Surnames Derived from the Terminology of Iron Processing

Abstract

Iron processing on the territory of Romania has been known since the first half of the second millennium B.C. Iron represented the raw material for tool making. While practicing their handcraft as blacksmiths, these craftsmen’s vocabulary was enriched with words which designated the objects made, the tools used, details of the forms and ornamental motifs. Some words, part of the terminology of iron processing, have become nicknames associated to various persons. Those nicknames have become in time unofficial surnames, many of them later firmly acknowledge as surnames, as a result of the 1895 Name Law