Vajda Family History

Hungarian, Slovak, Rusyn (from Slovakia), Czech, Slovenian, Croatian, and Serbian: status name from Hungarian vajda ‘leader, governor’, a title of Slavic origin (from vojvoda ‘commander, military leader’, later ‘duke’). The Hungarian name is especially common in Transylvania (which is since WWI entirely in Romania and the surname is hence mostly spelled Vaida), where before the creation of the independent Hungarian principality the term had denoted the highest ranking administrative and military leader.

In medieval times, various Romanian village leaders, as well as the leaders of gypsy caravans, were also called vajda; this title is still in use for gypsy leaders in Slovakia, where the surname is common too. Compare Vayda and Wayda; see also Polish Wajda.

Croatian: in some cases also a nickname from the dialect word vajda ‘benefit, behalf’ of Turkish origin. Jewish (from Hungary): adoption of the name in 1 above either as a Hungarian calque of the formerly used German-based surname or because the Hungarian surname has some sounds in common with the original surname.