A magyar családnévanyag kontrasztív szempontú tipológiai-statisztikai vizsgálata [Contrastive typological-statistical analysis of the Hungarian family name stock]

Abstract

The comprehensive description of a country’s family name stock has been, and is being, carried out in several European countries, including Hungary. The paper, from among other possible lines of research, offers a typological-statistical survey of the Hungarian family name stock. The study focuses on the 100 most frequent family names of contemporary Hungary, while taking international research (European Surname Typology Project) into account and drawing its conclusions from complete or highly representative name corpora. The paper discusses the typological distribution of the 100 most frequent contemporary family names in Hungary, in comparison with Hungarianhistorical family names from the beginning of the 18th century, as well as types of art ificial Hungarian family names produced in the processes of official family name changes in the 19–20th centuries. Certain peculiarities of Hungarian family names are also pointed out when compared to the family names of other languages and countries. The paper also focuses on some questions of research methodology that arise in the field and are rarely discussed in relevant international literature. Different approaches in research methodology are described with their consequences, i.e. differences in research results. Ultimately, the paper intends, in part, to give a picture of the Hungarian family name stock and the possibilities of further research in the field, while also exposing a number of ideas that should also be taken into consideration by international research projects of great importance.