At 22:33 2006.06.12.ÿ Monday, Janet Kozlay wrote: >There are several references on the Internet to this so-called official list >of names, but I have not seen any sources given. It may be a myth that it >was a legal requirement. Just looked up the relevant legislation (1982/17 tvr.). Not a myth -- and it is still a requirement. There is a register maintained by the Academy (apparently not available on the internet). The rule is that you need to choose a name from that register, or if not, the Academy must approve it. There are also registers for the ethnic minorities. Geza -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.1.394 / Virus Database: 268.8.3/361 - Release Date: 2006.06.11.

Thanks, Geza, for the reference. I just found a list of the most popular Hungarian names given in 2005 (http://index.hu/politika/bulvar/nev3536/) and was quite surprised: Rank Boys Girls 1 Bence Anna 2 Máté Viktória 3 Balázs Réka 4 Dávid Vivien 5 Dániel Zsófia 6 Levente Petra 7 Tamás Dorina 8 Ádám Fanni 9 Péter Boglárka 10 Gergő Eszter Some of them seem to be what used to be only nicknames for more traditional ones (Bence/Benedek, Gergő/Gergely). This list is very different from what I presume is the following more traditional list. I don't know what era this is from (I cannot translate the heading), but these names seem to be far more familiar: Leggyakoribb utónevek a teljes lakosság körében Boys Girls 1. László Mária 2. István Erzsébet 3. József Ilona 4. János Katalin 5. Zoltán Éva 6. Sándor Anna 7. Ferenc Margit 8. Gábor Zsuzsanna 9. Attila Julianna 10. Péter Judit Janet