Do you have to change your name when you apply for Hungarian citizenship?

Your name in Hungarian

When you acquire Hungarian citizenship, your name will need to be registered in Hungary in a way that conforms to Hungarian grammar and naming traditions. Most importantly, this means that only letters of the Hungarian alphabet can be used.

If your name uses only letters of the English alphabet, you are safe, since the English alphabet uses only 26 letters, which are all included among the 44 letters of the Hungarian alphabet. In this case, you can decide if you want to change your name or not.

If your name uses letters outside the Hungarian alphabet, your name will need to be changed. By default, your name will simply be transliterated in Hungarian, but you are allowed to ask for specific names too, as long as they adhere to the below rules.

Transliteration is done by OFFI (the Hungarian Office of Translation and Attestation), with the supervision of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. You can read more about their procedures here in Hungarian.

Changing your name during naturalization

When you are changing your name as part of the citizenship application process, your choices will be limited compared to changing your name otherwise. This is reflected in how the procedure has a separate name: name modification (“névmódosítás”), which allows for less flexibility than the regular name change (“névváltoztatás”).

Your Hungarian name will have to conform to Hungarian naming practices. This normally means at most two family names, and at most two given names, so if you have more of either, the “surplus” needs to be deleted. You can read more here about Hungarian naming traditions.

Additionally, you will need to observe the following rules:

1. Family name

• Your family name can remain as it is if it has only letters of the Hungarian alphabet.
• If your family name is written in a Latin alphabet but has letters not in the Hungarian alphabet, the name will be transliterated, e.g. Schäffer > Schaffer; Ziči > Zici.
• If your family name is written according to another writing system, your name will be transliterated, e.g. Левринц > Levrinc.
• You may delete part of your family name if it has multiple elements, or if it has suffixes indicating gender; e.g. Борис Леонидович Пастернак (Boris Leonidovich Pasternak) > Paszternák Borisz (deleting the paternal name); Újhelyiová > Újhelyi.
• You may choose to wear the Hungarian family name of one of your ancestors, e.g. Lőrinc instead of Levrinc.
• If you are applying together with your spouse, the two of you can apply together for the same name, which can be an ancestral name like above.
• If your mother is already deceased, you can indicate the Hungarian version of your mother’s maiden name in your new documents (the mother’s maiden name is part of a person’s core identification data in Hungary).

2. Given name

• Your given name can remain as it is if it has only letters of the Hungarian alphabet.
• If you have multiple given names, you can delete one or more of them.
• If your given name has a Hungarian equivalent, you may choose that instead.

The selection of Hungarian given names is limited, as you can only choose names that are listed in the official registry of given names, or in the lists available to ethnic minorities (in case there are also minorities among your ancestors). As a result, there is a chance you will not be able to find an equivalent of your original given name.

If you don’t want to simply have the transliteration of your original name, you can submit a request to the Hungarian Academy of Sciences to approve your preferred version (which still has to reflect current grammar and pronunciation). E.g. Miroszláv has been added as an equivalent to Miroslav recently.

If there is no Hungarian equivalent and/or your preferred version is rejected, the transliteration of your original name will have to suffice. If you want a Hungarian name that is not the equivalent of your original name, you will be able to change it through the regular name change procedure later.

Should you change your name to Hungarian?

As you can see, in some cases it is obligatory to change your name. In case you have a choice, the most important factor is how much time you intend to spend in Hungary. If you intend to move to Hungary or continue living here, it probably makes more sense to have a Hungarian sounding name.

If you change your name, you will also need to consider the logistics of having a new name and a new passport. Your new name will become valid after the oath ceremony, and you will get a Hungarian ID card and a passport shortly after. Starting from that, you will have two names: your original name, valid in your first home country, and your Hungarian name, valid in Hungary and in the EU.

If you want to learn more, book a consultation now and discuss your options with our experts. We would be happy to answer your questions.