Noak place and personal names

Abstract

Noak place and personal names  

In the 13th–14th-century charters, several settlements or lands called Noah ~ Noach ~ Noak are listed from distinct parts of Hungary, of which the most frequently mentioned one, Noak in Gömör county is discussed in the present paper. Analysis of data appearing in charters and localization of relevant place names taken from inspections of landmarks have proved that this settlement was equivalent to (the territory of) the present-day village of Imola. Noak as a settlement name has its origin in the biblical personal name Noach, which in the Vulgate is given as Noe. In 11th–12th-century Hungary, as Christianity was spread mostly by German missionaries, Noah, the original form of the biblical Hebrew name, still in current use in German and English language areas, had become established. As a result of regular Hungarian sound changes, this finally survived as Noak. This form, not recognized by Hungarian priests educated on the basis of the Vulgate, later acquired an intrusive v and changed into Novák. This happened to be identical with the most frequent Hungarian family name of foreign origin, meaning ‘new man’ in the languages of the Slavic ethnic groups then living in the territory of Hungary.