The vast majority of today's French people living in Hungary have arrived since the Fall of the Iron Curtain.

Latini in the Middle Ages was the common name of mainly members of the Western Congregation, while Graeci stood for the Eastern Church proponents.

According to historians the name of Hungarian settlements containing the word olasz or olaszi could meant Walloon or French, because in German they are translated as wallen.

[3] The French/Walloons settled especially in Upper Hungary (in Eger, in Spiš and in Tokaj-Hegyalja) and Transylvania (in Kolozsvár, in Szatmár and in Várad-Olaszi (part of Nagyvárad)).

Several linguists (e.g. Géza Bárczi, János Melich and others) have assumed the Walloon-French origin of many of Hungarian place names, which can only be explained by the fact that they were founded by the French[4] (e.g. Tállya from taille).

The first monks of the Cistercian Monasteries of Egres, Zirc, Pásztó, Szentgotthárd and Pilis Mountains were also French.

[12] During the Great Turkish War the Holy League could not liberate the whole territory of medieval Hungary from the Ottoman rule.

This agreement stayed in force until the Treaty of Passarowitz (1718) ending the Austro-Turkish War (1716–1718) in which Prince Eugene of Savoy and his army recaptured the Banat.

At that time the danger of an Ottoman attack was possible, so Maria Theresa order them to complete a military training to be able to fight in case of a war.

But the villages of Klein-Jetscha, Segenthau, Hatzfeld, Trübswetter, Gottlob, Ostern, Mercydorf, Charlottenburg, Rekasch, Marienfeld, Nakodorf and Weißkirchen had a significant French population.

[19] French settled also in Reschitz, Bruckenau, Jarmatha, Mastort, Heufeld, Groß-Jetscha, Tschatad, Bogarosch, Grabatz, Billed and Neu-Arad.

The longest existed their community in the three villages of Saint-Hubert, Charleville and Seultour where they stayed in majority for a long time.

Later Henri, Count of Chambord travelled there and he became so fond of them that he bought the land and five villages – Mastort, Heufeld, Saint-Hubert, Charleville and Seultour – for 1.3 million florins.

Some names were written in German: e.g. Picard -> Pikar, Bikar; Laurent -> Loran; Leblanc -> Löblan, Leblang, Leblanc; Marchand -> Marschang; Mougeon -> Muschong; Collin -> Kolleng; Aubertin -> Oberting, Oberden; Guilleaume -> Gilion, Giljon, Giljum; while others in Hungarian: Merle -> Merlei, Martin -> Martén, Houilon -> Hujjón.

[29] Researches of Lajos Baróti, Antal Bodor, Lénárt Bőhm, Louis Hecht, Jenő Szentkláray and Rogér Schilling provide information of the French settlements of the Banat.

Hungarians having French surnames can be found mainly in Szeged (e.g. Chambré, Cherrier, Christophe, Dippong, Frecot, Gilde, Giljon, Giljum, Kahlesz, Leblanc, Massong, Merle, Muschong, Noel, Oberting, Piar, Pierre, Pétri, Potier, Schorsch, Stufle, Vitye, Wottreng etc.).

[31] Well-known Hungarians of Banat French descent are Alessandro Bonnaz, Alajos Degré, Miklós Cherrier,[32] Jacob Muschong and Győző Leblanc.