| Hungarian language |
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| Alphabet, including ő ű and cs dz dzs gy ly ny sz ty zs |
| Phonetics and phonology |
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| Grammar (Noun phrases · Verbs · T-V distinction) |
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Hungarian pronunciation of English Old Hungarian script English words from Hungarian |
Hungarian names invariably use the "Eastern name order", or family name followed by given name, except in foreign language text. Hungary is the only European and Western country to do so[citation needed].
This way of writing names is not used for people who are not Hungarian. For example, "Tony Blair" will stay as "Tony Blair" in Hungarian texts.
Leaders of countries are usually translated if they have a Hungarian equivalent. For example, Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom becomes II. Erzsébet, and Pope Benedict XVI becomes XVI. Benedek pápa, but Fidel Castro remains the same.
The names of some people born before the twentieth century have been Magyarized. For example Jules Verne's name is often written as Verne Gyula, and has Hungarian pronunciation.
Outside Hungary, Hungarian names are usually rendered by the Western convention of other European languages.
A few family names are also used as given names, and this practice may confuse even a native Hungarian speaker to know which name to use. For example, in the unlikely case that a Hungarian speaker has never heard of Attila József, they would be unable to tell which of the two was his family name, because it could be either.
By law every person has no more than two surnames (most people have only one; those who have two have to hyphenate them[citation needed]). They can only also have only one or two given names (religious names not included, see below). The given names have to be chosen by the parents from an officially approved list of several thousand names; if the chosen name is not on the list, the parents can apply to get the chosen name approved. The names get approval if they aren't derogatory, can be written and pronounced easily and can be recognised as either male or female. Recently the list got widened by many foreign names, which must be written following their Hungarian spelling, e.g. Jennifer becomes Dzsenifer or Joe as Dzsó.
Those who belong to an officially recognized minority in Hungary can also choose names from their own culture, even if the name is not included on the official list.[citation needed]
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Middle names and religious names
Hungarians do not commonly use middle names (called second given names because of the Eastern name order) or their corresponding initials. While it is increasingly frequent that they are given one, they tend to choose one they prefer to use.
When baptised, a child can get an additional name (baptismal name), especially if there is no saint who bears their name so they need a name a patron saint is associated with. In confirmation, children receive another given name, but it is not used. Both the baptismal and the confirmation names have religious significance only, and they aren't on any official records.
Orthography
Modern Hungarian orthography is slightly simpler than that of the 18th and 19th centuries, but many Hungarians still use the older spelling for their names. For example, the letter 'c' is often written as 'cz'. Letters such as Q, W, X, or Y, which usually only ever are seen in foreign words, can also be seen in these older spellings of names. Some family names refer to a place of origin, and may be written ending in "Y" instead of "I". So someone from Szolnok may spell his family name "Szolnoky" instead of "Szolnoki".
Married names
There is a wide range of selection of a married name. Up to about the 18th century noblewomen kept their names at marriage and their children received their father's name. (Poor people usually did not have a last name at all[citation needed]; it became compulsory only under the reign of Joseph II). When Hungary was under Habsburg rule and became influenced by Western European traditions, women became known by their husbands' names. So for example Szendrey Júlia, marrying Petőfi Sándor, became Petőfi Sándorné (the -né suffix approximately means "wife of", and this is the Hungarian equivalent of "Mrs. John Smith"). This was both the law and the tradition until the 1950s. During the Communist rule of Hungary, great emphasis was put upon the equality of women and men, and from that time women could either choose to keep their maiden name or take that of their husband. But most women did take their husbands' names; most of the exceptions were artists.[citation needed]
Nowadays the alternatives for a woman when she marries are as shown below (using the examples of Szendrey Júlia and Petőfi Sándor – Júlia and Sándor are their given names):
- Júlia can keep her maiden name, as Szendrey Júlia (now very popular, especially among more-educated women).
- Júlia gives up her name, adds the suffix -né to her husband's full name, and will be called Petőfi Sándorné.
- Júlia adds the suffix -né to her husband's family name, adds her full name and will be called Petőfiné Szendrey Júlia.
- Júlia adds the suffix -né to her husband's full name, adds her full name and will be called Petőfi Sándorné Szendrey Júlia (less popular these days, because it is long to write).
- Júlia takes her husband's family name, keeps her given name "Júlia" and will be called Petőfi Júlia.
Since the start of 2004 there has been one more option: to hyphenate the name. A man can take his wife's surname, because the law[citation needed] which gave this option only to women but not men was declared sexist and unconstitutional. (But men still have fewer alternatives than women.) So, Júlia can become either Petőfi-Szendrey Júlia or Szendrey-Petőfi Júlia while Sándor either keeps his own name or hyphenates it in either order. Sándor can also become Petőfi-Szendrey Sándor, Szendrey-Petőfi Sándor or Szendrey Sándor, while Júlia either keeps her name or hyphenates it, but changes names each to each (so {{Petőfi Sándor and Szendrey Júlia become Szendrey Sándor and Petőfi Júlia) is not allowed.
The law says that one can have a maximum of two last names.[citation needed] If they come to the marriage with more than one surname, they will have to choose which one to keep.
Both the bride and groom have to declare at the wedding which name they will use; and they have to declare which family name their children will get (which can be changed until the birth of the first child). Children can get either parent's surname, if it is on the marriage certificate, but all children must have the same surname. Since 2004 they can also get a hyphenated name, but only if both parents kept their birth names at least as one part of their new name. Children usually get their father's surname, but hyphenated names are becoming more common.
People of the same sex are not allowed to marry in Hungary, so they cannot legally use each other's names, unless they change their names through a deed of change of name.
Women's names in everyday life
When a woman takes her husband's name in the traditional way, as in Petőfi Sándorné, her female first name no longer forms part of her official name, yet this is the name she will be called by even after her wedding, in all but the most formal contexts. Thus, Hungarian radio speakers and others often resort to a compromise like Kovács Jánosné, Juli néni (Mrs. János Kovács, aunt Juli) to indicate how the woman should be called by others. (Néni and bácsi, "aunt" and "uncle", are traditional polite forms to address older people, and, for children, to address all adults; it doesn't indicate a family relationship.)
Some women who officially bear the -né form will nevertheless introduce themselves with their husband's family name and their own first name (in our example, Kovács Júlia or Kovácsné Júlia, rather than Kovács Jánosné), to avoid confusion about how to address them.
If the woman takes her husband's full name, the couple can easily be referred to in writing as Petőfi Sándor és neje (Sándor Petőfi and wife), equivalent to the English form "Mr. and Mrs. John Smith". This can be seen on older tombstones in Hungarian cemeteries.
See also
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