Tag #115241 - Interview #78642 (Ferenc Leicht)

So this is how my parents met, and when I was born they lived in Keszthely for a short time. My deceased grandfather, whose name was Lipot, wasn’t called Uncle Lipi  [Lipot] for some reason, but Uncle Pali. In the Jewish families it is customary to name the children after the deceased grandparents or parents. When I was born and my mother had to give in my name she called me Ferenc, because I would have had an uncle called Ferenc on the paternal side, if he hadn’t died of lung cancer at a young age.

But five days after I was born my maternal grandfather, Uncle Lipot died.By the time I was 8 days old, at my circumcision I got his Hebrew name. So my Hebrew name is the same as my grandfather’s, I got the name Jehuda Arje, just like him, but my Hungarian name, Ferenc is the name of my long ago deceased uncle whom I didn’t know.