On Hebrew Names In My Family (A Musing That Became Too Long For Facebook)

One aspect of life for certain: if I don’t know what someone’s Hebrew name is or would’ve been, I go to find out; and in at least some cases, I try to stick to the literal meaning (In my case, I took “Maratovah” as my Hebrew middle name on purpose partly because my first name in both Hebrew and English is already ironic enough in many aspects). One name I absolutely couldn’t justify assigning (“Kayin” is a “lo-lo”); and I stuck with a name that both worked and had already been in our family, anyway. Luckily, Great-Granddad Czarnecki (ע״ה וז״ל) had or would’ve had essentially a duplicate name: Chananyah Yochanan for “Anthony John”. Some could argue “Yosef Yochanan”, although Great-Great-Grandma (ע״ה וז״ל) never used the same first names for siblings. Besides, Josefeh (Joseph)-Susi Paschal (“Peter”) was born in 1917. 

Susi had a complicated relationship with his Yiddishkeit; and one of our cousins was Pesach Yosef “Paschal Joseph” Danilowicz (ז״ל). So, I knew exactly what Susi was doing (Besides, one of his brothers was already “Stanley Peter”, ז״ל, by secular name). Jankie (“John Raymond”/“John Francis”/“John Felix”) pulled similarly (Both Susi and Jankie were actually kapos in many respects; and I don’t say that lightly). Their mother would’ve been unamused, and she probably would’ve been horrified to know that her namesake daughter (as we are Sefardi and Ashkenazi Jews) changed her name to “Alexandria Julia (Asenat Yehudit)” to honor her father (Yehudah “Julian”/“Ludwik Zernetzky/Czerniecki, ע״ה וז״ל) after both of her parents died and when she applied for a marriage license. Great-Grandaunt Asenat (ז״ל) also stepped up to take care of her brother Binyamin Shmarya “Bernard Stanley” (ז״ל וה״י״ד) after he endured a lobotomy due to Schizophrenia and CPTSD. She also took care of her minor siblings after they were fully orphaned (The other siblings were either of age, deceased, or only God knows where—as one sibling was conceived in trauma before  Great-Great-Grandma and Great-Granddad could immigrate to the United States.).

PS I’m not monetizing this. לשבת שלום, and the moon for Tishri 5786 will likely be cited tomorrow (cf. Hebrew In Israel and Deborah’s Date Tree. Also cf. Shemot-Exodus 12:2, e.g.).

Welcome to my ‘80s flashback—and part of my family history!

 My paternal grandparents on July 22, 1989 (on the secular calendar) at my parents’ wedding. 

Technically, I was born on January 23, 1989, as the secular calendar (in the case, the Later Julian Calendar with a little shift by twelve days) used to begin the year in March, and I was born early (I was due on April 22, 1990). I was born on 25 Tevet 5749 (Rabbinic Calendar 26 Tevet 5750). Even by the time that I was old enough to remember him and in his final years, my grandfather (ע״ה) had not really changed significantly. PS Somehow, he was a distant cousin to my grandmother (My dad has mutual DNA matches on both sides, which is common for Ashkenazi and Sefardi Jews)—no wonder that my cousin Greg looks like Mickey Haslin (ז״ל) as well as my grandfather!

Grandma’s paternal grandmother (a daughter of Miriam/Mária Hajzlinszka Uscsanska) had ancestors with connections to the Frankist movement (including Franek/Franik Béla and Eva Pailrová Jassová), and other ancestors of hers ended up in what was then Upper Hungary in other ways. As for Pop-Pop, his maternal grandparents were Michael/Mihály Nagy Trudnyak and Chanah/Anna Munková Trudnyak (originally “Trudnyakov”, later “Trudnak”). Michael Trudnyak was born the “illegitimate” Nagy Mihály, by the way, because his parents refused to marry in a Catholic church (as so-called “Christians” took enough away from them). Michael’s son John first married Valeria Lillian “Lillie” (née Nechama “Nellie”) Czarnecki, by the way; and he as a widower remarried his widowed in-law sister, Anna Mikita Czarnecki (the widow of Yosef/Joseph Czarnecki, a son of Efrayim “Felix” and Yosefa/Josephine “Veronica” Supronowicz Czerniecki)…

As aforementioned, welcome to my ‘80s flashback—and part of my family history! PS Béla left the clue in his surname, and Ya’akov/Jakub Frank’s own daughter forcibly had her name changed to “Ewa” by her father (Why I was not tipped off earlier about a Jewish “Eva” from a kehillah in Ukraine being connected to Frankism stumps me). The Frankist movement was widespread in what are now Poland, Ukraine, Czechia, Slovakia, and vicinities. After the Frankist movement failed, many Frankists became Anusim (with some remaining Catholic like Jakub Frank was), and many moved to or remained in places where they could be relatively out of the way of Anti-Frankist retaliation as well as Antisemitism.