The city's name, which literally translates as Beavers' Field Marketplace, was first mentioned after the unification of two Árpád-era villages, Hód and Vásárhely, the former getting its name from Beaver's lake, an apocope of Hód-tó (now one of the city's districts and the canal Hód-tavi-csatorna) and the latter coming from the mediaeval legal term marking settlements with the right of hosting markets and literally meaning market town.

[2] The city is also known by alternative names in other languages: Croatian: Vašrelj; Romanian: Ionești; and Serbian: Вашархељ, romanized: Vašarhelj.

Neolithic dwellings recessed into the ground stored domestic items such as plates, as well as the Kökénydombi Vénusz fertility symbol.

At the end of the 8th century, the Avars found mostly remnants of the nomadic population and of the agrarian and animal-breeding Slavs.

During the war of independence, Miklós Bercsényi seized the town back and gave it to the Kuruts general Sándor Károlyi for leasehold.

The royal court in Vienna did not accept Károlyi's claim to the territory after the peace of Szatmár and he was only able to retrieve it by buying it back years later.

While there, he received the news that the Hungarian Army had been engaged in battle at Pákozd, and patriotic fervour gripped the town.

Animal breeding was gradually replaced by extensive growing of corn, which became the basis of the town's economy and employed large numbers of workers.

The human costs of the war contributed to the social tension around this time which led to demonstrations in Vásárhely.

Dozens of medium-scale factories sprung up, but the great world economic crisis demolished this new-found prosperity.

Museums, churches, triumphal wells, statues, parks, and a thermal swimming hall are notable attractions.

The mayor of Hódmezővásárhely István Almási (Fidesz-KDNP) died on 20 November 2017, leaving the position vacant.

His unexpected victory against the Fidesz candidate received international attention and was seen as a possible indicator for a change in the Hungarian parliamentary election on 8 April 2018.

The local Municipal Assembly, elected at the 2019 local government elections, is made up of 15 members (1 Mayor, 10 Individual constituencies MEPs and 4 Compensation List MEPs) divided into this political parties and alliances:[4] List of City Mayors from 1990: The association football club, Hódmezővásárhelyi FC, is based in Hódmezővásárhely.