Why is the name "Szőkefalvi-Nagy" sometimes abbreviated to "Sz.-Nagy"?
February 25, 2010 12:57 PM Subscribe
Why is the name "Szőkefalvi-Nagy" sometimes abbreviated to "Sz.-Nagy"?
There is a 20th-century Hungarian mathematician named Béla Szőkefalvi-Nagy. I have seen him credited as "Sz.-Nagy", as for example in this book or this web page. Sometimes he's called just "Nagy", as in the Erdős-Nagy theorem, and sometimes his full last name is used, as in Szőkefalvi-Nagy the title of this book.
I know that Sz is considered one letter in the Hungarian alphabet, so clearly this is an attempt to shorten the name. But why abbreviate one of the hyphenated names and not the other? Why not drop "Szőkefalvi" entirely? Or, for that matter, why not abbreviate both "halves" of the last name and be "Béla Sz.-N."?
There is a 20th-century Hungarian mathematician named Béla Szőkefalvi-Nagy. I have seen him credited as "Sz.-Nagy", as for example in this book or this web page. Sometimes he's called just "Nagy", as in the Erdős-Nagy theorem, and sometimes his full last name is used, as in Szőkefalvi-Nagy the title of this book.
I know that Sz is considered one letter in the Hungarian alphabet, so clearly this is an attempt to shorten the name. But why abbreviate one of the hyphenated names and not the other? Why not drop "Szőkefalvi" entirely? Or, for that matter, why not abbreviate both "halves" of the last name and be "Béla Sz.-N."?
This Googlebook says the first part of his name refers to the town his family comes from and that "Since most of his scientific papers were signed as B. Sz-Nagy, we shall also use the shortened form of his name."
posted by pracowity at 1:16 PM on February 25, 2010
posted by pracowity at 1:16 PM on February 25, 2010
Response by poster: Well, that'll teach me to link to books without even looking at them.
posted by madcaptenor at 1:35 PM on February 25, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by madcaptenor at 1:35 PM on February 25, 2010 [1 favorite]
Nagy (and Béla) is also a pretty name....so having the sz in front can differentiate it a bit. I am assuming.
posted by sundri at 1:59 PM on February 25, 2010
posted by sundri at 1:59 PM on February 25, 2010
It seems like a slightly odd abbreviation because Sz can also be short for the religious title "Szent", as in "Sz. István". I guess the hyphen marks it unambiguously. (I'm not a Hungarian speaker, but have some small exposure.)
posted by Nelson at 2:05 PM on February 25, 2010
posted by Nelson at 2:05 PM on February 25, 2010
That was my first assumption, Nelson (not a speaker, but boyfriend & his family is, and I've spent a bit of time there).
Though I can tell you that in Hungarian, his name would actually be abbreviated Sz.-N. Béla, since you put the surname first. Were I to marry boyfriend, I would be [surname] [firstname]ne. (The -ne on the end is the 'mrs'-y particle).
posted by bitter-girl.com at 3:40 PM on February 25, 2010
Though I can tell you that in Hungarian, his name would actually be abbreviated Sz.-N. Béla, since you put the surname first. Were I to marry boyfriend, I would be [surname] [firstname]ne. (The -ne on the end is the 'mrs'-y particle).
posted by bitter-girl.com at 3:40 PM on February 25, 2010
Maybe he was sparing his international publishers the trouble of figuring out how to typeset a double acute accent.
posted by The Tensor at 4:05 PM on February 25, 2010 [4 favorites]
posted by The Tensor at 4:05 PM on February 25, 2010 [4 favorites]
Response by poster: The Tensor: I've seen people use the umlaut as a substitute for the double acute -- "Erdös" for "Erdős", for example.
posted by madcaptenor at 5:29 PM on February 25, 2010
posted by madcaptenor at 5:29 PM on February 25, 2010
Best answer: According to this webpage, found at the university where he taught for many years, Szőkefalvi-Nagy signed many of his books with Sz.-Nagy, as pracowity found above. This same source states that his father Gyula, also a prominent mathematician in his own right, wrote his name as Szőkefalvi Nagy Gyula (without the hyphen). So it seems that the form of the name was in flux within the family itself.
Nagy Béla is about as generic a name as you could find in Hungarian, so shortening his name to just that would have been confusing, I think. And while Saint is abbreviated Sz. in Hungarian, I can't imagine that seeing Sz-Nagy would cause a reader to think of a saint because there is no Saint Nagy - Nagy means big, like the the German last name Gross.
I think the abbreviation is to shorten his name, but to still make it distinguishable from all of the other Nagy Bélas out there. See also the Hungarian rock musician D. Nagy Lajos.
posted by that possible maker of pork sausages at 6:13 PM on February 25, 2010 [1 favorite]
Nagy Béla is about as generic a name as you could find in Hungarian, so shortening his name to just that would have been confusing, I think. And while Saint is abbreviated Sz. in Hungarian, I can't imagine that seeing Sz-Nagy would cause a reader to think of a saint because there is no Saint Nagy - Nagy means big, like the the German last name Gross.
I think the abbreviation is to shorten his name, but to still make it distinguishable from all of the other Nagy Bélas out there. See also the Hungarian rock musician D. Nagy Lajos.
posted by that possible maker of pork sausages at 6:13 PM on February 25, 2010 [1 favorite]
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My layman's impression is that Nagy isn't long enough to justify shortening.
posted by Hiker at 12:59 PM on February 25, 2010