The Hungarian language is of Turkic origin and bears some similarities to Sumerian, Hurrian and Elamite. Although name forms are often very unlike the Latin, Slavonic or German they derive from, few Hungarian names are taken from the language itself. It has a different form and structure from the Indo-European languages which surround it (German, Romanian, Russian, Czech, Slovak, Slovene, Serbo-Croat) and is distantly related to Finnish. Close political links to Austria have exposed Hungary to the influence of Western Christianity and the German language and as many Slavonic groups were ruled from Budapest, their names have also been adopted. In the Middle Ages, the majority of Hungarians were given a Biblical name or the name of a saint, often of Latin origin. Most other personal names are of German or Slavic origin.
There are fourteen vowels in modern Hungarian - a, e, i, o, u, á, é, í, ó, ú, ö, ü, and an o and u with a double accent.
| s | like English 'sh' |
| sz | like English 's' |
| cs | like English 'ch' |
| gy | like English 'j' |
| y | final y not pronounced |
| a | o as in got |
This collection of names was compiled by Kate Monk and is ©1997, Kate Monk.
Copies may be made for personal use only.