Why is John's Last Name Different than Other Family Members?

How the Parvus Became Americans

The Parvu family came to the United States in the form of a single traveler from Sepreus, Romania. Born on Saturday, December 16, 1888, Petru Parv (Later known as Parvu) would become the first in his family to become a citizen of the United States. Many ask why the addition of the "U" to the last name? Some sources explain that any name that ends in “-u”, “-anu”, “-aru” or “-escu” is a staple Romanian surname. For example: “Militaru”, “Stancu”, “Feraru”, “Moraru”, “Munteanu”, “Stoianu”, “Popescu”, “Andreescu”.

Suffixes were a faster way of communicating an identity without saying - "Daniel, who is the son of John the Farmer". This just took too long, so we smart humans created a short few letters that would mean the same thing. In the case of the Romanian language, their suffixes are all Latin and in Roman times, used to end in “us”. However, Romanians seemed to have dropped the “s” and only the “u” remained.

Like the single letter suffix "u", the suffix “-escu” is a very common Romanian surname suffix and it means “like” or “-ish” which comes from the Latin ending “iscus/iscum” and is related to Italian “esco” and French “esque”. In general, it is a Latin influence that indicates “belonging to something.” So a name like Stanescu means “belonging to Stan, or to Stan’s people or family” and so on… It is a common name formula because we all belong to a family and can be named after its most known member. Similar suffixes exist in many languages, the Polish use "ski" & "sky" or in prefix form such as the Irish or Scottish "Mc" and "Mac". So our dear ancestor Petru Parv, would have been called Parvu.

In 1912, fearing the approaching war, Petru's older brothers put him on an Italian ship, the Caronia, bound for the United States. Petru arrived in New York on Thursday, February 15, 1912.

Left to Right: Peter, Maria (holding Helen), Anne, Petru & John, Circa 1926

How did Parvu Become Perv in the First Place?

Peter's son's and daughters grew and each had children of their own. The growing family enjoyed a very close knit life. With many cousins, aunts and uncles living in the same town, going to the same schools, many of them lived in the same building.

In the late 1990's, one of Peter's great grandson's, Dan Parvu, began to research the family name. He was able to procure his great grandfather's birth certificate and decided to return to the original spelling, adding the "u" to signify belonging to the Parv family. Parvu was adopted by several other members of the family. However, some family members decided to retain their surname Perv. Peter's grandson John A. Perv is one such member of the family.

This is a brief history of the Parv/Perv/Parvu name and hopefully explains why some family members are Perv and others Parvu.

Petru's Certificate of Arrival on the SS Caronia, February 15, 1912. You can clearly see that the spelling of his surname was already being confused.

Due to different pronunciations, vowel sounds and cultures, we don't all hear the spelling of words and names the same. For example the Name Volkswagon when pronounced by someone of German decent would sound as though it should be spelled Wolksvagon to North American ears. The examples are endless. we believe something similar happened in the case of Petru Parv (P-oor-v or P-oor-vu). If the agent taking his information heard an "e" where there should have been an "a" then the misspelling would have begun. However the incorrect spelling got started, Petru would now be Peter Perv and passed his surname to his descendants.

Peter would go on to live in the town of Akron, OH earning a living as a rubber worker. There, he married Maria Balaju and the two had 5 children: Anne, Peter Jr., John, Daniel and Helen. Sadly Daniel died as an infant. The surviving children grew to have very meaningful lives full of family and loving friends. Anne and Helen eventually married and took the surname of their husbands, Peter's sons, Peter and John, maintained the surname Perv for the course of their lives.

Birth certificate of Petru Parv, born December 15, 1888 to Flore and Ana Parv, Sepreus, Arad, Romania

John with many of his cousins, Circa 1955

Get in touch

My dear family, I wrote this based on the documents I have available to me with the full intention of being as accurate as possible. Any inaccuracies are unintentional and I am happy to post corrections. Feel free please to use this contact form to submit corrections or desired additions. - J. Parvu