Naming Customs

Like most countries, naming customs can be confusing to research endeavors in Slovakia. Since records are kept in Hungarian, Latin, Slovak, and sometimes even Cyrillic, it becomes essential to understand name equivalents. For example, János, Joannes, Jan and John may be more easily recognized as the same name, but István, Stephanus, and Stefan, or Lajos, Ludwig and Louis might be more difficult to associate. Örsibet, Ersibet, Elsibet, Elisabeth, Örze, and others all denote Elizabeth. Since no two records may list the same person the exact same way, be alert for pronunciations and name equivalents when searching the records. For a comprehensive list of names and their counterparts, see Jared Suess’s Handy Guide to Hungarian Genealogical Records in the "For Further Reference" section.