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From: zucker@sunybcs.uucp (Jeffery I. Zucker)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish,sci.lang
Subject: Origin of name "Kalman": Responses
Message-ID: <1470@sunybcs.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 20-Nov-86 00:33:33 EST
Article-I.D.: sunybcs.1470
Posted: Thu Nov 20 00:33:33 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 21-Nov-86 05:07:01 EST
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Reply-To: zucker@sunybcs.UUCP (Jeffery I. Zucker)
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Xref: mnetor soc.culture.jewish:123 sci.lang:168

There have had two responses to my query:

   Can anyone enlighten me as to the origin of
   the Jewish (Yiddish?) personal name "Kalman"?

(1) From Lambert Meertens (lambert@mcvax.UUCP):

   I don't know of a Jewish name "Kalman", but I know it is a common last name
   in Hungary, except that Hungarians put their last name first (as in Kalman
   Emmerich, the light opera composer).  Maybe there is some connection, maybe
   not.  There was a king Kalman of Hungary in the Middle Ages, I think the
   twelfth century, who abolished witch trials, something that happened only
   six centuries later in most other countries.

(2) From Adam Reed (mtund!adam):

   According to Alfred J. Kolatch, Dictionary of First Names, 1980, Kalman
   is a short form of Kalonymos, a variant of the Latin name Clement,
   meaning "merciful" or "gracious". The name originated in 8th century
   Italy, and was popular among eminent Jewish families in Germany from the
   9th to the 13th centuries.

My comment:  If the Hungarian name "Kalman" comes from the
Latin "Clement", then these two explanations are connected.