Man’s sense of identity is seriously determined by his name.
We can find out a lot from our family name (or our ancestor’s family name). We can find out what nationality its first holder was (e.g. Oltean, Kronstadter, Szilágyi). We can also find jobs in certain family names (e.g. Olaru, Fazekas, Schmidt) or properties (Crețu, Klein, Nagy).
Knowledge of the name origin often causes difficulties for people who do not speak the language. It can happen that some families have false information about their origin.
There were certain historical events when names changed a lot, the Romanian name was written by using Hungarian spelling or a Hungarian name was voluntarily romanianized, despite of its holder’s will. Thus, to establish the origin of a name, a multilingual expert is needed.
The name origin research can also play a role in official proceedings, for example, in the acquisition of a nationality, where it is necessary to prove that the person having the name Sabău entered in the state register was actually called Szabó, or the person registered under the name Oltyán had earlier the name Oltean.
