Hay

• 1. Introduction

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  Háy is a Hungarian surname carried by three notable people, and the source names each one. The list spans a communist leader, an economist, and a Canadian author. Two of those men died in the same year, 1975, though they were born seven years apart. The third was born in 1944 and made his life in Canada, not Hungary. So what holds this short list together beyond a shared name? The answer runs through one family. One of these three was the son of another.

• 2. Three Bearers

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  Gyula Háy, who lived from 1900 to 1975, is described as a Hungarian communist leader. He stands first among the three people the source records under this surname. His life began at the turn of the century and ended in the same year as one of his namesakes. László Háy, born in 1893 and also dying in 1975, was a Hungarian economist. He was the older of the two men who share that final year, having been born seven years before Gyula. The source links these two only by surname and by the coincidence of when they died. Peter Háy, born in 1944, breaks the pattern in two ways. He is identified as a Canadian author rather than a Hungarian figure, and he is the only one of the three still living in the source's account. He is also named as the son of Gyula Háy, the thread that ties this surname back to a single family line.