Name theory holds that the two most ancient proper names are anthroponyms and toponyms. Therefore most information about the system of proper names (its function and history) itself can be acquired if the characteristics of these two types of proper names are revealed. They provide not only a wide range of data about the language and the onomastic system by themselves, but also — since they overlap in several aspects — a more accurate image of their respective systems can be gained through their combined examination.

The author made an attempt to reveal the far-reaching correlations of anthroponyms and toponyms, these two ancient proper name categories, in the Hungarian language with the intention to give an overall view of them. This was done in two separate volumes, which, regarding their approaches, are quite coherent in this work the author demonstrated habits of giving personal names and also their usage by applying different criteria to them. The Old Hungarian era, or, to be more exact, its early period was taken as a time frame, however, in order to provide a broader context the author crossed this chronological boundary and extended the discussion of the changes in the characteristics of the onomatosystem to the present.

The volume consists of two main units. In the theoretical introductory chapter, the author illustrated the ways by which we can define the linguistic and historical source value of the personal name structures surviving in the sources can be defined, and she discussed theoretical issues of onomastics in general. Here she examined the systemic characteristics of personal names as a type of proper names and expounded how the changes and functions of their system are determined by cultural factors; she also dealt with those universal pragmatic and cognitive elements of the personal name-giving and usage that if grasped, can be used for the description of the onomatosystem of any historical era; finally the socio-onomastic aspects of name-giving and usage are brought up among the onomastic theory issues. If looked at from a general point of view of onomastic theory, anthroponymic structure found in the written records offer a greater chance to grasp some of the spoken language of the time. It is worth considering that scribes used different Latin template structures to record certain types of anthroponyms and his linguistic intervention may also have also caused linguistic peculiarities in the sources. In order to give a more exact evaluation of the anthroponymic structures to be found in the sources in terms of language use, it seems to be necessary to separate the scribe’s linguistic influence from other layers of name usage.

In the second chapter, the onomastic theoretical foundation is followed by the functional description of the Old Hungarian anthroponymic system. The functional approach is understood as one which is the most expedient description framework for onomastic research. Demonstrating Old Hungarian habits of name giving, not only does the author expound on the main classes of anthroponymic categories (names marking peculiarities, reference names, nexus names and affective names), but also on the historical process during which closely connected to this during which some of the subsystems of the system of anthroponyms developed.