Hungarian names

Hungarian names include both surnames, given names and (sometimes) middle names, or "second given names". In the Hungarian language, whether written or spoken, these names are invariably given in the "Eastern name order", or family name followed by given name (In foreign language texts, names are often given with the family name last). The Hungarian language is one of the few national languages in Europe to use the Eastern name order, among regional languages like the Alemannic German dialect and some Basque nationalists.

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 are usually only seen in foreign words, can also be seen in these older spellings of names, especially in old noble family names which stem from the Middle Ages. 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" but only if the chosen Y variant of the family name is not a protected name of a historically documented noble family.