Hungarian2 syllablesSaint's name
Meaning: the Hungarian form of Blaise, the saint invoked for the throat.
Balázs
| Origin | Hungarian form of Latin Blasius, the name of the fourth-century martyr known in English as Blaise |
|---|---|
| Meaning | Latin blaesus, "lisping" or "stammering", itself from Greek blaisos, bow-legged. An unflattering root that nobody has heard for a thousand years |
| Pronunciation | BAH-lahzh. The digraph zs is the sound in the middle of measure; the á is long, and the stress stays at the front |
| Popularity | Outside the current U.S. top 100 and very rare in America; a steady, unremarkable name in Hungary across several generations |
| Variants | Blaise (French), Biagio (Italian), Blas (Spanish), Blažej (Czech), Vlas (Russian) |
| Nicknames | Balázska, Balcsi, Baló |
| Name day | 3 February, the feast of St Blaise |
History & meaning
St Blaise was a physician and bishop of Sebaste in Armenia, martyred around 316, and the story that fixed him in European memory is small and domestic: on the way to prison he saved a boy choking on a fishbone. That is why he became the saint of the throat, and why Hungarian Catholic churches still perform balázsolás on 3 February, holding two crossed candles under the chin of anyone who comes forward. For centuries a second custom was attached to the day, the Balázs-járás, in which schoolboys went house to house singing and recruiting the next year's pupils — a saint's day doubling as an enrolment drive.
The name itself is Latin Blasius, and the root is uncharitable: blaesus means lisping. Names outlive their meanings, and this one has outlived its by a very wide margin. What Hungarian did to it is the interesting part. Latin Bl- is not a shape Hungarian tolerated at the front of a word, so a vowel was pushed in to break the cluster, and Blasius came out as Balázs. Hungarian handled its whole imported Christian stock this way, bending Nicholas into Miklós and Gabriel into Gábor until they stopped sounding foreign.
Why parents choose it
It is plain in the way a name gets to be plain only by being used constantly for six hundred years, and the zs gives it a soft landing that harder Hungarian names do not have. Abroad, the spelling is the whole problem: readers see a z and an s and try both.
Middle names for Balázs
That buzzing ending wants a clean consonant after it: Balázs Péter, Balázs Antal, Balázs Kristóf, Balázs Dénes. The middle names guide sets out the reasoning rather than the examples.
Famous Balázses
Balázs Taróczy won the Wimbledon men's doubles in 1985 with Heinz Günthardt, beating Pat Cash and John Fitzgerald in the final. Balázs Dzsudzsák captained Hungary through more than a hundred internationals and played for PSV Eindhoven in between. Balázs Baji took bronze in the 110 metres hurdles at the 2017 World Championships in London.
Consider instead
Bence is the saint's name Hungarian parents actually reach for now. Miklós has the same imported-and-naturalised history with a firmer sound. Imre keeps the two soft syllables and swaps the Armenian martyr for a Hungarian prince.