Toponyms of the Carpathian basis have been collected by Hungarian toponymists and made available both to researchers and the general public since the beginning of the 19 ^th century. Research into and publication of the toponyms of Hajdú-Bihar and Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg Counties have been undertaken by linguists working at the University of Debrecen and the College of Nyíregyháza. It is hoped that the present book and online database will contribute not only to scientific research but will also be found useful in various forms and areas of everyday life. It will serve the protection of natural heritage and the strengthening of national and local identity through education. It may also prove a helpful tool for local governments in solving such practical tasks as official name-giving. The publication of new linguistically reliable and more up-to-date maps may also be made easier through its use.

The present volume, entitled Toponyms of Hajdú-Bihar County, Vol 1. Toponyms of the Hajdúböszörmény and Hajdúhadház Districts, besides being an integral part of the work of collecting and publishing of toponyms that has been carried on for nearly 50 years, introduces several innovations: it contains the whole stock of toponyms of five settlements (Hajdúdorog, Hajdúböszörmény, Téglás, Hajdúhadház and Bocskaikert) drawn from the earliest charter sources to the corpus of data taken from the spoken language of the 2010s. The onomastic corpus will simultaneously be made available in the online database of the Magyar Digitális Helynévtár [Hungarian Digital Toponym Registry] (http://mdh.unideb.hu). Throughout the years, the authors have involved university students in compiling the digital database, who have regularly participated in so-called “summer database camps” sponsored by various sources supporting the project.

The present volume is intended to be the first of the series embracing the toponyms of Hajdú-Bihar County. Further volumes will be based on principles similar to those to be found in this one and will demonstrate the full set of toponyms of each settlement.