The suffix -ești (pronounced [eʃtʲ], sometimes changed to -ăști [əʃtʲ]) is widespread in Romanian placenames.
It is the plural of the possessive suffix -escu, formerly used for patronyms and currently widespread in family names.
Obsolete spellings are -esci and -eșci, used for a few decades until the beginning of the 20th century.
[citation needed] In some areas in Romania, more than half of the placenames have this suffix.
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