Dear Janet, Thank you for the concise study you have given this discussion regarding names. My first thought on the surname Nagy was perhaps it was the connotation of "great" which might seem likely and more desirable, but a search confirmed your meaning of "big." The World of Names, A Study in Hungarian Onomatology by Bela Kalman includes Nagy as "Masculine Names denoting physical stature." Other examples given were Kisid, Kusid (small, little), Ero, Eros, Eroka (strength, strong), Hitvand (weak, sickly, or perhaps a protective name), Kemend (hard), Csepke (tiny), Kurta (short), Gyenge (weak)...I wonder how does this differs from Hitvand? It is interesting, the author goes on to say that protective names which were given to newborn babies for the purpose of keeping away evil, harmful demons. He lists these under Religious, superstitious names. Some illustrated were Szemet (dirt), Nemvalo (non-existing), Mavagy (exists today, but is so weak as not to live until tomorrow), etc. The author cites many names of "Turkic" derivation. One would think these religious or superstitious names would be "given names," but the author does not distinguish. The author, when identifying given names calls them "personal names." Anyone want to expound on this? The author mentions Arpad as the hypocoristic (pet name or name of endearment) form of the noun arpa (barley). The name Arpad was initiated by the upper social strata. Name giving (personal names) became monotonous: 16th Century the first 7 names (of the persons examined) belonged to almost 40% 17th Century the first 7 names belonged to almost 57% 18th Century the first 7 names belonged to almost 72% Fortunately in the 19th Century given names became more adventuresome. Marika