), Marcu (Mark), Matei (Matthew), Mihail/Mihai (Michael), Nicolae/Niculaie (Nicholas), Pavel/Paul (Paul), Petru/Petre (Peter), Ștefan (Stephen), Vasile (Basil). The most common name, Maria[1] is the equivalent of Mary. Maria has led to many closely related names such as Mariana, Marioara, Maricica, Maricela, Măriuca, Mara, Marina, Marilena, Marieta, Marinela, Marisa, Marița, Marusia, Mia, Mioara.

Roman heritage is reflected in Roman given names such as Traian (Trajan), Titus, Marius, Octavian, Ovidiu (Ovid), Aurel (Aurelius), Cornel (Cornelius) etc. Such names are common especially in Transylvania.[2] During the Hungarian rule of Transylvania, a policy of Magyarization encouraged the translation of personal names into Hungarian. Adopting Classical Roman names with a difficult equivalence in Hungarian was a method of Romanian nationalist resistance. Dacian heritage is reflected through the name Decebal (from king Decebalus).

Some names are inspired from nature, such as Sorin/Sorina (soare, "sun"), Codruț/Codruța or Codrin/Codrina (codru, "woods"), or flowers: Crin/Crina, Narcis/Narcisa, Viorel/Viorica, Anemona, Brândușa, Camelia, Iolanda, Lăcrămioara etc. The word floare ("flower") has led to several names such as Florin/Forina, Florentin/Florentina, Florian/Floriana, Florica, Floarea,.

Traditional Romanian names which come from Romanian words include Doina which means "doina", a traditional Romanian musical tune style, or Luminița, meaning "little light", from the word "lumină" (light). The name Lăcrămioara refers to the name of a flower (lily of the valley), but also means "little tear", from the word "lacrimă" (tear). Crenguța means "little branch", from the word "creangă" (branch).

Slavic influence on Romanian is present at all linguistic levels, including names. These include names containing the Slavic root -mir.[3] [3] Examples of Slavic names in Romanian include[4][3] Bogdan, Dragoș, Mircea, Radu, Tihomir, Vlad, Vladislav, Vladimir, Miroslav, Casimir, Anastasia, Irina, Milena, Olga, Raisa.

Some common names are the names born by historical rulers (domnitori/voievozi), such Ștefan (Ștefan cel Mare), Mihai (Mihai Viteazu), Mircea (Mircea cel Bătrân), Vlad (Vlad Țepeș), Rareș (Petru Rareș), although not all parents make such associations, especially when the name in that of a Christian saint.

Alexandru/Alexandra are very common names. They also include the variants of Alex, Alexia, Alexandrina, or the 'foreign' variants of Alessia, Alessandra, Alexa (see below).

In the 1990s, as telenovelas started to be broadcast in Romania, Spanish/Latin American names have become popular; and the trend of giving children such names has been reinforced by the migration or travel of parents to Spain or Italy. As such, names like Mario, Antonio, Alberto, Esmeralda, Gianni, Giovanni, Alessia etc. are relatively common. Indeed, Mario, Antonio and Alessia were in the top 50 as baby names in 2009.[5] Carmen may be a Spanish influence but was also popular earlier due to the pseudonym Carmen Sylva.

The prevalence of given names follows trends, with some names being popular in some years, and some considered definitely out-of-fashion. As an example, few children born since 1980 would bear the names of Gheorghe, Vasile, or Ilie, which are generally associated with the idea of an elderly man (while the name of Gheorghe is rare among the younger generation, the variant George is more common). However, such "old-fashioned" names are sometimes used as middle names. By contrast, some names are associated with the younger generations: for example the feminine name Andreea become popular from the 1970s onwards, being one of the most common given names in the younger generations, ranking third in popularity among feminine names given to children born in 1989,[6] second in 2009,[7] and fourth in 2014.[8]

Compound given names are uncommon, with only one notable exception, i.e. Ana-Maria (sometimes spelled Anamaria). In that case this is not considered to be two separate given names. Diminutives are often used as names (e.g. Ionuţ, Ionel, Ionela, Anişoara). Ionuţ, a diminutive from Ion/Ioan, is one of the most common names in Romania. It ranked second in popularity among male names given to children born in 1989,[6] third in 2009,[7] and ninth in 2014.[8]

Romanian male given names end in a consonant (Adrian, Ion, Paul, Ștefan, Victor) or in any vowel other than -a (Alexandru, Andrei, Mihai), with some exceptions (Mircea, Mihnea), while almost all female names end in -a (Ana, Elena, Ioana, Maria), with only very few exceptions such as Carmen. This is most easily seen in the male-female name pairs: Gabriel-Gabriela, Ioan-Ioana, George-Georgiana, Mihai-Mihaela, Nicolae-Nicoleta, etc.

The most common Romanian name is Maria, with approximately 1.38 million females having it as one of their given names.[1] Also, almost 1.37 million Romanians have Ion, Ioan and Ioana as one of their given names.[1] The most common names are:[2][9]

For males: Alexandru, Adrian, Andrei, Mihai, Ionuţ, Florin, Daniel, Marian, Marius, Cristian for all males.[10] For boys born in 2014 they are: Andrei, David, Alexandru, Gabriel, Mihai, Cristian, Ştefan, Luca, Ionuţ, Darius.[2] For females: Ana-Maria, Mihaela, Andreea, Elena, Alexandra, Cristina, Daniela, Alina, Maria, Ioana for all females.[10] For girls born in 2014, they are: Maria, Elena, Ioana, Andreea, Sofia, Alexandra, Antonia, Daria, Ana, Gabriela.[2] The given name can be changed on request, but it is necessary to prove a legitimate interest for the change (usually that the current name is a cause of mockery etc.).

For Further Reading

 * A GUIDE TO NAMES AND NAMING PRACTICES, UK Names Guide

FamilySearch Library
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