Family Tree
Want to discover more about your family history? Building a family tree is the perfect way to do that. Learn the ins and outs of searching through historical records & building out your family history.
History
It’s time to take a trip through the annals of history. Explore the good, the bad, and the downright fascinating.
Ideas & Inspiration
Let us be your muse! These articles will give you the jumpstart you need to take on that big creative project.
Gear Reviews
In this section of our blog we review everything related to photography. If you’re a budding photographer this section is for you.
Gifts
Photo restoration goes hand-in-hand with spending time with your family. If you’re looking to show some love to your family with a holiday gift, then this section is for you.
If you want to learn more about your family history, your surname is a good starting point. Surnames provide many clues about your family’s traditions, culture, and homeland. For people with Czech surnames, your last name may tell you more about an ancestor’s trade, place of origin, or even physical characteristics.
What are the most common Czech surnames? Keep reading to learn more about what these common last names mean and how they change depending on the bearer!
Czech surnames can commonly be divided according to these four naming patterns. Here’s a quick explanation of their origins and how they gained usage over multiple generations.
Sometimes, a person’s occupation would be added to their given name to let people know what trade they practiced. This eventually became their surname. For example, Jan Kovar was “Jan the blacksmith”.
These are some examples of Czech occupational surnames:
This type of last name was typically derived from a physical characteristic of the person who would first bear it. Others were descriptions of the original bearer’s personality.
These are examples of descriptive Czech surnames.
These Czech surnames tell you more about the hometown of their first bearers. For example, a person with the Czech surname “Slezák” was someone from the old region of Silesia, an area now divided between Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic.
While some of these surnames would specify towns or regions, others would describe the land that the person lived in. For example, a person with the surname “Souček” can trace this name back to an ancestor who lived near a tree knot, while a person whose Czech ancestor lived near a hill would have the surname “Kopecký”.
If you’re uncertain about the origin of your Czech surname, find out if it translates into a landmark or a description of a place in the Czech Republic. This can give you more information about your ancestors’ hometown.
A unique Czech surname convention is one that reflects food and nature, such as plants, birds, and produce. Here are some Czech surnames that are derived from these things:
The ending of Czech surnames also depends on whether the bearer is male or female. Traditionally, women are given their father’s surname at birth, then take on their husband’s surname when they marry. However, the suffixes of these surnames from their husbands are changed to reflect the bearer’s gender.
There are rules for forming the feminine counterpart of these surnames. Here’s how they basically work.
These are the most common Czech surnames and their meanings. Scroll down to see if yours is here – you may be surprised at the origins of your name!
Your last name can hold a lot of information about your family tree and origin. Your surname could tell you more about your ancestors’ original trade, hometown, or even their physical features.
If your last name is one of the Czech surnames we’ve listed here, you may want to look up your family origins. One great place to start is your old family photo albums.
Get your vintage photos restored at a professional studio like Image Restoration Center. Once they’re restored, you can show them to your relatives and ask more about your family’s roots. This is a great chance to learn inspiring, amazing stories about your ancestors!
As the world’s #1 photo restoration studio, we’ve restored over 100,000 photos for customers all around the world. Whether your photo is ripped, faded or water damaged, you can trust us to restore it to its original glory.