In 1998 Veda (the publishing house of
Slovak Academy of Sciences) published the book
Názvy obcí Slovenskej republiky (Vývin v
rokoch 1773 - 1997)
Names of settlements in Slovak Republic (development in the
years 1773 - 1997)
The author Milan Majtán introduces his book as
follows:
The complex situation in the multi-ethnic Hungarian state, the
ethnic suppression and the decay of the monarchy, as well as the
development of Slovakia of the Czecho-Slovakia state and other
factors were the reason that the official names of the
settlements often changed over time. Thus arose the need to
develop a historical dictionary of names of settlements. This
dictionary is addressed not only to the small group of
linguists, historians and archivists, but it becomes a welcome
and requested manual for public servants and other specialists (e.g. genealogists - comment of
Peter Nagy).
Two decades ago, the need for a manual documenting development
of the names of settlements in Slovakia in course of last 200
years was answered by the publication of the book, "Names of
settlements in Slovakia in last 200 years". The book was very
successful and all printings (2,000) were sold out in one week.
The goal of the book was to record development of the names as
well as development of the administrative constitution, thus
creation of new settlements, merging of settlements, etc.
Since 25 years have now passed since it's publication, the book
is practically unavailable. There has been a never-ending
development of new names, and the need to correct the mistakes
of the first book created the need to publish a new manual.
So, the book "Names of settlements in Slovak Republic
(development in the years 1773 - 1997)" answered those needs.
The book has documented the very diverse development of the
official names of settlements in the given period, their
"magyarisation" as well as their "reslovakisation", changes of
ideological character (abandoning of the adjectives like saint,
etc.) and changes of administrative nature. In condensed way it
also presents the administrative development from second half of
19 century. The core of the book is alphabetic list of
settlement names with chronology of the historical names. In the
dictionary of older and non-Slovak names, which is set up in
index form there is alphabetic list of Latin, German, Hungarian
and old Slovak names of present and historic settlements in all
known variants. The index is linked to the core of the book.
The book is addressed not only the experts, historians,
archivists, but preferably to the broad group of public
servants, registrars and educational staff active in homeland
study.
The publication is issued by occasion of the fifth anniversary
of the creation of independent Slovak Republic.
Centroconsult is offering free look-ups in the book on written
request.