Nagy
A common Hungarian surname meaning “big” or “great.”
The #2,354 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 19,923 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Nagy is the Hungarian word for “big,” “large,” or “great.” As a surname, it most likely began as a nickname for a tall, important, or otherwise notable person, and later became a hereditary family name. It is one of the most common surnames in Hungary.
History
The surname is strongly associated with Hungary and with Hungarian-speaking communities elsewhere in Central Europe. Because it is such a common word in Hungarian, it has also been widely carried by emigrants and their descendants, including in the United States. In historical surname studies, it is usually treated as a straightforward descriptive name rather than a rarer occupational or locational one.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
In Hungarian place names, nagy- often means “great” or “big,” so it appears in many geographic names as well as surnames.
From the historical record
“Nagelschmidt 629. Nagler 629. Nagy 595. *Nagybanya 528. *Nagy-Osztro 8. ^Nagyszombat 528. Nahl 140. "^Nahiisen 486.”
— Die Personennamen, insbesondere die FamiliennamenNotable people named Nagy
- Imre Nagy (1896–1958)
- László Moholy-Nagy (1895–1946)
Sourced from Wikidata; linked to their Wikipedia page.