What kind of name is "Ponicsan?"

Factual Questions
1

Darryl Ponicsan, author of several of my favorite movies - The Last Detail, Vision Quest and School Ties - as well as one of my least favorite movies, Taps - has one hell of an odd last name.

Ponicsan? What kind of name is that?

Wikipedia says it’s pronounced “PAHN-i-son.”

It’s next to impossible to tell what his ethnicity is from his photo.

Does anyone know?

2

I’m guessing Romanian or Hungarian, if the name is in it’s original form. I’m going to look around for more info.

3

Seems it’s Hungarian. Type in “Ponicsan Hungary” into a search engine. Bingo!