1.2 – Names and Familiar Names

Česká jména – Czech first names

Many Czech names are similar to English names.  For example, Martin and Barbora are common Czech names that have obvious English equivalents. Some names might look a little foreign at first, such as Kateřina or Jan, but these are equivalent to English Catherine/Kathryn and John.

Other names such as Vojtěch or Anežka may seem more foreign to the native English speaker.  Many of these Czech names, however,  also have English counterparts.  Vojtěch translates to Adalbert (seriously, do you actually know anyone with this name in English?), while Anežka is the Czech equivalent of Agnes.  Some names may be only slightly different than their English versions such as the Czech male name Jan for John, or the female name Jana for Jane. Obviously some Czech names are going to be more popular than their English counterparts and vice-versa.

Many Czech names are made up of Slavic roots that have meaning.  The name Jarmila comes from the words for ‘spring’ (jaro) and ‘to love’ (milovat), while the name Bohdan comes from the words for ‘God’ (bůh) and ‘to give’ (dát).  So Jarmila is one who loves the spring, and Bohdan is God-given.

Czech Familiar Names

Czech makes frequent use of familiar name forms (i.e. nicknames).  Many of these names will simply be shorter forms of the first name.  It is similar to English Danny for Daniel or Drew for Andrew.  Some Czech nicknames will actually be longer than their original name such as the nickname Jirka for the Czech equivalent to George – Jiří, or Hanka as a nickname for Hana.  In fact, some Czech nicknames don’t look at all like the name from which they were derived such as the nickname Pepa for the Czech name Josef/Jozef.

See the list below for some common Czech names and their corresponding familiar forms in parentheses.

For more information, see: http://www.myczechrepublic.com/czech_culture/czech_name_days/dimm.html