Common Czech Names of the 15th and 16th C.

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Common Czech Names of the 15th and 16th Centuries

by Walraven van Nijmegen (Brian R. Speer)

Pruvodce Nas^imi Jmény

Unfortunately, this book is in Czech (which I can't read), but there is a general discussion of the history of Czech names to introduce the book. Pages 14-15 include a summary of the most common names from several sources of the 15th and 16th century, and it is this material which is summarized here. English equivalents are given in square brackets after some names.

Researchers interested in dated examples or early spellings of names will be disappointed by the rest of the book. Most spellings are the standard modern ones, and few of the entries in this book have any examples or citations. However, I have found the book useful for identifying the gender and origin of modern Czech names.

All spellings given in the list below are the standard modern ones, and are not necessarily those used before 1600. Several characters have a hacek (which looks like a small "v") over them in the source material. This is represented in the list below by a caret (^) after the letter. Maybe one day HTML coding will universally support the characters of Eastern European languages, but I'm not going to hold my breath till that day!

Common Masculine Names

The following names were used by 50% to 60% of Czech men in the 15th and 16th centuries. In all the sources, Jan was consistently the most popular name, accounting for 15% to 27% of the men's names in any sample. Other names varied in popularity at different times.

Jakub [Jacob]
Jan [John]
Jir^í
Martin
Mate^j [Matthew]
Matous^ (16 c only)
Mikulás^ [Nicholas]
Ondr^ej (16 c only) [Andrew]
Pavel (16 c only) [Paul]
Petr [Peter]
Václav

Common Feminine Names

The following names were used by 60% or more of Czech women recorded in the 15th and 16th centuries.

Alz^be^ta [Elizabeth]
Anna
Dorota [Dorothy]
Kater^ina [Catherine]
Klára
Ludmila
Magdaléna
Markéta [Margaret]