Hungarian names and titles

In Hungarian the family name comes first, titles come after the name, and a married woman's name can tell you her husband's name. Add a rich system of nicknames and the fact that names take case endings like any other noun, and you have a small but essential chapter of everyday Hungarian.

Family name first: Nagy János

A Hungarian full name is family name + given name: Nagy János is the man an English text would call János Nagy. This "eastern name order" is used on documents, in the phone book, in class registers and in everyday speech. It follows the same big-to-small logic as Hungarian dates (2026. szeptember 27.) and addresses.

• Kovács Péter vagyok. I'm Péter Kovács.
• Liszt Ferenc the composer known in English as Franz Liszt
• Bartók Béla Béla Bartók

When writing in English, most Hungarians reverse the order to match English conventions, which is why the same person can appear as Bartók Béla and Béla Bartók. In Hungarian texts, foreign names keep their own order: John Smith, not *Smith John.

Some common family names are plain words: Nagy ("big"), Kis or Kiss ("small"), Kovács ("smith"), Szabó ("tailor"), Horváth (originally "Croat"), Tóth (originally "Slovak"), Németh ("German"). Many older family names keep historical spellings: th is pronounced t, a final y after a consonant is pronounced i (Ady), ch is cs (Széchenyi), and cz is c (Móricz). See the alphabet and pronunciation.

Given names come from an official register: parents choose from a list of approved given names maintained by the Hungarian Research Centre for Linguistics, and new names can be requested for approval. Two given names are allowed and fairly common: Kovács Anna Mária.

Married women's names: -né and modern practice

The suffix -né means "wife of". Traditionally a married woman took her husband's full name plus -né, which means her own given name disappeared from her official name entirely. Today the law offers several options. For a woman born Tóth Anna who marries Kovács János, they include:

Two practical consequences. First, if a letter is addressed to Kovács Jánosné, it is for Mrs Kovács, not for János. Second, in conversation, a bare Kovácsné ("Mrs Kovács") is still heard, but on its own it can sound old-fashioned or even brusque; a given name with formal verbs, or a title, is usually friendlier.

Titles come after the name

Where English puts Mr, Dr or Aunt before the name, Hungarian puts the title after it.

A title can also stand alone as a form of address, which Hungarians use far more than English speakers use "Doctor!" or "Teacher!": Doktor úr, mikor jöjjek vissza? ("Doctor, when should I come back?"), Tanárnő, kérdezhetek valamit? ("Miss, may I ask something?"). In writing, the doctoral title is abbreviated dr., placed before the name and lowercase in running text: dr. Kovács János.

Néni and bácsi: kinship words for non-kin

Néni ("aunt") and bácsi ("uncle") are added to the given name of an older person who is not necessarily a relative: a neighbour, the school cook, a friend's grandmother. Children use them with virtually every adult outside the family; adults use them with people clearly older than themselves. They usually go with formal verbs or the tetszik construction: Kati néni, hogy tetszik lenni?

For how titles combine with formal and informal verb forms, see formal and informal "you". The golden rule: a title means formal verbs. Kovács úr, hogy van?, never *Kovács úr, hogy vagy?

Nicknames and diminutives

Almost every Hungarian given name has one or more familiar forms, and friends rarely use the full name. Some are predictable, others must be learned.

The building blocks

• -i, usually on a shortened stem: Kati, Laci, Feri, Zoli, Andi. This is the everyday adult nickname.
• -ka / -ke (often on top of -i, giving -ika / -ike): Marika, Katika, Évike, Petike. Warmer and more childlike.
• -csi: Jancsi, familiar from the fairy-tale pair Jancsi és Juliska (Hansel and Gretel).
• -ó / -kó: Ferkó, Jankó, often rustic or old-fashioned.
• -us / -uska: Annus, Annuska, affectionate.

Several of these suffixes are general diminutives that also work on ordinary nouns (madárka "little bird", házikó "little house"); with names they signal familiarity and affection. Using a nickname you have not been offered can be over-familiar, so wait until the person introduces themselves with it (Kati vagyok).

Suffixes on names: Annával, Péterrel, Tamásnak

Names are nouns, so they take every case ending, following normal vowel harmony and sound rules. Try any of them in the suffix builder.

The patterns to notice:

• Final a and e lengthen: Anna → Annával, Éva → Évának.
• The v of -val/-vel copies a preceding consonant: Péterrel, Tamással. With a digraph the doubling is written by repeating only its first letter: Kováccsal, Naggyal (see the instrumental).
• Names with historical spellings keep the name intact and add the suffix as it sounds: Kossuthtal, Széchenyivel, Móriczcal.

Name + -ék: "the Kovácses"

The suffix -ék turns a name into a group: the family or the people around that person.

• Kovácsék holnap jönnek. The Kovácses are coming tomorrow.
• Péteréknél vacsorázunk. We're having dinner at Péter's (place).
• Annáékhoz megyünk. We're going to Anna and her family's.

With people, "to someone's place" uses the proximity cases -hoz/-nál/-tól, not the inner cases: Péterhez megyek (see proximity cases). And "X's" is expressed with a possessive suffix on the thing owned: Péter autója ("Péter's car"; see possession).

Name days

Because given names come from a shared calendar tradition, each name has one or more névnap (name day) dates, celebrated much like a small birthday with Boldog névnapot! For example, Miklós is celebrated on December 6 and Ádám and Éva on December 24. More in dates, days and months.

Sources and further reading

• Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, A magyar helyesírás szabályai (12th ed., Akadémiai Kiadó, 2015), rules on personal names and suffixes on names
• Nyelvtudományi Kutatóközpont (HUN-REN Hungarian Research Centre for Linguistics), language advice service (e-nyelv.hu / nyelvtudomanyi.hu), including the register of given names
• Carol H. Rounds, Hungarian: An Essential Grammar (2nd ed., Routledge, 2009)

Frequently asked questions