Typology of Family Names Derived with the Suffix -escu

Abstract

The suffix -escu „is used to form surnames of Romanian type”. The exclusively onomastic function of the suffix -escu is patronymic and expresses family descent. Thus, Grigorescu, formed after the model Grigore (father's first name) + the suffix -escu, can be understood as „Grigore’s son”. In Moldovan documents, derived with the suffix -escu names are found since the fourteenth century. Over time, when the mechanism of formation and their significance were understood, these derivatives became common. Formations with -escu appeared not only from the first name, as "is the rule", but also from other reference names. The officialization of the names formed with the suffix -escu took place only at the end of the 19th century, when they started to function as family names. In the local anthroponymy, most of the patronymics with the suffix -escu are formed from first names and surnames (various adjectives, nouns and verbs that, previously, were substantivized and used as anthroponyms). Although the patronymics derived with the suffix -escu are less attested in the Bessarabian onomasticon than in the rest of the Romanian territory, we still distinguish several types of formation of surnames with the suffix -escu. The themes to which the -escu suffix is attached confirm that this suffix is an anthroponymic one, characteristic of the formation of surnames.