Ted of Teds Tennis
Mar 16th, 2003, 08:39 PM
In the latest Russian surname thread, I said I'd post a few comments about Czech/Slovak surnames. Anybody whose native language is Czech or Slovak is welcome to correct me. :)
Note: To see some of the Czech letters, you'll need to set encoding to ISO-8859-2.
Czech and Slovak surnames are different for men and women, much the way that Russian surnames show a gender difference. But, the way that the difference shows up isn't exactly the same.
Czech and Slovak names don't normally end in -in or -ov the way Russian surnames do. So, if they end in a consonant, one adds -ová to the male surname to get the female surname. Examples would be Cyril Suk/Helena Suková, Eduard Beneš/Ivěta Benešová or Novak/Novaková.
One important exception to this is men's names ending in -ek. In this case, the -e is removed before adding the -ová ending. So, Květoslava Hrdlíčková's father would have the last name Hrdlíček.
Some Czech and Slovak men's names end in an -a. Czech hockey player Martin Straka comes to mind, as does Slovak tennis player Karel Kučera. In these names, the -a is dropped before adding the -ová ending. (BTW: Does anybody know if Karel Kučera and Gabriela/Magdalena/Renata Kučerová are related?) Unfortunately, this means that in looking at a woman's surname, you can't always tell what the male equivalent is. (Is Daja Bedáňová's father Bedáň or Bedáňa?)
Just as Russian has surnames based on adjectives, so do Czech and Slovak. In these cases, the men's equivalent ends in -ý, while for the women, the -ý is dropped and replaced by an -á (*not* an -ová). This is how we get a name like Jana Novotná; her father would have been named Novotný. (Wasn't the first leader of the Czechoslovak communists Antonin Novotný?) I believe the same is true for Martina Suchá, whose father would be named Suchý.
The one exception to this is for foreign-derived surnames ending in vowels other than -a. As an example, Adriana Gerši's ancestors were Italian, and because her surname ends in -i, it's not declined. Indeed, it's a law in the Czech Republic that if a Czech woman gets married to a foreigner, her surname has to take on a Czech grammatical form unless she either gives up her Czech passport or her husband's name ends in a vowel. Even then, however, I've seen one of the Czech online newspapers refer to Meilen Tuová and Adriana Serra-Zanettiová. :)
Note: To see some of the Czech letters, you'll need to set encoding to ISO-8859-2.
Czech and Slovak surnames are different for men and women, much the way that Russian surnames show a gender difference. But, the way that the difference shows up isn't exactly the same.
Czech and Slovak names don't normally end in -in or -ov the way Russian surnames do. So, if they end in a consonant, one adds -ová to the male surname to get the female surname. Examples would be Cyril Suk/Helena Suková, Eduard Beneš/Ivěta Benešová or Novak/Novaková.
One important exception to this is men's names ending in -ek. In this case, the -e is removed before adding the -ová ending. So, Květoslava Hrdlíčková's father would have the last name Hrdlíček.
Some Czech and Slovak men's names end in an -a. Czech hockey player Martin Straka comes to mind, as does Slovak tennis player Karel Kučera. In these names, the -a is dropped before adding the -ová ending. (BTW: Does anybody know if Karel Kučera and Gabriela/Magdalena/Renata Kučerová are related?) Unfortunately, this means that in looking at a woman's surname, you can't always tell what the male equivalent is. (Is Daja Bedáňová's father Bedáň or Bedáňa?)
Just as Russian has surnames based on adjectives, so do Czech and Slovak. In these cases, the men's equivalent ends in -ý, while for the women, the -ý is dropped and replaced by an -á (*not* an -ová). This is how we get a name like Jana Novotná; her father would have been named Novotný. (Wasn't the first leader of the Czechoslovak communists Antonin Novotný?) I believe the same is true for Martina Suchá, whose father would be named Suchý.
The one exception to this is for foreign-derived surnames ending in vowels other than -a. As an example, Adriana Gerši's ancestors were Italian, and because her surname ends in -i, it's not declined. Indeed, it's a law in the Czech Republic that if a Czech woman gets married to a foreigner, her surname has to take on a Czech grammatical form unless she either gives up her Czech passport or her husband's name ends in a vowel. Even then, however, I've seen one of the Czech online newspapers refer to Meilen Tuová and Adriana Serra-Zanettiová. :)