jetsam1

Hello,

Was wondering if anyone has ever come accross this before. We have a new baby and are needing to register him in Hungary! Now because I am British and we want to call him James apparently I need to show proof that this is a boys' name. Obviously I don't have the foggiest about what would comprise proof for the registrar here. Surprised it even matters!

Just wondering if anyone had seen/heard of this before and what was the outcome. Can I tell them it should be obvious? Would a book on Scottish history suffice?

Could give in and call him Janos but that is too easy and I'm sure they'd just discover another hurdle for us!

Cheers! And what an odd question...

fidobsa

To be honest I'm wondering if someone is winding you up! If there are such laws I'm sure they must be in contravention of the European Law of Human Rights. I think a couple of Jesus disciples were called James so you could take a Bible if it really is true.

Peter_in_Hungary

You could....but Janos typically is taken to be John and according to my Hungarian wife James is not translated into a Hungarian name, although I have see a translation that said "Jakab – Hungarian version of Jacob or James" but that doesn't seen right some how.

I would stick to your guns, (e.g. there are several Hungarian girls called Barbara instead of Borbála so having an English name should not be a problem)

I would suggest you ask the office what they want as proof that James is a male name - since they should know what they will accept and what they won't.

Peter_in_Hungary

Are you going to register him at the British Embassy as well?

wolfi

Not too much OT:

Our neighbour announced to us this winter that his son gave his first born the name Patrick or Patrik (not sure about the Hungarian spelling ...) so we congratulated them on the big Irish holiday ...
So obviously it shouldn't be a problem with James.

scrubbedexpat0105

If you take an English and a Hungarian bible, you can show them that the book of James is the book of Jakab in the same place. Given the prevailing political sentiment, that should smooth the process no end!

Pulaski

It is fairly common for non-English speaking countries to mandate that the registration of births is only allowed using names in the language of that country. I know that France has such a law, as does Argentina.

wolfi

I should have asked my wife before answering - she worked in the Mayor's office (önkórmánzad ...) in communist times and told me now that they had a book of allowable names then ...

Totally OT:

She did weddings for the city and also "baptisms" on Saturdays -some extra money for hairdressing but of course usually also some kind of present from the people involved ...

jetsam1

Hi apologies for not responding quicker but the honey has needed extracting and it has been crazy especially with a three year old and the two week old!

Got through to the British Embassy this morning and they have confirmed that it is something that has happened before. So it's not just us! They are going to supply some paperwork to sort everything out. They have been in contact with the government in the past to explain UK citizens and names. So, just waiting for an email confirmation and hopefully we can then get it set up. It does take a while for the Hungarian registration to all get sorted out apparently.

Cheers for all the replies, I was going to suggest that they tried Google.....

wolfi

Jetsam, life can be complicated sometimes - especially in Hungary ...

Hope you and your wife can manage that.

Totally OT re honey:
It's probably Akacia honey you're "harvesting" - what's the current price?

My friends and family in Germany like it very much, I'm always asked to bring some - luckily one of our neighbours has bees ...

jetsam1

Well, we have a piece of paper now to take with us and the Hungarian Authorities have been provided with an officially translated copy so if we run into problems we are to ask them to phone their head office.

UK citizens (as I thought) have the legal right to call their children anything that they so choose. So it is irrelevant whether the name is a boys name or not. It doesn't legally matter. So we should be fine.

Honey. Yes we're doing Acacia at the moment it's not been a good year frankly and we're waiting for confirmation of what the prices will stabilise at. They're not really at a point where it makes sense to sell as of last week but as there isn't going to be much on the market that will hopefully change!

jetsam1

Update: We have the Birth Certificate and Lak cim Kartya with the Taj Kartya in the post. We went to physically pick them up. So all is fine and now we can start the next set of paperwork!

scot47

Many States in Europe followed the French example of listing acceptable names and banning the use of names not listed. Only names on the "approved list" could be used. When I see what some people think are appropriate names I think Napoleon had a sensible idea !

Shirtback

Late to the thread, but just wanted to point out that the statements I've bolded above are not accurate, regarding France at least.

https://www.service-public.fr/partic...vosdroits/F882

Pulaski

I see the law in France changed in 1993. Until a moment ago I was not aware of the change.