I'd appreciate assistance in finding Hebrew/Yiddish name equivalants to Hungarian /Romanian names of Sari, Betti and Ferencz.
Thank you for your input
Rachel Malik

Hi Rachel,
Ferencz in my family was Ze'ev in Hebrew (which means wolf) and Wolf in Yiddish and Hungarian. One cousin/uncle that I remember from childhood I called "feribachi", Uncle Feri so Feri was either a nickname for Ferencz or some version of it. Another Ferencz is Tzvi Hersh. These names were primarily from my Farkas side who were from Transylvania and Hungary.
As for Sari it could also be Sure or Szure. 
For Betti perhaps Bracha in Hebrew.
BTW, I have several Maliks in my tree mostly connected to Stauber, Stober, Shtauber, Stojber, etc. And a lot of my cousins did DNA. 
Michele Farkas
Boynton Beach, FL

Hi Rachel,
     The names could literally be anything, because there was no rule linking secular to Hebrew/Yiddish/religious names.  In addition to the ones Michele mentions, these are some names I've come across while transcribing:

Sari: Sarah, Chaya Sarah, Serl, Saraleh
Betti: Breindel, Beila, Buna
Ferencz: Peretz, Falk, Feivel

     I recently came across a Jenő whose Hebrew name was Baruch.  Why?  Fortunately the record gave both the mother and the father's Hebrew names.  The mother's father's Hebrew name was Baruch!  So Jenő's Hebrew name was for his maternal grandfather!

     Best,

                Judy Petersen
                Fort Collins, CO

The Hebrew names I found in my research:

Ferencz for Efraim אפרים

Sari (or Sali) for Sarah שרה

The name Ze'ev זאב or Wolf in Yiddish as Michelle Farkas (Farkas is Wolf in Hungarian) wrote is more commonly associated with Vilmos.

Remember that any Jewish given name can be associate with these names.

Jacob Shayzaf

Hi there,

My mother was born in the Sub-Carpathian region of what was then Czechoslovakia, but in her parent's time, it was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
As such she grew up utilising  many variations of her name (as did many others of this region).
She was born with the given Yiddish name of Scheindel,  which means beautiful....and so her Hebrew name was Yafa (meaning 'beautiful' in Hebrew).
To her Hungarian friends and when speaking Hungarian, she was known as Sari/Shari.
On her Czech documents and at Czech School, she was Charlotta and whilst attending Russian School, she was Zlate or Slava.
In English, she was Charlotte.
Other variations of usage I've noted are Jennie (Zseni) in English. 

The name Sari, is more typical of Hungarian background and hence, used in those parts that were once a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire eg. Hungary; parts of former Czechoslovakia (Slovakia & Sub-Carpathia) and parts of Romania.  Its possible that Sara could be interchanged, however it's not usual practice and is more likely a different name.
Sara/Sarah in Hebrew, would be more commonly used the same in Yiddish as well as usage of Szure; Surele/Sarale; Sore etc. and likely Suri/Szuri or Szerin in Hungarian. In English, some of the usage would be again Sara/Sarah; Serena or even Shirley and Sadie.

Hope this helps.
Eva Blanket