Sallai
surname · Latin script
Meaning: The meaning of the name is uncertain, with proposed definitions including "weighed," "lifted up," "basket-maker," or "an exaltation"
(measured from records)Officially recorded in 12 countries · latest register: BFS, 2024
/ʃɑlɒji/(machine-generated) Hungarian · model-generated · uncertain
Sallai is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Hungary than in any other country.
- HUHungary≈1 in 6.8K(inferred from the name graph)
- DKDenmark1 in 489K
- CHSwitzerland1 in 525K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Hungary (inferred from the name graph)
- Record sources
- 95 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 6.8K (inferred from the name graph)
≈1,400 people, est.
corpus datasets behind its best-documented spelling
strongest: highest-authority source
Hungary, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin
(measured from records)The meaning of the name is uncertain, with proposed definitions including "weighed," "lifted up," "basket-maker," or "an exaltation."
Cited for this meaning 1
- Biblical Names Compiled Database
Attested across 3 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world
(measured from records)Sallai counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HU Hungary | #345 | ≈1,400 est. | ≈1 in 6.8K | — | Sallai | 95 |
| RO Romania | — | ≈120 est. | ≈1 in 176K | — | Sallai | 9 |
| BR Brazil | — | 71 | 1 in 3M | 71 | — | — |
| US United States | — | ≈60 est. | ≈1 in 5.6M | listed | Sallai | 35 |
| FR France | — | ≈53 est. | ≈1 in 1.3M | 10 | — | 1 |
| SK Slovakia | — | ≈46 est. | ≈1 in 117K | — | Sallai | 19 |
| CH Switzerland | — | 16 | 1 in 525K | 16 | — | 4 |
| DK Denmark | — | 12 | 1 in 489K | 12 | — | — |
Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: the us-wru-surnames-voterfile register; IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname); BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames); Danmarks Statistik — Hvor mange hedder...? (living-population name counts); INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses
(measured from records)Sallai is also recorded in 2 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
The etymological meaning of Sallai is debated, with proposed meanings including "weighed," "basket-maker," or "an exaltation."
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
In English, Biblical name
as a namePronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name
(measured from records)- Imre Sallaib. 1897HUHungarian journalist, politician (1897–1932)
- Elemér Sallaib. 1910HUHungarian writer, military historian
- István Sallaib. 1911HUHungarian librarian (1911–1979)
- Kornélia Sallaib. 1919HUAustrian-born Hungarian actress
- Gyula Sallaib. 1945HUHungarian electrical engineer
- Sándor Sallaib. 1960HUHungarian football player
- Róbert Benedek Sallaib. 1974HUHungarian politician
- Gergely Sallaib. 1974HUHungarian historian
- Nóra Sallaib. 1980HUHungarian actress
- Roland Sallaib. 1997HUHungarian association football player (born 1997)
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them
(machine-generated)Evidence
(measured from records)16 registers and reference works attest this spelling, across 12 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | — | 71 | #81,629 |
| CH Switzerland | BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames) | 2024 | 16 | #43,070 |
| DK Denmark | Danmarks Statistik — Hvor mange hedder...? (living-population name counts) | — | 12 | #36,143 |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1971 | 12 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1991 | 10 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1981 | 9 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1961 | 8 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1951 | 3 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1921 | 2 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1941 | 1 | — |
| US United States | wru Name Dictionary — US surnames, voter-file supplement (Khanna et al.) | — | — | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1931 | — | — |
Reference works 3
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Sallai mean, and where does it come from?
- The meaning of the name is uncertain, with proposed definitions including "weighed," "lifted up," "basket-maker," or "an exaltation." Recorded by Biblical Names Compiled Database.
- How do you pronounce Sallai?
- In Hungarian /ʃɑlɒji/. Transcriptions are machine-generated except where a dictionary is named.
- In which country does Sallai have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 1.4 thousand people named Sallai in Hungary, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled sallai.
- How common is the name Sallai?
- In Brazil, the national register counted 71 people named Sallai, about 1 in 3.0 million residents.
- How common is Sallai compared with other names?
- In Hungary, Sallai is the 345th most common surname of 88,284 surnames recorded there.
What do you want to know about Sallai?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/sallaiThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Sallai” — the 345th most common surname in Hungary. Data snapshot 2026-10-13.