A Czech or Slovak surname can tell you a trade, a trait, an ancestor’s first name or the language your family lived alongside, and it can also mislead you, because the names have been spelled, gendered, translated and respelled across borders and centuries. This guide explains where Czech and Slovak surnames come from, the main types, the effects of German and Hungarian influence, and how to use a surname as a research clue without treating it as proof. We checked these details in October 2026, and laws, statistics and tools change, so confirm them before you rely on them.
The main types of surname
| Type | How it works | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Occupational | Names a trade | Tesař and Truhlář, carpenter; Rybář, fisherman; Kováč, blacksmith; Molnár, miller; Krajčír, tailor |
| Nickname or descriptive | Describes a physical feature or a trait | Černý, “black”; Kučera, “a curl of hair”; Nagy, “big” or “elderly” |
| From an object or a word | A common noun used as a name | Procházka, “stroll”; Chalupa, “cottage”; Svačina, “snack” |
| From a given name | Derived from the first name of an ancestor | Baláž, from Blažej; Lukáč, from Lukáš |
| From an adjective | Often with the same root as another name | Novák and Novotný, from the root meaning “new” |
| Ethnic or place | Names a people or a place of origin | Moravec, “a Moravian”; Horváth, from “Croat”; Tóth, from a Hungarian word for Slovaks |
| Courtly or other | Reflects a position | Dvořák, from dvůr, “court” |
Occupational names are quite common in Czech, as are nicknames, especially ones referring to a physical feature, and many of the most common Czech surnames carry the diminutive ending -ček, according to Wikipedia. An American Ancestors article adds that artisans sometimes have nicknames from the tools of the trade, such as Jehlička, “needle,” likely a tailor, or Rohlíček, “a roll,” which could become Baker in America.
Influence of German and Hungarian
- German. German surnames are quite common in the Czech Republic, because the country was part of the Austrian Empire before 1918 and had a large German population until the Second World War, according to Wikipedia. Many Czech surnames derive from German given names and vocabulary words.
- Hungarian. Many of the most common surnames in Slovakia are of Hungarian origin, according to the Slovak Interior Ministry’s list reported by The Slovak Spectator. Names such as Horváth and Tóth are ethnic names in Hungarian, and Schneider or Wagner point to the German presence.
- Magyarization. In the late nineteenth century some Slovak surnames were rewritten in Hungarian forms, such as Horváth instead of Horvát and Kováts instead of Kováč, and after 1918 Slovak spellings were restored, reversing some Magyarized or Germanized changes. See our guide to Hungarian-speaking Slovak ancestry.
Diminutives and endings
Endings carry meaning and also change by gender and by grammatical case. The Czech diminutive -ček is found on many common names, and endings such as -ák, -ek, -ik, -ec and -ko appear across Czech and Slovak surnames. See our guide to Czech and Slovak surname endings.
Women’s surnames
Czech and Slovak women’s surnames traditionally take the ending -ová, so a man named Novák has a wife and daughters named Nováková. In the Czech Republic women can now choose the masculine form, and in Slovakia women have been able to for several years. See our guide to women’s surnames.
Spelling and diacritics
Czech and Slovak use diacritics such as the háček, and emigrants often dropped them, so Dvořák became Dvorak. Searching without diacritics, and with phonetic variants, is essential. See our guide to spelling and diacritics.
The most common names
Novák, Svoboda, Novotný, Dvořák and Černý are the most common Czech surnames, and Horváth, Kováč, Varga, Tóth and Nagy lead in Slovakia. See our guide to the most common Czech and Slovak surnames.
Surnames after emigration
Surnames changed in America, but not at Ellis Island. See our guide to surnames changed in America.
A note on Jewish surnames
In 1787 Emperor Joseph II issued a decree requiring Jews in the Habsburg Empire, including the Czech lands, to adopt permanent family names, and before that Jews in the region often used patronymics or names associated with their occupation or place of residence. Czech Jewish surnames have their own history, and we point to specialist resources for them.
Using a surname as a research clue
- Write the surname exactly as you find it, with every diacritic.
- Identify the type (occupation, nickname, given name, ethnic name) and the ending.
- Search the masculine and feminine forms, and the singular and plural.
- Check the language influence. A Hungarian or German form may point to the region.
- Find the village. See how to find the village of origin.
- Confirm in the registers. See our Czech parish registers guide and our Slovak records guide.
DNA and surnames
A surname can help interpret DNA matches, but common names such as Novák are shared by many unrelated families. See the DNA testing hub.
Illustrative composite (not a real family): A reader’s family name is Kováts in her American records. The Slovak parish register gives the form Kováč for the same family, and the village is in a Hungarian-speaking area where late nineteenth-century records may use the Hungarian spelling. She searches both forms and finds the baptism.
How many surnames are there
Wikipedia says that while Czechs share relatively few given names, with roughly 260 names above a frequency of 500, there are tens of thousands of Czech surnames. The Czech Interior Ministry’s data, reported by Expats.cz, counted over 400,000 unique surnames registered in 2016. Sources differ because they count variants and feminine forms differently. The point for a researcher is that a surname is more distinctive than a given name, and more distinctive still when you combine it with a village.
Names cluster by region
In Slovakia, surname preferences show regional variation. The Slovak Interior Ministry’s data, reported by The Slovak Spectator, shows that Horváth dominates in Bratislava, Trnava and Košice, while other cities favor surnames such as Balog, Kováč, Baláž, Ševčík or Varga. A name that is common in one town may be rare in the next, so a surname can narrow a search to an area, though it does not identify a village by itself.
Given names change language too
Family Tree Magazine gives the example of a woman who might appear as Elizabeth on her naturalization application, Alžbeta in Slovak parish registers and Erzsébet in Hungarian census returns. Surnames behave the same way, so when you compare records in different languages, compare given names, parents and villages as well as the surname. A site such as Behind the Name lists variants of given names by country.
Questions to ask your family about the name
- How was the name spelled and pronounced in the old country?
- Did anyone drop the ending, add or remove diacritics, or shorten the name?
- Which language did the family speak at home: Czech, Slovak, German, Hungarian or Rusyn?
- Do older relatives remember a different form of the name, or a nickname?
- Is there a document, such as a passport or a baptism certificate, that shows the original spelling?
Keep a name log
Make a table with one row per spelling: the form, the record in which it appears, the date, the language and the person it refers to. After a few weeks you will see the pattern of variants for your family, and you will be able to search with all of them. Update it when you find a new form, and note which forms belong to the same person.
Ethnic surnames and what they tell you
Wikipedia’s article on ethnonymic surnames notes that Hungarian has surnames such as Tóth, which is Slavic and in particular Slovak in origin, Horváth, which is Croat, Németh, which is German, and Cseh, which is Czech. In Slovakia the Interior Ministry’s linguist explained that Horvát means “Croat” in Hungarian and that Tóth was created from Tót, the word Hungarians used for Slovaks and other non-Hungarian nationalities of the kingdom. Such a name records how neighbors labeled an ancestor’s group, often centuries ago, not the identity of a person today, so use it as a clue to the family’s history and not as proof of nationality.
One surname, several origins
Novák and Novotný share the root meaning “new,” and a surname that looks the same may have arisen in different villages for different reasons. Do not assume that two Nováks are related because they share a name, and do not assume that one origin story fits every family with the name.
Match the name to the place
When you have a candidate village, ask whether the surname fits the language of the village. A Hungarian-form surname in a Slovak-speaking village, or a German name in a Czech one, may reflect an older settler, a Magyarized or Germanized spelling, or a clerk’s choice of language, among other possibilities. Look at the neighbors in the register: if many families share the pattern, it is the village’s norm, and if only yours does, it may be a clue to a move.
What to read next
- For the endings, read Czech and Slovak surname endings explained.
- For women, read women’s surnames and the -ová ending.
- For search problems, read surname spelling and diacritics.
- For the biggest names, read the most common Czech and Slovak surnames.
- For the American side, read surnames changed in America.
Common mistakes
- Treating a surname as proof of origin. It is a clue.
- Searching one spelling. Czech, Slovak, German and Hungarian forms exist.
- Ignoring the feminine form. Women appear under -ová.
- Dropping the diacritics. They help you find the right name.
- Assuming a meaning from the English translation. Check the Czech or Slovak word.
Browse every guide in Surnames & Name Origins. Sources include Wikipedia on Czech names, American Ancestors on Czech surnames, The Slovak Spectator on Slovakia’s top surnames, Wikipedia on surname inflection and Wikipedia on ethnonymic surnames.
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