Petőfi was born on the New Year's morning of 1823, in the town of Kiskőrös, Kingdom of Hungary. The population of Kiskőrös was predominantly of Slovak origin as a consequence of the Habsburgs' reconstruction policy designed to settle, where possible, non-Hungarians in areas devastated during the Turkish wars. His birth certificate, in Latin, gives his name as ""Alexander Petrovics"", where ""Alexander"" is the Latin equivalent of the Hungarian ""Sándor"". His father, () , was a village butcher and innkeeper; he was a second-generation Slovak immigrant to the Great Hungarian Plain, however in popular belief we he was considered a Serb. Mária Hrúz, Petőfi's mother, was a servant and laundress before her marriage. She was of Slovak descent and spoke Hungarian with something of an accent. Petőfi's parents first met in Maglód, they married in Aszód and the family moved to Kiskőrös a year before the birth of the poet.