nav, m. (Ind.) – name
In every human society one must somehow identify individual persons: men, women,
children. The shortest and most basic identification is their names. Among Slovak Roma three types of basic names are used:
- family name (i.e., the family name of the father or mother)
- Romani name (nickname)
-
Gadžo name (personal/ first name)
Family name (i.e. the family name of the father or
mother)
The family name shows from which clan (the mother's or father's) a person comes from. Some
of these family/clan names are: Badžo, Badi, Červeňák, Daniel, Holomek, Horváth,
Mirga, etc. etc. Even today, neither parish priests nor official institutions
recognise a Roma marriage or marital oath – although earlier, when young people took
their oaths, they grew old together and stayed together until they died.
(They say: "When a couple gets married, may they live together
until death does them part".)
Only if young people took their oaths in a church or
in some official institution was their marriage recognised. Gadže
considered children born after an "official wedding" legitimate.
They were registered (in the registry office and on their identification papers) under
their fathers' family name. Children who were born before an "official wedding"
were considered illegitimate and were registered under their mothers' name.
It still happens that one or two older children have (literally, "write themselves")
their mother's family name and their younger sibling have their father's.
If we want to ask a Rom what his family name is, we say, literally,
"How do you write yourself?"
In 1761, the Empress Maria Theresia issued an assimilation edict, which, among other
rules, ordered Gypsies to take Christian names (personal or first names and family
names). Since that time, many Roma have Gadžo names.
Family names and their etymology
- Slovak: Červeňák, Haluška, Holub, Klempár, Kováč, Lacko, Ščuka, Zima, etc.
- Hungarian: Horváth, Taragoš,Tokár, Lakatoš, Čonka, Rác(z), Žiga, etc.
- Greek: Demeter
- Romani: Many Slovak Roma have family names which are
"pure" Romani. They fall into two main
groups: (a) "modern" – with transparent meanings which we
understand and (b) very ancient, whose "Indian" meaning remains
hidden to us, so-called untransparent.
(a) transparent: We can again separate transparent family names into two groups: (aa) nominative and (ab) vocative.
- (aa) nominative: Banga/Bango, Lolo, Mač(h)o, Ga(d)ži, etc.
- (ab) vocative: Kaleja, T(h)uleja, Č(h)ureja, etc. When we greet or call someone, we
use the vocative ("calling case"). Once, when a parish priest
wanted to register a Rom in the official registry, he carefully asked him
"What do they call you?" And the Rom carefully answered:
"Fatso!" The priest did not know Romani and so he registered
that name – in the vocative form.
(b) untransparent: Ancient Indian untransparent family names
are vastly interesting. They can attest to the social level of the Roma's ancestors
who left their ancient homeland, India. In India, even today, names like
Badi, Mirga, Džugi or
Karela are connected with either individual jatis
(castes) or with gotras (exogamous groups within
jatis.)
Caste names
Many Indian family names are in reality caste names. A man who
produces and sells tél (oil) is named Télí
(oil producer). Télí is his family name as well as his caste name.
Džóší comes from the word džotiší
(astrologer) and a caste of astrologers are called Džoší.Sapéré (sap – snake) are members of a caste that perform with
snakes and can also cure poisonous snakebites.
Falling within "Indian caste names" are, for example, Badi
(Bodi), Džugi, perhaps Dombi or Bihari.
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Badi (Bodi) (1)
The Badis are an ancient pre-Aryan caste. The ancestors of the Badis lived in India
during the time of the Mohenjo-Daro civilization (3000 BC-1500 BC), before travelling
Indo-Europeans invaded India from the north. Today clans (subcastes) of Badis are
scattered around northern India. In some areas they are professional circus performers;
elsewhere they live from their music. [Origins of Roma]
Even among Roma there were many groups (clans) who traditionally were circus
performers. Byzantine documents, for example, discuss how there came from the east
great artistes whom nobody had seen or known before, and the people of Byzantium were
amazed at the performances of these unknown people. [Byzanz]
The same professions of the Badis and some of the Roma clans (music, circus
artistry) indicate the connection between the Roma family name Badi and the Indian
jati of the Badis.
(viz. The legend of the Badis, "Beautiful
Sanchari" in the appendix.)
-
Džugi
The term džugi comes from the
Sanskrit word yoga. Yoga is an ancient
Indian philosophical system which proclaims the union of the human soul with the
supreme being. The responsibility of each person is to discover the essence of God
within himself. Yoga does not recognise that any caste is
"higher" or "better", and another
"lower", "subservient" or "worse".
The Džugi earlier created a caste which believed in this
philosophy. With time, the Džugi began to live as
"holy beggars"and some of them took to the occult – which they
still practice today.
-
Bihari
The Bihari jati also belongs among
the pre-Aryan castes which made their living from circus performing and music.
However, the etymology of the Roma family name Bihari may also be Hungarian because
there is a region in Hungary called Bihár.
Gotra family names
What is a gotra? It is an exogamous group within a jati. A jati,
or caste, is endogamous, which means that a boy can choose as his bride only a girl
who comes from the same jati as he. (This law is still preserved among traditional
Roma groups.) On the other hand, he must be prevented from marrying a close
relative because such a union could result in a retarded child. Therefore the
gotra institution was established. A boy from
one gotra may not marry a girl from the same "gotra", but must search for his bride elsewhere, in another gotra. Each gotra has its own name, which might be the name of a plant, a tree, an animal,
etc. Let us look at ancient Roma family names that may have a connection with
Indian gotra names.
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Badžo
The etymology connects the term Badžo with the verb
badža-, which means "to play" (te
bashavelin Hindi). We see that the Romani form bašavel is
very close to the Hindi verb.
Badže are a gotra within the Bandžara
caste. Bandžara are a very ancient, travelling caste that made their living in trade.
Primarily, they sold salt. Their customers were not only ordinary village and town
people, but also the royal army.
-
Mirga
The term mirga comes from the
Sanskrit mrgah – antelope. The mirgagotra belongs to the Baniya caste, and Baniya
are also members of a caste of tradesmen.
Some specialists imagine that the Roma family name Mirga
comes from the Hungarian word mergez- to poison. We prefer to
stay with the Indian etymology.
-
Karela
A karela is a bitter vegetable,
particularly favored in the state of Radjasthan. Karela gotras are found among jatis
of Ḍom musicians and also among castes of tradesmen.
-
Goral
Goral is a term for a mountain goat
which lives in Rajasthan. Goral denotes a gotra within the
Rajputs, the second highest social level.
Rajputswere soldiers, fighters who protected the land from
Muslim conquerors.
The Roma family name Goral can have a connection with the Indian gotra, but it can
also be a variant of a family name with Slovak etymology: Gorol.
– Horal, a man who lives in the mountains.
There are still more of such ancient Roma family names. We have pointed out just a
few of them.
These family names are present mainly among Roma who came to Slovakia from Poland.
One part of them have continued to live in Poland; they are called
Bergitska Roma. Another group settled in
northern Slovakia around Kežmarok, Poprad, etc.
Gadžo name
Gadžo names are the Christian (first/personal) names
registered in official documents (on identification papers, in registry offices; on
passports, etc.) In the past, it was very rare to find a Rom with a
Gadžo name. Very few Roma called their children or each other by
their Gadže (official) names. Some small children did not even
know their Gadže names when they started school. When their
teacher asked them, "What's your name?" they would give their Roma names
because their parents, siblings and other Roma called them only by those names. Some
teachers complained that Gypsy children were "stupid" because they
didn't even know their own names. In reality, it is the teachers who were not sufficiently
educated because they did not know Roma culture, that is, the culture of their
pupils.
It can happen, though, that the Gadžo and Romani
name is the same.
In the past, when most of the Roma still lived in Slovakia, almost every Romani family had its "Gadžo
peasant woman" and almost every farming family had its "Gypsy
woman". Many Roma chose their farmer or peasant woman to be a godparent to
their children. Then the Roma would give their children the Gadžo
name of those godparents.
Roma name
Roma use their Roma name when they speak to each other. In the past, there was not
one Rom who would not have had a Roma name. Even today, it is hard to find even
one.
When a child is first born, he is spoken of as "the little one",
"the tiny one", because his character is not yet determined. Only
when he has grown a bit does his Roma name usually reveal itself.
Relatives determine the Roma name for a child in various ways.
The name can reflect a personality trait or something about the appearance of the
child: Kalo(Black), Cikňi (Little),
Šuki (Slender), Papin (Silly),
Pušomori (Little Flea).
Husa (Goose) is a Gadžo invective; a
silly woman is called a Husa. Among Roma, however,
"Husa" is said about a child who is beautiful, white as a goose.
Nor is "Little Flea" a nasty name. It is used for a small, slim
girl who has a good attitude towards working and dancing.
The Roma author Tera Fabiánová was called
Baro Šero (Big Head) or "Barešereskeri" (Big Headed) because
she never behaved like other children and always did whatever she wanted. The
author Gejzo Demeter was called "Buchlo Nakh" (Broad Nose) because
his nose really was broad – but, naturally, he never got angry when people called him
this.
Many Roma named their children after relatives: for someone who was held in high regard
or who was a good musician or whom the parents particularly loved or whom the children
resembled.
The author Ilona Lacková informs us that Roma of Velký Šariš
named their children after Jews because there was a brotherly relationship between Jews
and Roma. Besides, Jews were rich, and Roma believed that a Jewish name would bring
them money.
Nowadays, many Roma take names from television, e.g. Sandokan, Angelika, James Bond,
and goodness knows who else.
Some names are very funny. Gejza Demeter told about how his father was called
Majpejľomas. Why? Whenever he had a bit too much to drink and
couldn't stand on his own two feet, he exclaimed, Majpejľomas,
which means, "I almost fell down!" This exclamation became his lifelong Roma
name.
An "other name" (aver nav)
An "other name" is a Roma name with a specific function. Many
Roma have forgotten this function, but in Roma settlements around Snina and Zbudské
Dlhé, Roma traditionally still have an "other name".
An "other name" protects a child from illnesses and impure forces.
Let's say that a child is named Gejza, but his mother calls him
Toňu. Gejza is often kept secret from
other Roma. It can happen that some illness may appear, for example oja
(epilepsy), and this illness wants to possess the child. It looks for a child named
Toňu, the name by which his parents and the other Roma call him.
But no such Toňu exists. Toňu is merely the "other name"
for the child. The illness does not know that the child's real name is
Gejza because the name Gejza has been
kept secret. Therefore, the illness does not find the child and cannot hurt him.
The legend of Beautiful Sanchari of the Badi
clan
The people of the Badi clan were great circus performers. They could dance in the
air on a high tightrope attached to two poles. They could stand on their heads on a
galloping horse. Four or five men could stand on each other's shoulders. They could
jump or spin in the wind. God only knows what they could do. They thrilled their
audiences. But the greatest attention was paid to the beautiful, charming young girl,
Sanchari. She danced on the tightrope like the wind, like fire, and she played the
sarangi, an Indian violin-like instrument, and sang so
beautifully that she melted the heart of everyone who heard her.
The Badis wandered around northern India from village to village, from town to town,
and performed. Once they came to the town of Jodhpur in the state of Rajasthan. Their
reputation for excellence had preceded them and so even the rajah's son, Sanjay, came
to see them.
The moment Sanjay saw Sanchari, his heart was filled with love. And when Sanchari
caught sight of the prince, she knew tht she could never love anyone but him.
At the end of the Badis' performance, Sanjay joined Sanchari and they disappeared into
the jungle. They swore that they would never leave one other.
Alas, their love did not remain a secret. When Sanjay's father, the rajah, found out
that his son wanted to marry a wandering dancer, he was so furious that he nearly had a
stroke. He wanted the Badis thrown out of town and his son locked in the madhouse. On
the other hand, he did not want his son to die of grief or really go mad. He, therefore,
called his ministers and asked for their advice.
The ministers advised him and considered this and that – until finally the devil
himself whispered in their ears the evil deed they should do.
The following day the ministers presented the prince with a golden tightrope to give
to Sanchari. Sanjay was overjoyed. He thought this meant that his father agreed to
permit him to marry the woman he loved.
He gave the golden tightrope to the Badis, and Sanchari's father tightened it high in
the air between two poles.
Sanjay did not know that the rope had an incision in the middle.
Sanchari jumped up onto the rope and danced as she had never in her life danced
before. She danced in the air and it seemed as if her beautiful little feet weren't
even touching the rope.
When, however, she got to the middle, the rope snapped and the sweet girl fell from
that great height onto the hard floor. She died instantly.
Sanjay ran to her. When he saw what had happened, he did not hesitate. He drew his
sword, thrust it into his heart, and fell down dead beside his beloved.
When Sanjay's father learned of the death of his son, he went where no one could see
him and cried his heart out. But it was too late for tears.
The rajah had the two innocent, beautiful young people burned (for, in India, they
cremate the dead) together and then he had a memorial built in their honour in the centre of
the town. When morning came, two roses had grown there.
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