I remember thinking when I read a book by the Austrian children’s books writer Christine Nöstlinger and saw the diversity of different language names that Vienna must be some kind of a nationality melting pot.
This map show the interior structure of Austria-Hungary prior to World War I. Note that Slovenia, Bisbua and Herzegovina, the Czech Republic, and significant amounts of Italy and Poland were in “Austria”, while Croatia and Slavonia was a Hungarian Crown Land. This map shows what Hungary lost to Romania, Austria, Czechoslovakia, and other neighboring states. Sopron is notable in westrnmost Hungary on it.
It looks to me that on March 8, 1918, when the OP’s grandfather was born, the Austro-Hungarian empire had not yet dissolved, and Sopron was part of the Kingdom of Hungary, so far as I can tell. Wikipedia states that
The Treaty of St. Germain was signed on Sept 10, 1919. So it looks like the town of Sopron was only technically part of Austria from Sept 10, 1919 to Dec 14, 1921.
Actually, now that I think of it, it’s a Jewish name, too. But Ashkenazi Jews, so far as I understand, did originate along the Rhine. So it depends on how you want to define these terms.
I’d just like to thank everyone who’s posted here. Mrs Piper’s family is ethnic German, from Hungary. They emigrated to Canada in the 1920’s. This has been very informative.
An now that I look at the birth certificate again, the religion (vallása) column makes sense (rather, I can decipher the writing after reminding myself of the Jewish origin of Stern.) It has “izr” for the father and the mother, indicating izraelita vallás, or “Israeli religion” aka Judaism. I was expecting something like zsidó or judaizmus in that column, but checking out the Hungarian wikipedia entry on Judaism, it also goes by izraelita vallás.
This Hungarian racecar driver, Zsolt Baumgartner, (German last name) is an absolute dead-ringer for what my dad looked like in his 20s, and to a less extent me as well. I’m pretty certain we’re related somehow. Spooky!
Are these two words cognates of each other, or was the Hungarian name developed independently?
My understanding is that Bosnia and Herzegovina wasn’t part of Austria, but was rather administered jointly by Austria and Hungary. This Wikipedia article seems to agree.
Is “Vallas” a Hungarian surname (maybe akin to English surnames such as “Kirke”, “Church”, “Priest”, or “Parsons”)? I had always assumed “Vallas” was a Greek surname due to the “-as” ending.
It means “religion.” I don’t know of it as being a surname in Hungarian, and Googling “Vallás” followed by the most common Hungarian forenames I could think of yielded no results, so I suspect not.
