Opara 's home page

		Opara 's Home Page
Links		Mis-spellings

Main Page This Web Page tryes to explore the Historical Roots of my Surname. About Slovenia The Republic of Slovenia lies at the heart of Europe where the Alps and the Mediterranean meet the Pannonian plains and the mysterious Karst. History of Surnames Today, almost everyone has a surname, but this was not always the case... Mis-spellings Many of the Surnames we know today, are just mis-spellings of original surnames. Did you know? In Turkey, surnames didn't become mandatory until 1933! E-mail: janez.opara@siol.net This page hosted by: Visitors since 10.03.1998: Last updated: 05.01.2003		Have you ever had the experience where your name was misspelled - perhaps on an account or in a letter? What are the typical misspellings or pronunciation errors associated with your name? Many of the surnames we know todaj, are just mis-spellings of original surnames! Over the centuries, as surnames were recorded, writers and officials would often write the name down incorrectly... thereby creating a new surname. When you begin to do more extensive research on your surname you may have difficulty finding it with the exact spelling which you use today. In fact it may very well have been spelled differently hundreds of years ago, or you may even know of someone in your family's past who actually changed his name. The more research you do, the more likely you'll find several different spellings. Language changes, carelessness and a high degree of illiteracy (sometimes the man himself did not know how to spell his own name) compounded the number of ways a name might be spelled. Often the town clerk spelled the name the way it sounded to him. It would be a difficult task to work out a simple classification of family names due to spelling and pronunciation changes over the years. Many old words had different meanings, or are now obsolete. Many family names were dependent on the competency and discretion of the writer. The same name can sometimes be spelled in different ways even in the same document. Let's take an example of my first name Janez. In early books is writen as German name Johannes, than changed to Joannes and lately to Janes and finaly to Janez and bekam so from German name to the most popular and typical Slovenian first name in the middle of the 19th centrury. Janez is also nowadays known as typical Slovenian firstname.
		Main Page \| About Slovenia \| History of Surnames \| Mis-spellings \| Did you know?