Bibliography of Czech & Slovak Names and Armory

This is a collected list of books on Czech & Slovak names and armory. Related lists on other Slavic cultures are given under Polish Names and Armory and Eastern European Cultures.

CZECH--NAMES

Hellfritzsch, Vollmar., et al., Familiennamenbuch; herausgegeben von Horst Naumann. Leipzig: Bibliographisches Institut Leipzig, c1987.

I didn't have a lot of time to look at this one, but my impression was that it is an excellent source. It's a dictionary of Czech family names, with dated citations and references. (TG)

Kopec^ny/, Frantisek. Pruvodce Nasimi Jmény. 1st edition: Praha : Academia, 1975. 2nd ed. Praha : Academia, 1991.

This is basically a Czech baby-name book. But it contains an introduction on the history of Czech naming (at least in the 1st edition) which was very useful, containing lists of names recorded in our period, with some name frequency information. (TG)

Neumann, Johann. Tschechische Familiennamen in Wien : eine namenkundl. Dokumentation / bearb. u. zsgest. v. Johann Neumann : 15.690 Familiennamen, interpretiert bzw. übers. v. berufenen Slawisten Haufigkeitszahl u. Quellennachweis bei jedem Namen. 3rd ed., Holzhausen, 1977.

A Czech surname dictionary with derivations but no dates. However, he does cite his source in great detail, so I expect that references can be traced to dated documents in many cases, though it would be a lot of work. (TG)

Schlimpert, Gerhard. Slawische Personennamen in mittelalterlichen Quellen zur deutschen Geschichte. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1978.

Very good. Detailed analysis of the development of Slavic given names, with dated, referenced citations back to the 9th century. The earliest names are likely usable for either Czech or Slovak.(AN)

Svoboda, Jan. Staroceská Osobní Jména a Nase Prímení. Praha: Ceskoslovenská Akademie Ved, 1964.

A detailed treatise on the origin and construction of Czech given names, with indices and tables of short forms. Unfortunately, the book is in Czech, modernizes many of the spellings, and provides almost no dates or citations of the source material. (WvN)


SLOVAK--ARMORY

Novák, Jozef. Slovenské Mestské a Obecné Erby. Bratislava: Slovenská Archívna Správa, 1967.

The title translates to "Slovak city and municipal heraldry," which nicely summarizes the content of the book. There are a number of line drawings that have the colors tricked, as well as photos of original seals. Everything is thoroughly documented, so that even if you can't read Slovak you can still determine whether a particular coat dates to the middle ages. (WvN)

Vrtel', Ladislav. Osem Storocí Slovenskej Heraldiky (Eight Centuries of Slovak Heraldry). Waconda, Illinois: Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, 1999.

This is a nice comprehensive survey of Slovak heraldry, with a chapter on each century from 10th century pre-heraldry to the present. Each chapter ends with an English summary, and there are many fine illustrations. However, some of the information is typically Victorian (i.e. wrong), so the book must be used with care. (WvN)



This page maintained by Jim Trigg (known in the SCA as Blaise de Cormeilles), blaise@s-gabriel.org This page last updated January 20, 2002.