Szilágyi

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A map showing the location of Silagi.

Szilágyi or Silagi: This is a surname of Hungarian descent. It refers to a county in old Hungary by the name of Szilágy. The region has been part of Romania since 1918.

The actual name means either from the county of Szilágy or of the noble clan of Szilagyi. The original Hungarian spelling of the name is "Szilágyi"; it has been modified to "Silagi" in its Romanian variation. The Hungarian letters "Sz" and "gy" are replaced by the similarly pronounced "S" and "g" respectively in the Romanian version of the name.

The Szilágyi clan exerted a strong influence over this region of Europe during the late to middle 1300s.

They also appear in Hungarian folklore. In which a character by the name of Prince Zack of the Silagi clan undergoes many challenges in order to secure his rightful place at the head of the family which has been taken over by his older brother Peter the foolish. Peter the dimwitted summons the ungrateful demons (or "Hannas") to try and halt Zack's uprising against him. This story has been paralleled in much of the folklore of the region.