Czech name

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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.

In the Czech Republic, names are simply known as jména ("names") or, if the context requires it, křestní jména ("Christian names"). The singular form is jméno. Generally, a given name may have Christian roots or traditional Slavic pre Christian origin (e. g. Milena, Božena, Jaroslav, Václav, Vojtěch). It used to be a legal obligation for parents to choose their child's name from a list that was pre approved by the government. Special permission was necessary for other names with exceptions for minorities and foreigners. 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, in recent years the common practice has been 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? ), which is a semi official list of "allowed" names. If the name is not found there, authorities are unwilling to register the child's name without a professional opinion (odborné stanovisko) from the Czech Language Institute (Ústav pro jazyk český).

The most popular boys' names between 1999 and 2007 were Jan (John), Jakub (Jacob or James), Tomáš (Thomas) and Martin. Among the most popular girls' names were Tereza (Theresa), Kateřina (Katherine), Eliška (Elise), Natálie and Adéla. In 2016, Jakub, Jan, Tomáš, Filip and Eliška, Tereza, Anna, Adéla were the most popular names.

Names, like all nouns in Czech language, are declined depending on their grammatical case. For example, one would say Pavel kouše sendvič ("Paul bites a sandwich"), but Pes kouše Pavla ("A dog bites Paul") and Pes ukousl Pavlovi prst ("The dog bit Paul's finger off"). Unlike the closely related Slovak language, Czech has a vocative case used when calling or addressing someone. For instance, one would say, Pavle, pozor pes! (Paul, watch out for the dog! ).