Notes by Németh Mária

Accents Matter: Writing Hungarian Names Correctly

Hungarian names often lose their accents the moment they enter an English text. Sometimes that is a technical accident, sometimes a style decision nobody made on purpose. Either way, the result can change the name, and occasionally the meaning. Here is what I check when a Hungarian name appears in an English article.

Accents are letters, not decoration

In Hungarian, a and á are different letters, and so are o, ö and ő. Dropping the mark does not make the word simpler; it makes it a different word or no word at all. If your system can show é, it can show ő and ű too. Those two double acute letters are the ones most often swapped for ô or õ, which do not exist in Hungarian.

Name order: decide once, then stay consistent

Hungarians put the family name first: Németh Mária, not Mária Németh. In English texts both orders are common. Pick one per text and keep it, and when it helps, add a short note the first time the name appears. Mixing the two orders in one article makes readers think there are two people.

Do not translate first names

János is not automatically John, and Katalin is not Catherine. Unless the person uses the English form themselves, keep the original.

Check the “dr.” and other titles

In Hungarian, titles come before the full name and are lower case in running text: dr. Kiss Anna. In English, follow the style guide of the publication instead of copying the Hungarian form.

A quick checklist

• Every accent kept, ő and ű included?
• One name order used throughout?
• First names left untranslated?
• Search and sort still work with accented letters on your site?

Small details, but readers who carry these names notice every one of them.