Szentkultusz és személynévadás Magyarországon [Cult of Saints and Naming in Hungary]. By Mariann Slíz

The fact that naming customs may provide valuable information on the cult of saints, requiring multi- and interdisciplinary approaches, is not new. Relating the changes in the cult of certain saints to the naming habits in Hungary in a given period, however, demands a different method. Mariann Slíz’s monograph presents the outcomes of an experiment testing whether we can examine on the macro level in the spatial, temporal, and social dimensions the relationship of a saint’s cult and the personal names related to it (including family names derived from it) based on existing databases, starting from the Middle Ages to the present day. Already at first sight, the enterprise seems challenging, but after reading the author’s well-consid-ered, problem-sensitive and critical presentation of points of view and methods, we become even more aware of the limitations and difficulties of a research project about the complete Hungarian history of names, and we understand why this is the first comprehensive monograph on the topic. The