After a particularly hectic but very productive semester, I finally got round to going back to researching at the Bavarian State Library. Besides other linguistic and family history work I was now able to look up the etymology of the “Unger” family name in name dictionaries. According to the works of the preeminent authors in the field such as David Hey’s (2000: 59-80), Family Names and Family History, London: Hambledon & London, family names (and not just the English) can be categorised as patronymics, nicknames, occupational surnames and toponymic names.
Patronymics (Hey 2000: 59f) “were derived from a father’s personal name”. Examples for this category would be Williams or Johnson, the son of William or John.
Nicknames, oftentimes referring to physical characteristics of a family’s ancestor, are a fairly self-explanatory category and include names such as Goldeneye or Kurz.
Occupational surnames again are a straightforward group and include names such as Smith or Bauer.
Toponymic names refer to people from a particular place or location such as Kent or Bayer.
Although by far not all names fit neatly fit into these categories, Unger in our case is a toponymic name.
According to J K Brechenmacher (1960-63), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Familiennamen, tome 2, Limburg/Lahn: C. A. Starke, s.v. Unger is derived from Ungar, and as such it denotes someone who was originally an ethnic Hungarian. Bahlow (1980), Deutsches Namenslexikon, 4th edition, Frankfurt-on-Main: Suhrkamp, s.v. Unger also states this and furthermore explains that it also referred to people who did business with Hungarians.
Therefore my family’s ancestors were Hungarians originally, hence the name.
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