Czech name

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Czech names are composed of given names and surnames. Surnames used by women differ from the corresponding male surnames.

The most abundant Czech surnames are Novák, Svoboda, Dvořák and Novotný.

[edit] Female surnames

Czech females' surnames are always female adjectives. There are several ways of forming them, depending on their male counterpart:

• The male surname is a noun - the female takes the suffix -ová.

Novák - Nováková

Horáček - Horáčková

Svoboda - Svobodová

• The male is an adjective with the suffix -ý - the female takes the suffix -á.

Novotný - Novotná

Using female forms of surnames is compulsory^* for Czech women. There are some grammatical exceptions (not frequent) where both female and male forms are the same:

• The male form is genitive plural, e.g. Jirků, Janů.
• The male form is an adjective with the suffix -í, e.g. Tachecí.
  • Note that these are only identical in two of the seven grammatical cases; in the other five, the male and female forms differ, as per the soft adjective declension.

It is also customary for the surnames of female foreigners when used in Czech to be used with -ová but this is not necessary: e.g. Laura Bush is often, but not always named as Laura Bushová.

When a Czech woman marries she commonly takes her husband's surname. But she can also keep her maiden name or her husband can take the surname from hers.

^*The law requires using female forms of surnames according to the rules of the Czech grammar. There are some exceptions for foreigners or women who are married to foreigners. They are not obliged to use female forms.

[edit] Surnames in plural

Examples:

Novákovi - the Nováks

rodina Novákova - the Novák family

bratři Novákovi - brothers Novák

sestry Novákovy - sisters Novák

All forms of the surmame Novák are possessive adjectives in plural, their endings depend on the gender (and the case).

Novotní - the Novotnýs

rodina Novotných - the Novotný family

bratři Novotní - brothers Novotný

sestry Novotné - sisters Novotný

All forms of the surmame Novotný are adjectives in plural, their endings depend on the gender (and the case). The form Novotných is in genitive.

[edit] See also

• Czech language
• Czech declension
• Czech orthography