Novák and Svoboda lead the Czech lists, and Horváth and Kováč lead the Slovak ones. The counts are real, but they come from different years and methods, and Czech counts stopped being published in 2016. This guide gives the top names, what they mean, how the lists differ and what a very common surname means for your research. We checked these details in October 2026, and laws, statistics and tools change, so confirm them before you rely on them.
The Czech Republic
The most common Czech surnames are Novák (“Newman”), Svoboda (“Freeman,” literally “freedom”), Novotný (same origin as Novák), Dvořák (from dvůr, “court”) and Černý (“black”), according to Wikipedia. Expats.cz reports, from Interior Ministry data, that Novák was held by over 68,000 people and Svoboda by over 51,000, and that over 400,000 unique surnames were registered in 2016. A Czech surname site’s top-20 lists for 1937, 1964 and 1996 show Kučera, “curly,” ninth in a list quoted by American Ancestors.
| Surname | Meaning or origin | Feminine form |
|---|---|---|
| Novák | From the root “new”; “Newman” | Nováková |
| Svoboda | “Freedom” | Svobodová |
| Novotný | Same origin as Novák | Novotná |
| Dvořák | From dvůr, “court” | Dvořáková |
| Černý | “Black” | Černá |
An important caution: the Czech Interior Ministry published annual surname frequency data until 2016 and, because of GDPR rules, no longer shares it, according to Expats.cz. The counts you see online are therefore historical, and they count the masculine and feminine forms separately in some tables.
Slovakia
The Slovak Interior Ministry’s list, reported by The Slovak Spectator, is led by Horváth and Horváthová, with 36,772 men and 32,234 women carrying the name in a 2024 report, followed by Kováč and Kováčová and Varga and Vargová. For men, the rest of the top ten are Tóth, Nagy, Szabó, Molnár, Baláž and Balog, and Kovács, the Hungarian variant of Kováč, ranks tenth. For women the order mirrors the men’s up to fifth place, followed by Balážová, Molnárová, Balogová, Nováková and Lukáčová. Earlier lists from 2011 list the same names in a slightly different order, so rankings shift.
| Surname | Meaning or origin |
|---|---|
| Horváth | An ethnic surname: Horvát means “Croat” in Hungarian |
| Kováč | Blacksmith |
| Varga | Hungarian surname that is among the top three |
| Tóth | From Tót, a word Hungarians used for Slovaks and other non-Hungarian nationalities of the Kingdom |
| Nagy | “Big” or “elderly” |
| Molnár | Miller |
| Baláž | From the given name Blažej |
| Lukáč | From the given name Lukáš |
The Slovak Spectator notes that most of the top surnames in Slovakia are of Hungarian origin, which reflects the centuries in the Kingdom of Hungary. See our guide to Hungarian-speaking Slovak ancestry.
Regional differences
In Slovakia, surname preferences vary by region. Horváth dominates in Bratislava, Trnava and Košice, while other cities favor names such as Balog, Kováč, Baláž, Ševčík or Varga, according to the report. National lists therefore hide local patterns, and your own village is a better guide than any ranking.
Why the lists differ
- Different years. The Slovak top ten changed between 2011 and 2024, and the Czech counts end in 2016.
- Male and female forms. Some tables combine them and some separate them.
- Spelling variants. Kováč and Kovács, or Horvát and Horváth, may be counted separately.
- Different sources. Interior ministry data, private sites and news reports do not always agree.
Researching a very common surname
- Pin down the village. A common surname in the wrong place leads nowhere. See how to find the village of origin.
- Use given names, birth years and house numbers to separate people. See our Czech parish registers guide.
- Use the censuses to confirm households. See our guide to censuses.
- Check several records before you merge two people.
- Do not assume a relationship between families that share a name.
- Use DNA with care. See the DNA testing hub.
Illustrative composite (not a real family): A reader’s ancestor was a Novák, a surname held by tens of thousands of people. She uses his village, his house number from the census and his wife’s maiden name from the baptism of their children to separate him from other Nováks in the parish. Without those details she would have been unable to tell the families apart.
How many people share a name
An older Czech Radio report on Interior Ministry figures found that the most common full name in the Czech Republic was Jiří Novák, borne by 2,385 men, followed by 2,273 men named Petr Novák and 1,844 named Jiří Svoboda, and that the most common woman’s full name was Marie Nováková, with 2,252 women. A third-party site reports that Novák had almost 70,000 bearers, about 35,500 in the feminine form and 34,000 in the masculine. These figures show that a very common surname plus a very common given name can describe thousands of people, so you need more than a name.
Czech given names add to the problem
Wikipedia notes that Czechs share relatively few given names, with roughly 260 above a frequency of 500, so combinations such as Jan Novák or Marie Nováková repeat across the country. In your own search, a birth year, a house number and the names of parents are the details that distinguish one Jan Novák from another.
Common mistakes
- Treating a rank as exact. Lists differ by year and method.
- Assuming common names mean one family. Many unrelated families share Novák.
- Ignoring the Hungarian forms. Kováts and Kováč may be the same name.
- Using the national ranking for a village. Local patterns differ.
- Skipping house numbers and given names. They separate men with the same name.
Continue with our complete guide to surname origins and women’s surnames, and browse Surnames & Name Origins. Sources include Wikipedia on Czech names, Expats.cz on Czech surname data, The Slovak Spectator on Slovakia’s top surnames, The Slovak Spectator on Slovakia’s most frequent surnames and American Ancestors on Czech surnames.
Czech Slovak Roots Project is reader-supported. Some links on this page are affiliate links, which means we may earn a commission if you sign up, at no extra cost to you. Read our affiliate disclosure.
