Largest to Smallest

We are continuing our series on the differences between Hungarian and American customs that affect our work and lives here in Hungary.

In Hungary, people's names seem backward to us.  Family names come first and then given names. Hungarians know that the rest of Europe state their names differently, so when they are introduced to foreigners, they turn their names around, but all official documents have their family name first. It did not take us long to get used to this little difference, but it took a while to adapt the INSTE computer program to it.  Until we were able to get it fixed, all the grade reports and certificates had the names backwards, not a good thing for official documents.

One of our first language teachers explained to us that in Hungary, people begin with a large group and work their way down to the individual.  That works with names and it works with addresses.  When addressing an envelope, the name comes first.  The next line is the zip code and the city.  The last line is the street name, house number and apartment number.  Large to small.  It works.