Czechia Naming Customs

Online Tools

 * Kde Jsme Surname Distribution Map
 * Słownik imion (Dictionary of names). Names are listed alphabetically by the Polish name, as the author is Polish. An index at the back gives the Polish form of each name. Use that name to find the 23 translations in the main list.
 * Male Czech Names, Slovak Names, Bohemian Names, Czechoslovakian Names
 * Female Czech Names, Slovak Names, Bohemian Names, Czechoslovakian Names

Surnames
Czech names are composed of a given name and a family name (surname). Czechs typically get one given name – additional names may be chosen by themselves upon baptism but they generally use one. With marriage, the bride typically adopts the bridegroom's surname.

Surname Language Variation

 * Surnames may also be affected by the language in which the record was written.
 * Some priests simply translated the surname into the language of the church register. For example, the Czech surname Černý could be translated to Schwarz. Similarly, Nový, Novák, Nováček, Novotný, and Novotníček could be translated into German as Neumann.
 * Usually surnames were not translated, but simply altered to fit the phonetic spelling and grammar of the language used in the parish register. It is not uncommon to see Czech surnames changed according to German spelling rules. Thus we find Čermák - Tschermak, Šebek - Schebek, Havlíček - Hawlitzek. Likewise, German surnames often are seen with Czech spellings: Schultz - Šulc, Schreier - Šrajer, Schmidt - Šmid.
 * Grammatically, there are two types of surnames: nouns and adjectives. Surname endings will vary according to the gender of the person. Female surnames are usually feminized with the basic endings: -ová or -á.

Inflection

 * In English some words have different endings depending upon how they are used in a sentence. A few examples of this are they-their-them, he-his-him, and who-whose-whom. This changing of words according to grammatical usage is called inflection. Czech is a Slavic language and as such is extremely inflective.
 * All nouns and adjectives, including names of people and places, are subject to changes that can be a source of confusion to anyone not familiar with this language and their complicated grammar. Here are some examples:


 * manželství mezi Janem Mikuleckým a Anežkou roz. Krplovou = marriage between Jan Mikulecký and Anežka Krplová Notice the name endings alter when placed in the grammar of the marriage.
 * Josef, syn Ludvíka Ryby a Františky roz. Sýkorové = Josef, son of Ludvík Ryba and Františka Sýkorová Again, notice the inflection change in the name endings.
 * z Prahy = from Praha (Prague); v Praze = in Praha; do Prahy = to Praha This demonstrates how extremely inflective the language is.

Inflection Differences in Male and Female Surnames
Czech surnames are affected by gender. For example, a woman's surname must have a feminine ending. Although all surnames are nouns, they come from various parts of speech; adjectives and nouns. Surname endings vary according to the type of surname, i.e. whether from a noun or adjective, and the gender of the person.

Names from Adjectives

1. Most adjective surnames end in -ý for males and -á for females.

2. Other types of adjective surnames end in -í and in -ů. These surnames are the same for females as for males.

Names from Nouns

1. Noun surnames end with a consonant or a short vowel (a vowel that doesn't have an accent mark). Noun surnames are feminized by adding the ending -ová.

2. Surnames that end with an -a, -e, or -o drop the final letter before adding the -ová.

3. Surnames ending with -ě are quite uncommon. These usually simply drop the -ě before adding the -ová. Some however keep the -ě and add a -t- before adding the -ová.

4. Surnames that end in -ec or -ek (or rarely -ev or -el) drop the -e- before adding the -ová.

5. Uncommon surnames ending with -ĕk or -ĕc may or may not drop the -ĕ-.

6. In many cases, even German and Hungarian names are subjected to the -ová ending.

Surnames Historical Development

 * Before record keeping began, most people had only one name, such as John.
 * As the population increased, it became necessary to distinguish between individuals with the same name. The problem was usually solved by adding descriptive information. John became John the smith, John the son of Matthew, John the short, or John from Prague.
 * At first surnames applied only to one person, not to the whole family. After a few generations, these names became hereditary and were passed on from generation to generation.
 * Surnames developed from several sources. For example:
 * Occupational
 * Geographical
 * Patronymic
 * Descriptive or nickname
 * The nobility and wealthy land owners were the first to begin using surnames.
 * Merchants and townspeople then adopted the custom, as did the rural population. This process took two or three centuries.

While Czechs share relatively few given names — roughly 260 names have a frequency above 500 in the Czech Republic — there are tens of thousands of Czech surnames (singular and plural: příjmení). These are similar in origin to English ones and may reflect:
 * a personal characteristic of someone's ancestor (such as Malý – "small", Veselý – "cheerful", Železný – "iron")
 * occupation (Kovář – "blacksmith", Kolář – "wheeler", Sedlák – "landowning farmer", Kočí – "coachman")
 * the first name of a relative (Marek – "Mark", David, Eliáš – "Elias")
 * animals (Liška – "fox", Zajíc – "hare", Jelínek – "little deer", Ježek – "hedgehog", Kocourek – "little tomcat")
 * especially birds (Sokol – "falcon", Čermák – "black redstart", Kalous – "asio", Sýkora – "titmouse", Holub – "pigeon", Čáp – "stork")
 * plants (Konvalinka – "lily of the valley", Růžička – "little rose", Fiala – "violet", Javor – "maple")
 * especially fruits and vegetables (Jahoda – "strawberry", Hruška – "pear", Cibulka – "little onion")
 * food (Oliva – "olive", Makovec – "poppy cake", Slanina – "bacon")
 * places of origin (Slezák – "Silesian", Moravec – "Moravian", Němec – "German")
 * also in a form of adjectives (Rosický – "of Rosice", Nepomucký – "of Nepomuk")
 * actions, usually in past simple (Musil – "(he) had to", Pospíšil – "(he) hurried up", Zdražil – "(he) raised the price", Hrabal – "(he) raked")
 * things (Procházka – "stroll", Chalupa – "cottage", Svačina – "snack", Kučera – "a curl of hair")
 * and many others

Historical Background
In the Czech lands, the major source of given names was the names of Roman Catholic saints. Many of these were borrowed from foreign sources including names of Greek, Latin, Hebrew and German origin.

Other names are of purely Slavic origin. Among these the most popular were compound names which consist of two Slavic roots joined together. The following list gives the meanings of most of the various Slavic prefixes and suffixes.

Suffix Roots
Thus Vladimir means "rule of peace" and Dalibor means "continue fighting." Of course, not all suffixes are found with all prefixes.

In many cases male names had a female version created by adding -a.

Most Czech names (of all origins) end in a consonant (František, Jan, etc.) and female names usually end with -a (Kateřina) or -e (Marie). Most names have nicknames or diminutive forms which end in -a, -ek, or -ik. For example: Franta from František; Maňa or Mařka from Marie; Jarda or Jarek from Jaroslav, Pavlik from Pavel.

Given Name Language Variation
Many old documents and certificates that surface when searching through family papers will be written in German or Latin. Because of the many languages encountered in Czech records, it is not unusual to see several variations of an ancestor's name depending on the language of the record. An ancestor may appear as Wenceslaus in his Latin birth record, as Wenzel in his German marriage record, and as Václav in the Czech birth records of his children.

Another example is the Czech name Vojtěch; in German it is Albrecht; in Latin, Adalbertus. Fortunately, not all names differ so markedly. The Latin Josephus is easily recognized as Czech Josef. A listing of given names with translations in English, Czech, Latin and German is found on the Wiki. The following online source contains given names translated into 23 different European languages, including English:


 * Janowowa, Wanda, et al. Słownik imion (Dictionary of names). Wrocław, Germany: Zakład Narodowy im Ossolińskich, 1975. (FHL book Ref 940 D4si; film 1181578 item 2; fiche 6,000,839.) Names are listed alphabetically by the Polish name, as the author is Polish. An index at the back gives the Polish form of each name. Use that name to find the 23 translations in the main list.

Americanization of Names
A serious problem for some researchers is to determine the actual name of their immigrant ancestor. Some ancestors in their eagerness to be assimilated into American culture, traded their difficult foreign names for American names. This occurred often with given names and to a lesser extent with surnames.

Given Names
Given names usually were simply translated to their American counterparts:

Because some given names have no English translation, they were frequently changed to almost any similar sounding American name:

Václav = Wenzel, Venceslaus, Wenceslaus, William, Wesley, Wendel, James

Surnames
Sometimes the name change was simply a translation:

In many cases the immigrant would choose an American name that sounded similar to foreign name:

Some immigrants who were sensitive about the pronunciation of their names changed the spelling so that Americans could pronounce their names correctly:

For Further Reading

 * "Czech name", in Wikipedia
 * Other sources are listed in the FamilySearch Catalog: