Names part 1 - Given Names

Why is my first name "Larry"?  When I was younger, I would have preferred "Mighty Warrior" or "The Red Avenger".  As I have grown older, I now prefer " He Who Knows All" or "Most Venerated One".  But I am Larry.  Blame it on tradition; Czech tradition.

The Czech given names, also known as personal names or first names, generally have Christian roots or are of a traditional Slavic pre-Christian origin (e.g. Milena, Dobromira, Jaroslav, Václav, Vojtěch).  Children were given names of people who had preceded them.  That wasn’t always the case.  Early on, names were given to describe the individual

In ancient Slav culture infant mortality was very high and death was attributed to evil spirits.  A lot of effort was spent trying to distract the evil spirits.  They would not name the child anything like “precious jewel” or “beautiful flower.”  They would make the child unattractive by not cutting their hair and giving them unattractive names e.g. Niemój "not mine", Nielub "not loved".    The temporary names were replaced with permanent names when the child survived to 7 to 10 years and was given their first haircut in sort of a rite of passage ritual.  

I’m not sure about the first haircut thing; seems like the hair would be awfully long if it had not been cut in 10 years.  But the permanent names reflected special characteristics or aspirations of the young person.  These traditional names of origin honor celebration, love and peace.  There were names like Bohumir (peace with God), Jaromil, love of spring), Květoslava (the celebration of flowers), Libuše (love), Ludmila [grandmother of St. Vaclav](favor of the people).  Přemsyl (the one who thinks things over), and

Venceslav (greater glory),

I am particularly interested in the name Venceslav [ˈvwentsːes:laf]  , which was Latinized as Wenceslas (and in English, Wenceslaus).  It came from the Old Slavic elements viece ‘greater’ + slav ‘glory’.  It was later contracted into Vaclav [ˈvwaːtslaf].  In this age very few people were literate and names existed primarily as oral entities.  If a person became famous, the learned few decided how the name would be written.  There was no standard, so the next scribe might write the same name differently as illustrated by all the variants of Venceslav.

Generally traditional names were dominant until Slavic nations converted to Christianity. The Council of Trent (1545–63) decided that every Catholic should have a Christian name instead of native one.  However there were some with native names who had attained sainthood in the Catholic Church; namely Ludmila and Wenceslaus.   A list of saint’s names was maintained from which a name could be selected for a new child. 

Each of the saints are assigned a day on which their sainthood is celebrated and often referred to as the saint’s feast day.  For instance St. Wenceslaus feast day is October 28.  The feast day for the saint for which a person is named is known as their “NAME DAY.”

What is a name day? It is a great tradition in the Czech Republic.  If you open Czech calendar, you will see that every day of the year is someone’s name day. It is a great thing because in one year you have the right to celebrate twice – your birthday and your name day!   People celebrate it in the same manner as birthdays. All the namesakes receive congratulations and gifts from their family, friends but also colleagues since everybody knows it is your name day today. In effect, it is like having a second birthday, but better! Why?

The bad thing about birthday is that not everybody knows it’s your birthday. This can’t happen with your name day! In the Czech Republic you can hear on the radio: “Congratulations to all Gregorys today! If you know a Gregory don’t forget to wish him happy name day today!  ” Not only is it written in all calendars, but you will be reminded in the newspapers as well. Your friends therefore can never forget your name day!

Here are the name days for some of the early Vaceks:

Albína - Dec. 16, Alois - Jun. 21, Anna - Jul. 26, Antonín - Jun. 13, Barbora - Dec. 4, Čeněk - Jul. 19, František - Oct. 4, Františka - Mar. 9,  Řehoř – March 12, Jakub - Jul. 25, Jan - Jun. 24, Josef - Mar. 19, Karel - Nov. 4, Kateřina - Nov. 25, Kristýna - Jul. 24, Marie – June 29, Martin - Nov. 11, Veronika - Feb. 7, and Vavřinec –Aug 10.

The original list was the Catholic calendar of saints. For example Saint Michael’s feast was held on September 29th.  As a result, even today, all Michaels, (in Czech Michals), celebrate their name days on this day.

During the Communist era, parents needed special permission to give a child a name that did not have a name day on the Czech calendar. Since the Velvet Revolution in 1989, parents have had the right to give their child any name they wish, provided it is used somewhere in the world and is not insulting or demeaning. However, the common practice is that most birth-record offices look for the name in the book "Jak se bude vaše dítě jmenovat?" (What is your child going to be called?); the semi-official list of "allowed" names.  If the name is not found there, offices are extremely unwilling to register the child's name.  It is still common to choose the name from the name day calendar. If a person was given a first name that doesn’t appear in the calendar, he or she may very well feel left out for not being able to celebrate their name day at all.  Today, the name day is a bit less important than the Birthday to Czech people.  However, since our names are one of the most important possessions we have in life, it is great that we celebrate it!

No one was allowed to make up names that sounded cute or cool.  Even when restricted to selecting a name from the “calendar of saints”, there are still a lot of choices. 

I had some Kurdish friends who asked for the meaning of my childrens’ names.  I said I didn’t know the meaning.  Our children were named after saints with names that sounded good and also saints names that had been previously used by relatives.  The Kurdish friends were incredulous. 

They queried, “Your precious children should have a name that tells everyone how special they are.” 

I asked, “What are the names of your children and what do they mean?”   

The father said, “Our son is named Ismet which means honor.  The oldest daughter is named Estere.  That means star.  And the youngest girl, Shanar, is named after the pomegranate flower.  Our children mean everything to us and we give them names that are special and beautiful.” 

I thought.  Yes.  My children’s names have special meaning.  Not because it described what they might be; or what we wanted them to be.  But rather they are special, because of tradition, a continuity with the past, and our heritage.  We named our son Gregory.  Yes, it was from the calendar of saints.  But we didn’t pick it because of anything St. Gregory did.  As, a matter of a fact there is more than one St. Gregory and we didn’t narrow it down to which one.  We picked it because it was a nice strong name, not cutesy and could be abbreviated into a nickname “Greg” that was strong.  The middle name was from tradition.  My middle name was the first, or given, name of my father; and such was true of his father and his father.  I was baptized Lawrence and my son was named Gregory Lawrence.  Our second was Katrina Marie.  Katrina, because it was Slavic for Catherine.  Her middle name was Marie after a favorite Aunt of Marilyn’s

Katrina died at birth and we passed her middle name onto our daughter Marla Marie.  “Marla Marie,” that had a nice flow to it.  Both names are Slavic variants of Mary; definitely on the calendar of saints.

Our ancestors stuck to the calendar and respected tradition.   Going back generations until my Dad was named George, there were only Frantisek, Josef, Jakub, and Jan for men.  Women were named Anna, Barbora, Kristina, Veronika, and Marie.

Even in Nebraska, the calendar of saints held sway.  I was baptized Lawrence.  My mother wanted to name me Lawrence but wanted to modernize it; make it less formal.  She wanted to call me Larry.  I couldn’t be baptized as Larry, because there is no St. Larry.  So my baptismal record is Lawrence George.  However, the civil birth certificate is Larry George.  A lot has changed a since 1940.  Children in the US are baptized today are given names well outside of the calendar of saints.  I guess that is okay – someday we’ll have some new saints names.  Think of how inspiring St. Gaga would be.