Tót (plural: Tótok) (sometimes archaic spelling: Tóth or Tóthok) was a Hungarian

exonym An endonym (also known as autonym ) is a common, name for a group of people, individual person, geographical place, language, or dialect, meaning that it is used inside a particular group or linguistic community to identify or designate them ...

used to collectively refer to the Slavic-speaking populations in the Kingdom of Hungary, today identified as

Slovaks The Slovaks ( (historical Sloveni ), singular: ''Slovák'' (historical: ''Sloven'' ), feminine: ''Slovenka'' , plural: ''Slovenky'') are a West Slavic ethnic group and nation native to Slovakia who share a common ancestry, culture, history ...

Slovenes The Slovenes, also known as Slovenians ( ), are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to Slovenia and adjacent regions in Italy, Austria and Hungary. Slovenes share a common ancestry, Slovenian culture, culture, and History of Slove ...

, and Slavonians (

Croats The Croats (; , ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and other neighboring countries in Central Europe, Central and Southeastern Europe who share a common Croatian Cultural heritage, ancest ...

Slavonia Slavonia (; ) is, with Dalmatia, Croatia proper, and Istria County, Istria, one of the four Regions of Croatia, historical regions of Croatia. Located in the Pannonian Plain and taking up the east of the country, it roughly corresponds with f ...

). The erstwhile Hungarian name for

was ''Tótország'' (Land of the Tóts/Tóths) until the end of the 19th century. In the 1604 lexicon by Albert Szenczi Molnár, "Tót" was defined as "Sclavus, Dalmata, Illyricus", a "Totorszag" (Tótsag) is "Dalmatia, Sclavonia, Illyrica, Illyricum" and "Totorszagi" language is "Dalmaticus", which themselves are also references to the Croats, Croatia, and Croatian language. The word became an

umbrella term Hypernymy and hyponymy are the wikt:Wiktionary:Semantic relations, semantic relations between a generic term (''hypernym'') and a more specific term (''hyponym''). The hypernym is also called a ''supertype'', ''umbrella term'', or ''blanket term ...

for Slavic-speaking peoples following Western Christian (mainly

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

) traditions living across the Kingdom of Hungary until the early 20th century (including the few Czech and Polish populations living in historical Hungary). In present-day Hungary, mainly Roman Catholic Tótok speaking

South Slavic languages The South Slavic languages are one of three branches of the Slavic languages. There are approximately 30 million speakers, mainly in the Balkans. These are separated geographically from speakers of the other two Slavic branches (West Slavic la ...

reside in areas west of the Danube (

Transdanubia Transdanubia ( ; , or ', ) is a traditional region of Hungary. It is also referred to as Hungarian Pannonia, or Pannonian Hungary. Administrative divisions Traditional interpretation The borders of Transdanubia are the Danube River (north and ...

), while Tótok of Slovak origin with Catholic or Lutheran religion live in the areas east of the Danube ( North Hungarian Mountains). Beginning in the 20th century, the term "Tót" was gradually removed from official use, and the word that previously included several different Western Christian Slavic ethnic groups was limited to Slovaks in common parlance. Several Hungarian settlements preserve the name Tót. These include Tahitótfalu (originally Tahi and Tótfalu separately), Tótkomlós, Tótszentgyörgy,

Tótszentmárton Tótszentmárton is a village in Zala County, Zala Counties of Hungary, County, Hungary. References

Populated places in Zala County {{Zala-geo-stub ...

, Tótszerdahely, Tótújfalu , and

Tótvázsony Tótvázsony () is a village in Veszprém (county), Veszprém county, Hungary. External links * Street map (Hungarian)
Populated places in Veszprém County {{Veszprem-geo-stub ...

, Lengyeltóti , and Káptalantóti. The surname

Tóth Tóth (sometimes Tót or Toth) is a Hungarian surname, Hungarian ethnonymic surname that was an older term related to the "Tótok" meaning Slavs (of Slavonia i.e. Croats, also Slovenes and Slovaks), since one of the Hungarian names for Slavic part ...

is currently the third most common surname in Hungary.Tamás Farkas
A Surname Typology Project: The Lessons Learnt from the Distribution of the Most Frequent Hungarian Surnames
2018

References

{{Reflist Hungarian exonyms