actually, the hungarian suffix -ne' is not connected to the french ne'e, but rather comes >from the hungarian no: which means woman.

the usage is most often [surname] [given name of husband]ne'. note that it is usually attached to the husband's given name (as in "kovacs janosne", "mrs. john smith"), which would make no sense at all if it was a form of the french ne'e. (i.e. "john smith nee jones".) sometimes the wife's full name, [maiden name] [given name], is also added, but often not, and sometimes it is used with the surname, as in "kovacsne", meaning "mrs. smith", but never with the wife's given name, as "kovacs mariane weiss", because it doesn't make sense.

a slightly related linguistic question is the origin of "-neni" and "-bacsi" in hungarian. (strictly meaning aunt and uncle, but loosely applicable to any older person.) i'm fairly certain that "-bacsi" is >from the turkish "pasha", but is "-neni" also turkish, or is it just a variant of "no:"?


....... tom klein, toronto

ps. while this is primarily a linguistic question, it is helpful for hungarian genealogists to understand the terminology.