Kovács János, Nagy Erzsébet, and the like.
Let me start with the title of the post, which is a bit misleading.
Hungary is probably the only Western country where the surname (family name) comes first, followed by a given name. So the the “first name” is not the first in Hungary,. It is referred as the “christian name” , even if the name was not given at a christening ceremony.
Perhaps it is unusual but highly practical in terms of alphabetical lists.
According to the database of Hungarian Home Office these are the 20 most common surnames.
| Surnames | English meaning | |
| 1 | Nagy | Big |
| 2 | Kovács | Smith |
| 3 | Tóth | Slovak |
| 4 | Szabó | Taylor |
| 5 | Horváth | Croat |
| 6 | Varga | Shoemaker |
| 7 | Kiss | Small |
| 8 | Molnár | Miller |
| 9 | Németh | German |
| 10 | Farkas | Wolf |
| 11 | Balogh | Left handed |
| 12 | Papp | Priest |
| 13 | Lakatos | Locksmith |
| 14 | Takács | Weaver |
| 15 | Juhász | Shepherd |
| 16 | Oláh | Romanian |
| 17 | Mészáros | Butcher |
| 18 | Simon | Simon |
| 19 | Rácz | Serbian |
| 20 | Fekete | Black |
Top 20 Hungarian given (christian) names:
| Males | Females | |
| 1. | László | Mária |
| 2. | István | Erzsébet |
| 3. | József | Katalin |
| 4. | Zoltán | Éva |
| 5. | János | Ilona |
| 6. | Gábor | Anna |
| 7. | Sándor | Zsuzsanna |
| 8. | Attila | Andrea |
| 9. | Ferenc | Margit |
| 10. | Péter | Judit |
| 11. | Tamás | Ágnes |
| 12. | Zsolt | Ildikó |
| 13. | Tibor | Erika |
| 14. | András | Krisztina |
| 15. | Csaba | Julianna |
| 16. | Imre | Eszter |
| 17. | Balázs | Mónika |
| 18. | Lajos | Irén |
| 19. | György | Edit |
| 20. | Dávid | Szilvia |
So if you want to get typical Hungarian names they look like Kovács László, Szabó zoltán or Nagy Erzsébet, Tóth Mária.
However, it is changing.
The traditional given names are not popular any more, so the next generation will be called differently.
In 2019 these were the most popular given (christian) names for the new born babies.
| Males | Females | |
| 1. | Bence | Hanna |
| 2. | Máté | Anna |
| 3. | Levente | Zoé |
| 4. | Dominik | Luca |
| 5. | Marcell | Léna |
| 6. | Noel | Emma |
| 7. | Ádám | Zsófia |
| 8. | Dániel | Lili |
| 9. | Dávid | Boglárka |
| 10. | Olivér | Mira |
| 11. | Milán | Lilien |
| 12. | Zalán | Nóra |
| 13. | Botond | Jázmin |
| 14. | Benett | Laura |
| 15. | Zsombor | Maja |
| 16. | Balázs | Sára |
| 17. | Áron | Lara |
| 18. | Péter | Lilla |
| 19. | Kristóf | Izabella |
| 20. | Tamás | Gréta |
