I am reminded of my Hungarianess every time someone stumbles over my familial surname.
To be honest, I understand!
In Hungarian the name sounds so different than it seems spelled when you are an English speaker.
Also as of three generations ago when my Hungarians came to America, they were also involved in various pronunciations and name changes.
As I've come to understand it, this also has to do with the fact that though united by religion, some of them married Germans heritage people here in the United States and some of them married Slovak heritage people here in the United States. (And depending on the dates, some could say they were from Romania, or Yugoslavia!) And I think the language spoken in the home as a first language has a lot to do with it.
Long ago when I began this blog I promised that I would avoid invading any family member's privacy so that's all I have to say about that, but I wanted my Hungarian and Hungarian-American readers to think about this.
Do you, like I do, often explain that your surname is Hungarian?
Do you tell people what it means to help them get it?
