Names part 2 - Surnames

My surname, last name, is Vacek.  Why Vacek and not something else?  Where did it come from?  And when?

 Surname Evolution

There is a point in time when a given name is not sufficient to identify the person uniquely.  Some were identified by geography, Jesus of Nazareth or Helen of Troy.  Some were identified by their activities; King Henry I the Fowler  or titles Duke Arnulf of Bavaria, Good King Wenceslaus, Boleslav the Cruel, Attilla the Hun, Alexander the Great. 

A surname, also known as a last name or family name, is a fixed name shared in common with the members of a family and is passed down from generation to generation.  The use of a surname is relatively new in history and was adopted in order to legally distinguish two individuals with the same first name.   At first, these last names were not passed down to the next generation.  In Europe, surnames weren't used until the 10th or 11th centuries AD. Gradually throughout Europe, all nobility and gentry adopted surnames until eventually surnames were used by all Europeans of all classes.

Because of the practice of selecting given names from the calendar of saints, Czechs share relatively few given names, but there are tens of thousands of Czech surnames.  Czech surnames are similar in origin to English ones. Usually, they reflect a personal characteristic of someone's ancestor (such as Malý, "Small"); where he was from or where he lived (e.g. Polák, Pole); what he did for a living (Kovář, "Blacksmith"); or the first name of a relative (Petr, "Peter").  Many Czech surnames, such as Sokol ("Falcon") or Zajic ("Hare"), are the names of animals. What is not shared with English but is similar to North American native languages is the extremely colorful nature of some Czech surnames, such as Skovajsa (Hide yourself), Skočdopole (Go jump into a field), Osolsobě (Salt your own meal), and Ventluka (Knocking outward).

sv. Vaclav statue in Wenceslaus Square

The surname Vacek is from a pet form or diminutive of the given name Václav.  In English diminutives can be formed by adding a –y or -ie to get names like Billy or Charlie.  In Czech the suffix  -ek is added to make Vacek the diminutive of Vaclav.  In other words, it means “little Václav” or “son of Václav” just like the surname “Johnson” means “John’s son”.  The name Vacek is pronounced [vwats:ek].

Václav [vwats:laf] is a popular given name in Bohemia.  It comes from the Old Czech Veceslav (Latinized as Wenceslas). It is composed of the Old Slavic elements viece ‘greater’ or ‘more’ + slav ‘glory’.  It was borne by a 10th-century duke of Bohemia who fought against a revival of paganism in his territory, and after his death became patron saint of Bohemia.  He represents national Czech continuity and nationhood and he is celebrated every year on the 27^th of September.

Surname spelling has evolved over centuries and until the 20th century, the spelling of a surname was not fixed. Before then, it was not unusual to see the same person's surname spelled in different ways from record to record. In the 1800's and before, when many people were illiterate, names were written by clerks, officials, and priests as they heard the name pronounced. This lead to different spellings for the same name.

  

 In old records of sv. Vaclav Church in Cetoraz, I found “Vacek” written as “Wazek”.  For me a “V” and a “W”  sound different, but to many speakers of foreign languages they are almost indistinguishable.  My Dad, George Vacek, would always pronounce “vodka”  as something between “wodka” and “vwodka”.   

The church records were kept in Latin until a little after 1800 when they were recorded in German.  The spelling of Vacek continued to be Waczek.  In at least one entry the “z” was dropped.  But for the most part, the handwriting of the person entering the information was indiscernible.  The entries are identified by using the dates, given names and physical addresses.  Here are examples of the “scribbling”.

In Czech pronunciation there is no distinction between a "W" and a "V", or sometimes, W is used as a fancy way to write V, especially in names.  Other than that, the letter W is used exclusively in foreign words and is replaced with V once the word becomes "naturalized.”

The first written record I found using the modern spelling of "Vacek" was in this entry in the 1863 birth records recording the birth of his daughter Katrina Vacková.  The spelling for our branch continues to be the same today, but most have adopted a more English pronunciation of [vah:sek] rather than the Czech [vwats:ek].

 

Female Surnames

As in English-speaking countries, Czech females traditionally receive their father's surname at birth and take their husband's name when they marry. However, the names are not exactly the same; the endings differ to fit into the Czech language's systems of gender and of possessive adjectives. For example, if Martina Navrátilová were a man, her surname would be Navrátil.

Czech female surnames are almost always feminine adjectives. There are several ways of forming them, depending on their male counterpart.  If a male surname is a masculine adjective (ending in -ý), the female surname is simply the feminine equivalent. Thus, a girl whose father's surname is Novotný would have the surname Novotná .

If a male surname is a noun, the female surname takes the suffix -ová, making it a feminine adjective:

• ·         Vacek becomes Vacková
• ·         Horáček becomes Horáčková
• ·         Svoboda becomes Svobodová

Because gender-marked suffixes are essential to Czech grammar, Czechs will usually add a feminine suffix to the surnames of foreign as well as Czech women. Thus, American first lady Michelle Obama is referred to as Michelle Obamová in the Czech press.  In recent years, there has been lively discussion whether or not to change foreign female surnames in public use (such as in media references etc.). Supporters of abandoning this habit claim that adding a Czech female suffix to a foreign surname means deliberately changing a woman's name and is therefore both misleading and inconsiderate, whereas traditionalists point out that only by adding the suffix can the name be used as a flexible feminine adjective within a naturally sounding Czech sentence.

If Czech women have the suffix 'ova' removed from their surnames it would undo a linguistic tradition going back to the earliest roots of the Slav language.