OneTaskBy Tim King · Updated
Czech Name Generator
Czech Names With -ová Feminine Surnames and Correct Háčeks, Modern or Classic
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How the Czech Name Generator works
This Czech name generator makes Czech names with the surnames in the right form: Novák for a man, Nováková for his wife and daughter, Novotný and Novotná, Veselý and Veselá. The given names come with their háčeks and accents, Eliška, Tomáš, Jiří, Věra. Choose modern or classic, female, male or either, and generate up to a hundred.
How the Czech name generator works
Czech surnames have a feature that is famous abroad: almost every woman's surname ends in -ová. It is a possessive, originally meaning belonging to, so Nováková is Novák's wife or daughter, and the ending is added to Czech surnames and, until a law change in 2022, to foreign ones too, so that Czech newspapers wrote Hillary Clintonová. The generator applies the rule properly. Surnames that are nouns take -ová: Novák, Nováková; Dvořák, Dvořáková; Svoboda, Svobodová. Surnames that are adjectives, ending in -ý, change to -á instead: Novotný, Novotná; Černý, Černá; Veselý, Veselá. The two types are kept in separate lists so that the feminine form is always correct.
The surnames themselves are among the most colourful in Europe. Novák is the newcomer, the commonest Czech name; Svoboda is freedom, a freed serf; Novotný the new one; Dvořák the man of the manor; Černý black; Procházka a stroll, a wanderer; Kučera curly-haired; Veselý cheerful; Pokorný humble; Němec the German; Král the king; Růžička little rose; Jelínek little stag. The adjectival list adds the descriptive names, Malý small, Tichý quiet, Šťastný lucky, Kudrnatý curly. A Czech roster reads like a list of nicknames because that is what it is.
Given names fall into two generations. The classic stock, from the communist decades, is heavily Slavic: Jaroslav, Miroslav, Zdeněk, Václav after the patron saint, Jiří, Josef, and for women Marie, Jana, Hana, Věra, Jaroslava, Ludmila, Božena. Since the 1990s parents have moved to shorter names, many shared with the rest of Europe, Eliška, Tereza, Anna, Adéla, Jakub, Jan, Adam, Tomáš, with the Czech forms Vojtěch, Ondřej, Matěj and Štěpán holding their place. Czechs also celebrate name days, so every name here belongs to a date in the calendar.
The spelling with háčeks and accents is not optional: Dvorak is not a Czech name, Dvořák is. For the neighbours, the Polish page for the other gendered-surname system and the Hungarian page for the surname-first order across the border.
FAQ
Why do Czech women's surnames end in -ová?
Because the ending is a possessive meaning belonging to, added to the father's or husband's surname. Novák's daughter is Nováková. It is a grammatical requirement of Czech, and since 2022 women may legally choose the unsuffixed form, though few do.
What about surnames like Novotný?
Those are adjectives, and adjectives take -á in the feminine instead of -ová: Novotná, Černá, Veselá. The generator keeps them in a separate list so it never produces Novotnýová.
Are the accents necessary?
Yes. Háčeks on č, š, ž, ř, ě and acute accents on á, é, í, ó, ú, ý are part of the spelling and change the sound. Dvořák without the háček is a foreign misspelling. ů with a ring is a separate letter too.
What are the commonest Czech surnames?
Novák, Svoboda, Novotný, Dvořák, Černý, Procházka, Kučera, Veselý, Horák and Němec. Together the top ten cover about five per cent of the country, and Novák alone is carried by roughly seventy thousand people.
Can I use these names for fiction or test data?
Yes. They are combinations of ordinary names and cannot be owned. Novák and Svoboda are carried by tens of thousands, so a common combination will coincide with real people; a name that will be attached to something public deserves a quick search.
See also: all Culture & Language tools, People, Fantasy & RPG, Sci-fi, Online & Social, Business & Brand, Places & Things.
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