Landlocked Hungary, located in Central Europe, shares a border with seven other countries (including Croatia, Slovenia, and Austria).
Last year, Hungary welcomed over 93,000 babies.
What were the most popular names among these babies? Hanna and Levente (pronounced leh-vehn-teh).
Here are Hungary’s top 50 girl names and top 50 boy names of 2021:
Girl Names
- Hanna, 1,355 baby girls
- Zoé, 1,138
- Anna, 1,133
- Léna, 1,019
- Luca, 940
- Emma, 783
- Boglárka, 682 – means “buttercup” in Hungarian.
- Lili, 646
- Lilien, 601
- Lara, 594
- Zsófia, 588
- Laura, 577
- Mira, 553
- Sára, 523
- Olívia, 518
- Nóra, 506
- Lilla, 505
- Maja, 501
- Gréta, 496
- Izabella, 484
- Flóra, 476
- Jázmin, 475
- Alíz, 462
- Fanni, 430
- Adél, 426
- Janka, 425
- Dorka, 409 – a diminutive of Dorottya (Dorothea).
- Szofia, 406
- Zselyke, 396
- Liza, 393
- Csenge, 373
- Bella, 363
- Panna, 362 – a diminutive of Anna.
- Liliána, 361
- Kamilla, 352
- Linett, 351
- Dóra, 340
- Natasa, 333
- Viktória, 328
- Bianka, 321
- Szófia, 311
- Rebeka, 309
- Réka, 305
- Blanka, 304
- Szofi, 297
- Petra, 296
- Dorina, 295
- Nara, 286
- Emília, 285
- Noémi, 280
Boy Names
- Levente, 1,332 baby boys
- Máté, 1,314
- Dominik, 1,289
- Bence, 1,276
- Olivér, 1,199
- Noel, 1,122
- Marcell, 1,083
- Dániel, 1,057
- Zalán, 1,026 – popularized (and perhaps invented?) by Hungarian poet Mihály Vörösmarty, who published the epic poem “Zalán Futása” (transl. “The Flight of Zalan”) in 1825.
- Ádám, 1,024
- Milán, 954
- Botond, 934
- Benett, 880
- Dávid, 870
- Zsombor, 813
- Áron, 808
- Balázs, 681
- Benedek, 639
- Márk, 620
- Nimród, 607
- Péter, 590
- László, 583
- Tamás, 580
- Gergo, 530
- Zente, 517 – based on the Hungarian word szent, meaning “holy.”
- Bálint, 508 – a form of Valentine.
- Barnabás, 508
- Kristóf, 507
- Zétény, 484
- András, 453
- Kornél, 446
- Nolen, 444
- Márton, 433
- István, 426
- Hunor, 420 – a name from Hungarian mythology. Legendary brothers Hunor and Magor were the ancestors of the Huns and the Hungarians (also known as the Magyars), respectively.
- Attila, 402
- Ákos, 399
- Zoltán, 393
- Martin, 391
- Alex, 388
- Vince, 370
- Gábor, 365
- János, 358 (tie)
- Patrik, 358 (tie)
- Ábel, 357
- Bendegúz, 337
- Erik, 328
- Zsolt, 323
- Krisztián, 315
- József, 283
Notably, the girls’ top 50 included three different versions of the name Sophia: Zsófia, Szofia, and Szófia. If the spellings had been combined, the Sophia-group would have ranked 2nd overall.
The girls’ top 100 included Zorka (70th), Fruzsina (72nd), Kinga (86th), and Kincso (96th).
The boys’ top 100 included Csaba (55th), Kende (75th), Imre (76th), and Gellért (92nd).
Finally, here are Hungary’s rankings for 2017 through 2020, in case you’d like to compare.
Sources: Statistics – Hungary’s Deputy State Secretariat for the Administration of the Ministry of the Interior, Number of live births in Hungary from 2010 to 2021 – Statista, Hungary – Wikipedia, Magyar Keresztnevek Tara, Wiktionary
Image: Adapted from Flag of Hungary (public domain)