Names Working Group

For many decades, the Hungarian Research Centre for Linguistics has the legal obligation to provide professional expertise on the registrability of new applications for surnames. It is also obliged to provide assistance and information on the names in writing or by telephone, and to provide counselling on naming.
From the 1st of July 2023, it is also required by law to provide expert opinion on the change of surnames at the request of the Department of Citizenship and Registry Directorate of the Budapest Metropolitan Government Office (see § 49 (4)-(6) of the Registry Act). In addition, it provides professional advice on the Hungarian transcription of names for naturalisations.

The activities of the Names Task Force are very complex and diversified: in addition to the well-defined daily public tasks with tight deadlines (processing name applications, expanding the list of names, liaising with the competent authorities, etc.).

Research area

The main research tasks of the Naming Working Group are the archiving of existing name records, socio-onomastic research, publication of the results in the form of scientific publications and – in view of the public interest of the topic – dissemination of knowledge. An important task is to disseminate information and to give lectures on nomenclature. On the Facebook page, we constantly prepare educational articles for the current Name Day and share information on names and naming.

Working Group Leader: Judit Raátz, PhD Email: enngm.whqvg@alghq.uha-era.uh Phone: +36 (1) 3429372 / 6093