Vojtech

Vojtěch or Vojtech is a Czech and Slovak given name of Slavic origin. It is composed of two parts: voj - war, warrior and "tech" - happy, eager. The name day is on April 23.

The name Adalbert is occasionally associated with Vojtech, due to the saint Adalbert of Prague, however, the two names have no linguistic relationship with each other.

Use in Czech

The proper Czech spelling of the name is 'Vojtěch'. The name contains two Czech phonology elements. The first is the caron, which is a form of a diacritical mark, over the letter 'e'. The caron modifies the pronunciation of the letter 't' immediately preceding the ě. The second is a digraph at the end of the name: the last two letters 'ch' in fact form a single phoneme (pronounced as a voiceless velar fricative [x]). (The pair 'ch' is the only formal digraph in the Czech alphabet.) Pronounced as "vawy-tekh".

A common shorter version of the name is Vojta, pronounced as Voyta. According to a 2009 survey of the Czech Ministry of Interior, there were over 41 thousand men with the first name Vojtěch in the Czech republic, which made it the 28th most used name in Czech republic.^[1]

Use in the Slovak

The name is spelled without the caron above the letter e.

Foreign variants

Polish: Wojciech, Wojtas, Wojtasek, Wojtak, Wojtek, Wojtczak, Wojcik, Wojcicki, Wojt.
Serbian: Vojteh
Croatian: Vojtjeh
Bulgarian: Vojtech
German: Woitke, Witke, Voitke, Voytke, Woytke, Vogtke, Wogtke, Woetke, Wötke, Woyzeck, and Wozzeck

Famous bearers

Saint Adalbert of Prague (ca. 956 - 997), his name was Vojtěch Slavník; known in Czech (and sometimes in English) as Saint Vojtěch, bishop of Prague
Vojtěch Šafařík (1829–1902), Czech chemist.
Vojtech Alexander (1857–1916), Slovak radiologist.
Vojtech Tuka (1880–1946), Slovak prime minister.
Vojtěch Jarník (1897–1970), Czech mathematician.
Vojtech Zamarovský (1919–2006), popular Slovak writer of historical non-fiction.
Vojtěch Machek, Czech professional footballer
Vojtěch Preissig (1873–1944), Czech type designer
Vojta Merten, Czech actor
Vojtěch Dyk, Czech rock singer and actor
Vojtěch Kotek, Czech actor
Vojtěch Bernatský, Czech moderator of Czech television
Vojtěch Adam, doctor of medicine
Vojtěch Adamec, Czech innkeeper

Vojtech and variants as surname

Elmer Voight (born Elmer Vojtka), American golfer and father of actor Jon Voight
Alexandr Vojta, Czech director of documents
Jaroslav Vojta, Czech actor
Jiří Vojta, Czech actor
Václav Vojta, Czech physician (inventor of the Vojta method)
Adolf Vojta-Jurný, Czech actor
Adam Vojtěch, Czech singer
Ivan Vojtek, Slovak actor
Josef Vojtek, Czech musician
Jaroslav Vojtek, Slovak director
Roman Vojtek, Czech actor
Hermína Vojtová, Czech actress
Linda Vojtová, Czech model