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From: aeb@mcvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: sci.lang
Subject: Re: Origin of name "Kalman": Responses
Message-ID: <1169@mcvax.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 22-Nov-86 11:55:25 EST
Article-I.D.: mcvax.1169
Posted: Sat Nov 22 11:55:25 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 23-Nov-86 04:29:45 EST
References: <1470@sunybcs.UUCP>
Reply-To: aeb@mcvax.UUCP (Andries Brouwer)
Organization: CWI, Amsterdam
Lines: 35

In article <1470@sunybcs.UUCP> zucker@sunybcs.UUCP (Jeffery I. Zucker) writes:
>There have been 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. 


I agree with (1), but not with (2).
Kalman / Koloman / Coloman occurs in the 7th Century as the name of
an abbot of Lindisfarna (died 676). He became a saint (nameday Febr. 18).
The Hungarian king of this name reigned 1095-1114.
The name is probably of Irish origin.

I can see no connection between Kalonymos `well-named', Clemens
`merciful' (name of a pope, 88-97) and Koloman `hermit?'.