Surname inflection

Protectorate bilingual name of Božena Němcová Street in Řevnice, Czech Republic

The Czech-written tombstone of Františka Kellner from 1830 in the cemetery near St. Havel in Zbraslav, Havlín, Czech Republic

In some languages and countries, surname inflection (Czech: přechylování příjmení, Polish: odmiana nazwiska, Slovak: prechyľovanie priezviska) refers to the transformation of a surname, most often in the masculine gender, into a surname for a person of the opposite sex—thus usually a woman—by modifying the initial form of the surname.

The purpose is usually the expression of the family status of the bearer of the surname to be brought into line with the expression of its grammatical gender. We also inflect personal names in a similar way (Jan/Ján - Jana) and nouns denoting persons, e.g. Czech and Slovak professions (doktor - doktorka). But the procedure is different for surnames. Inflection allows them to be inflected in accordance with the rule of agreement of subject and predicate, thereby expressing relationships in the sentence (for example, what is the podmet and what is the subject) in the sentence.

On the contrary, it rarely deviates from the feminine form of the surname to the masculine, e.g. when a person changes gender to masculine or during marriage the groom takes the bride's surname or for the son of an unmarried mother. Then the masculine form is used, commonly understood as basic, uninflected.

The female variant of the surname is usually formed as feminative from the basic, male variant, or the male and female variants are grammatically symmetrical. Moreover, in some other languages and cultures, maiden surnames (belonging to the father, e.g. Polish -ówna) were or are being distinguished from wives' surnames (belonging to the husband, e.g. Polish -owa).  Inflection of surnames is especially typical for inflective language, in which it is usually done with specific suffixes.

Inflection is usually not governed by grammar, it is often only a matter of adding the ending -ová. So, for example, from the surname Jakubův, the inflected form is not Jakubová, but Jakubůvová (or it is not inflected either), from the surname Vítr, the inflected form is not Větrová, but Vítrová, from the surname Smrt, the inflected form is Smrtová, not Smrťová. Latin endings are also not respected, which fall out during declension, so that, for example, the inflected form of the surname Simonides is not Simonides, but Simonides, from Herod is Herodova, not Herodova, from Paulus is Paulusova, not Paulova. For some slanted surnames ending in -ě, the letter "t" is also added according to the "chicken" pattern, so, for example, there are three possible slanted forms of the surname Kníže, namely Knížová, Knížetová and Knížeová. This is not always the case, e.g. with the surnames Koťová or Káně, where there are only variants Koťová and Káňová. With exceptions (Jankůová, Petrůová, Pavlůová, Bratrůová), surnames ending in -ů are not inflected, unless they are of foreign origin, e.g. the surname Faů is commonly inflected as Faůová, because it comes from the German word Pfau.  Surnames ending in -ý can also have inflected forms ending in -ýová, especially if the adjective is outdated and sounds strange or it is not obvious that it is an adjective, so for example the surname Šurý has the inflected form Šurá and Šurýová. For foreign surnames from adjectives ending in -i and -y, the same rules apply as for their Czech versions. In the case of the endings -o, -é and -ic, there is also the possibility that a woman will keep a surname that does not end in -ová. With exceptions, surnames formed from clear adjectives following the "spring" pattern are not inflected, such as Hořejší, Dolejší, Hoření, Domácí, Ryzí, etc. If it is likely that it is not an adjective, the surname is sometimes inflected, e.g.  in addition to the main form, the surname Brixí can also be a slanted form Brixíová. In the case of surnames such as Krejčí or Kočí, there are also slanted forms Krejčová and Kočová (rarely Kočíová).

Czech

For historical and linguistic reasons, the forms of female surnames are mainly the result of the inflection of male surnames.

Development and methods of inflection

As historical records testify, women's names used to be as free as men's names. A woman was therefore a separately named person, often independent of a man's name, e.g. by origin. Examples: Eliška z Křivé, žena Jana Pšeničky z Račína (1483); M. Š. Plachý koupil dvůr od Mariany Bosákovic, manželky Jakuba Koklštejna (1610). Gradually, several ways of writing the names of persons of the female gender became established:

• First name of the woman and her occupation. (Káča děvečka, Anna kuchařka, Barbora markytánka)
• The woman's first name and her relationship (Anna matka Probošta, Manda žena Pátka, Ludmila za Bobka, Dorota vdova po Novotným, Anna dcera Hejla). This method of writing was also used in registers kept in Latin (Ludmilla filia Jakobi Holan, Anna vidua post Vitum Slaby).
• The woman's first name combined with an adjective or noun, formed from the man's name or the name of the man's or father's occupation. (Mariána ševcova, Dorota Karáskova, Kateřina mlynářka, Anna Beranka).
• For surnames formed by an adjective, the surname is naturally distinguished (Pěkná, Malopolská, Witovská)

The inflection of (male) surnames by means of various suffixes was promoted gradually and locally differently

• The suffix -ka (Cejnar – Cejnarka was common but also Čech – Češka). All Czech dialects have preserved this way of inflection. The suffix -ka is currently used for hypokoristikon of famous women, e.g. actresses (Bohdalka, Pilarka), teachers, neighbors (baba Jeremiáška) etc.
• The most frequent was the suffix -ová or -ova. Notations were usually made without diacritical marks and the two suffixes are therefore indistinguishable. (Svoboda – Svobodová, Svobodova). Evidence of the creation of feminine designations with the suffix -ová from a man's name can be found in obituaries, urbars or town books from the 14th century as well. The designation of women with the suffix -ová has been documented since the 15th century, and such a designation primarily expressed the man's occupation, which the woman usually shared with him in some way: císařová (caesar's), rychtářová (reeve's), hospodářová (householder's), sekretářová (secretary's), zámečníková (locksmith's), dudáková (piper player's), kostelníková (verger's), kantorová (cantor's), mistrová (master's). Same forms (ciesařová, králová, kupcová, mistrová) were also used for women who performed the function or profession themselves. In Eastern dialects, inflected relative names were also formed in a similar way: dětková bába, svatová, teščová, bratová.
• combination of endings -ová and -ka is ending -ovka or -ouka (židovka, krejčouka, dědouka, starostovka)
• Another, less common, was the suffix -na (Hřivčena), eventual -ovna (Přemyslovna, Stuartovna, Slavatovna, Štěchovna) Words ciesařovna (empress) and královna or králevna (queen) originally meant the daughter of the emperor, the king. The same form has the feminine paterhood (paternal name, placed between first name and surname) in Russian language
• The suffix -ice (Ocelice) was also used, especially in Moravia, similar to how long ago people were referred to, e.g., by their leader, ruler (Markvartici) and from that the names of the settlements (Markvartice, Vršovice)
• Naming related to the father's family persisted (Suchých)

The way of recording and the use of suffixes varied 'according to the place and time of the recordings and according to the habit of the recorder. Different forms of notation could be used to name one and the same person (Kača, Kača Ocelice, Kača, nebožtíka Oceli dcera, Kateřina Ocelových).

In register entries written in Latin, the unbiased indication of the kinship relationship was usually used.  Register records written at the end of the 18th century in German, when the suffix –in was added to a man's name, seem curious today (Svoboda – Anna Svobodin). However, there are registries in Latin where the surnames were skewed by the suffix -iana. E.g. register of births of the Slap parish from the years 1752–1790, where the recorders had certain difficulties with the transition from the original method of inflection using the aforementioned suffix -iana nato the forms of female surnames that were apparently commonly used in the locality at that time.  On two consecutive pages in this matrix, we can find different variants of tilting, where side by side we will see older shapes with the suffix -iana (Svobodiana, Zbraslavskiana, Nevarziliana, Malliana), an attempt at innovation -owin (Prawdowin), German suffix –in (Czamskin) and Czech suffix -a (Zbraslavska, Malla) and -ova or -owa (Pankova, Kralowa).

Around the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, there was a theory that the ending -ova should be distinguished in literary language for married and widowed women, -ova for unmarried women.  It was based on the narrowness of colloquial Czech, where unmarried women often used the possessive adjective form of the adjective on -ova. Such a request appeared, for example, in the Pokrok magazine discussion in 1876 and in the register Brusu jazyka českého from 1877 and in the next two editions, the same request was also submitted Alois Hlavinka, Povaha česká v řeči, 1916, str. 127. However, it has not been possible to demonstrate that such a distinction is historical;  it was rejected by Oldřich Hujer in a paper in Listy filologické 44, 1917, str. 366.

Surnames in the form of an adjective usually have a symmetrical masculine and feminine form (Nový – Nová, Dobrovský – Dobrovská). For adjectives based on the "spring" pattern, the basic form is the same for both masculine and feminine genders (e.g. Krejčí) and the feminine variant may appear indeclinable compared to the masculine because it has the same form in all singular cases (o panu Krejčím a paní Krejčí). Sometimes therefore, similar to the general meaning of the word, these names are also inflected with a suffix -ová (paní Krejčová).

Surnames ending in a are especially uninflected and gender neutral „-ů“ (Janů, Martinů, Krejčů). The last names of the type have a similar character Šerých. Colloquial forms of the type are equally gender neutral Novákovic or dialectal Novákojc which, however, have literary analogues in some other Slavic languages.  For example, type surnames have a similar character Vaškůj. The practice of not deviating or deviating in these cases is governed by traditions and is also subject to certain fluctuations or developments, in addition to Mrs. Krejčů a Mrs. Šerých can be derived from the same masculine base, e.g. Mrs. Krejčová or Šerýchová).

In other cases, as a rule, the masculine variant of the surname usually takes the grammatical form of a noun, the feminine variant acquires the form of a substantive adjective by adding the suffix -ová to the stem of the male surname. If the masculine variant has no ending, then the feminine variant can appear as a masculine variant with an added suffix -ová. In the case of some types of male surnames, the ending (usually the final vowel) is dropped when deriving the female variant, e.g. Vrána – Vránová. Sometimes, in accordance with Czech grammatical principles, there is a phonetic change in the stem of the surname, typically the dropping of a vowel (Čeněk – Čeňková).

Even if the male surname is originally a generic feminine word (Vrána, Smetana), grammatically, it acquires the masculine gender, and the feminine variant is formed by inflection with a suffix -ová (Vrána – Vránová).

A specific type is, for example, surnames formed by imperative sentences (Osolsobě, Skočdopole, Hrejsemnou, Přinesdom). Here the practice of inflection may also differ: the Osolsobová variant is not used, while the variant Skočdopolová, Přinesdomová occurs.

Inflection of foreign surnames

When translating female surnames into Czech from languages that have their own inflectional means, the default feminine form is usually used, especially if the language in question uses similar methods of inflection that are comprehensible even to a Czech speaker.  Especially with names from Slavic languages, the original form and declension are sometimes respected Věrka Serďučka (second fall Serďučky), Anna Karenina but also Anna Kareninová.

Sorbian female surnames of the Nowakowa type are recommended to be inflected in the Czech text as a similar Czech language. Surnames like Budarka, Nowcyna are recommended to be inflected according to the female pattern. Slanted surnames of unmarried women (Jordanojc, Nowcyc) it is recommended not to inflect, as is also the case in Czech dialects (Viděl jsem Mařku Novákojc) also with Czech surnames of the type Janů, Martinů. It is not recommended to mechanically inflect and inflect the surnames of unmarried women (Kubašec – Kubašecová – Kubašecové), forms that do not occur in Lusatian Serbian language would thus be formed.

Otherwise, female surnames from foreign languages are usually adapted to the feminine form in Czech. If the source language uses uninflected surnames or a method of inflection incompatible with Czech grammar, a suffix is usually added after the surname or its stem -ová. This applies both to cases of Czech citizens adopting surnames of foreign origin and to communications concerning foreign citizens.  Even in the case of translations of texts into Czech, it is recommended, from a stylistic point of view, to use foreign surnames in an italicized form (except in special cases), as this is characteristic of the Czech language system.

Icelandic patronymic or matronymic surnames are commonly inflected in Czech language. Inflection is done with a standard extension -ová which joins either the entire feminine form of the patronymic surname (Garðarsdóttirová), or to his male form, if only this is known (Garðarssonová, possibly Garðarová). It is also possible to indicate the feminine gender of the bearer of the surname with auxiliary words (e.g. paní Garðarsdóttir), especially if the text is intended for readers who are expected to know Germanic languages. They sometimes reject the inflection of Icelandic names.

The original unyielding and uninflected form of the surname is often respected, especially for very well-known personalities, for whom it is part of the bond or has the role of an established "trademark" and due to the uniqueness and familiarity of the bearer, there is usually no risk of misunderstanding: Marilyn Monroe (uninflectionable). Sometimes even oriental names are not inflected, which would be difficult to pronounce in an inflected form (Lucy Liu). At the same time, inflected and non-inflected variants can be used side by side.

Non-inflecting trend

The use of female surnames in the uninclined form was common in Czech mainly due to contact with the German-speaking environment, i.e. both the administrative and social influence of the Habsburg monarchy, the centuries-old presence of the German minority in the Czech lands and the bilingualism of a significant part of the population and official processes. At the same time, each of the languages treated surnames according to its own rules, and in many cases these rules overlapped. The trend of consistent deviation occurred especially within the framework of de-Germanization after the expulsion of the majority of Germans. As stated by Jana Valdrová: "Before the war, German, Jewish and Czech populations lived side by side. One woman was called Marie Jelinek and another Marie Jelínková. There were no rules about inflection." In the registers of Czech municipalities there are entries of female names such as Theresia Wolker, Anna Procházka, Eva Vykopal. According to Valdrová, widespread deviations only started after the Second World War and, according to her, the main initiator was a linguist František Oberpfalcer which was renamed Jílek after the war.

The trend of not changing the surname intensified after 2000, especially among cosmopolitan layers of the population, i.e. among Czechs who married foreigners or are in more intensive contact with foreign countries and foreign nationals.  The reasons given by the women are, for example, that some foreigners "do not understand that Svoboda and Svobodova are married, they consider it to be two different names" or that they often think of them as Russian because of the suffix abroad or that they themselves think they are too Russian. Sometimes the stated reason is that the straight form simply sounds better to them, its brevity seems more practical to them or they find it original or they consider it an important expression of personal free choice. Psychologist Lenka Čadová stated that women usually resort to these trends with the intention of increasing visibility or a more attractive image.

Feminist discourse has played a role, criticizing the adoption of male surnames for women as well as forms of surnames that women "appropriate" from men. One of the leading proponents of non-inflected surnames is a gender linguist and feminist Jana Valdrová. She drew attention to the asymmetry in the use of surnames, expressing the subordination and secondary status of women: "Imagine that the world is ruled by women. Kovářka's son will be Pavel Kovářčin and after his marriage to Maria Borůvka he will take the surname Borůvčin. The suffix -in will express to which woman the given man belongs."

Linguist Karel Oliva in 2015 he opposed the view that surnames with the ending -ová looks like a possessive adjective: "Whoever is at least a little educated in the language knows that possessive endings look different. When someone's name is Novák, so it is Novákova kniha, never Nováková kniha. It is enough to have an elementary knowledge of the Czech language to see that this is not the case." Karel Oliva opposes the idea that the emancipation of women consists in the fact that they perceive a skewed name as an insult to femininity and their emancipatory efforts.

A number of discussions about tipping have developed due to the activities of prominent women such as TV presenters Emma Smetana, Petra Svoboda or Tereza Robinson, politician Karolína Peake, sportswoman Kateřina Emmons (née Kůrková), and also Michaela Bakala, businesswoman Ivana Tykač etc. Petra Svoboda justifies her surname by the fact that she and her husband spent several years in Arab countries and both often traveled to countries where people were unable to understand the connection between the surnames Svoboda and Svoboda. Emma Smetana she has the surname Smetana in her French documents and Smetanová in her Czech documents, but since she spent most of her life abroad, she only uses the uninflected version, with the exception of the Czech authorities: "I'm sorry to those who are irritated by this, you can't blame the last name. I am half Czech, half French." Mrs. Henrieta Hynek used the surname Hynková as a Slovak citizen for several years, and when she applied for a change to the uninflected form because it sounded better next to her first name, she had to register for a nationality other than Slovak or Czech and chose Hungarian.  She doesn't mind being addressed as Mrs. Hynk, and is rather amused by being called Mr. Hynk, for example. In the media, for example, the names of Deputy Minister of Health Lenka Teska Arnoštová or Deputy Minister of Labor Zuzana Jentschke Stöcklová attracted attention.

Grammatical problems of uninflected surnames

A number of people "may have problems" with how uninflected feminine surnames inflect. It is said that even newly married women with an uninflected last name, who are at a loss because they do not know how to deal with it in communication, sometimes turn to the Ústav pro jazyk český. Some people are unable or unwilling to utter or write the uninflected version of the last name. Uninflected foreign-sounding surnames of women, such as Kateřina Emmons, Karolína Peake, Jana Kirschner or Dara Rolins, at the same time, it causes fewer problems for them than the use of masculine forms of Czech surnames for women (Mrs. Dvořák, Novák, Svoboda, Smetana, Bakala, Kaplický). Sentence "mám jednání s Dvořák" (I have meeting with Dvořák) is not as functional in Czech language as „s Dvořákovou“ and the uninflected surname often needs to be supplemented in such a case („s paní Dvořák“), unless the gender follows from the verb form ("Dvořák přišla"). Even the "correct" use of the „své kolegyni Petře Svoboda“ type may not work structurally and naturally in Czech language. Thus, people can inflect an uninflected female surname or use the masculine declension. The name Eliška Kaplicky has a particularly curious effect in Czech language, also written Eliška Kaplický, leading to controversy as to whether, according to the usual principles of insensitive treatment of surnames of foreign women, she should be mentioned as Kaplickyová, and discussion, whether such a surname should be inflected in Czech language. When a sports psychologist commented on the hockey player's case in 2015 Katarína Bradáč, her name caused more discussion than the case itself.  The director of Ústav pro jazyk český at the time Karel Oliva said about it: "In this form, Beard is a masculine name. If it is carried by a woman, then it probably cannot be inflected, because if we were to add a masculine inflection to it, we would inflect it incorrectly.  Declension just doesn't make sense here. Assuming that it is a Czech name, then some gross mistake has been made here and it cannot be discussed when it is already wrong from the beginning." According to him, the feminine ending is the most natural sign of the feminine gender, and if someone insists that they don't want it there, then they have to replace it with something else - a first name or a title. Karel Oliva spoke in 2015 about "cases for which there are no rules yet". About the female surname Teska stated that it is not inflected, but that if it were, we would have to inflect them according to the pattern "žena" (woman). According to him, the way a name is used can also depend on family tradition, and according to Oliva, it is also important to respect the wishes of the bearer of the name. However, according to him, inflection of this type of name according to the female form would be very on the edge, inflection according to the male pattern would be downright incorrect. He would not even inflect the surname Smetana: „dal jsem tu knížku Smetaně“ (I gave that book to Smetana) he finds it "a little strange". According to him, Eliška Kaplický's surname should also be understood as a foreign surname, and not inflected „It sounds terrible, but the newspaper is not to blame. That is the fault of the lady who had this brilliant idea.“

When the discussants wrote about Kateřina Jacques or Karolina Peake as about Žáková and Píková, gender linguist Jana Valdrová deduced from this that they wanted to insult these female politicians.

The argument for inflection is usually that in Czech it is not easy to inflect or otherwise apply uninflected surnames according to feminine patterns and it is not possible to use masculine patterns.  Foreign surnames are also usually inflected, because the need to inflect them is current for them as well. Without inflection, the language would not avoid unnatural sentences like Williams porazila Schneider, in which the podmet cannot be distinguished from the subject In Czech, for most types of surnames, the gender of its bearer can be immediately recognized from the name, which often cannot be ensured without inflection. Of course, the meaning of the sentence can be completed by description, but the torso remains, e.g. "Tenistka Williams porazila soupeřku Schneider" (Female tenis player Williams defeated her opponent Schneider) In the case when a woman has two surnames, from a linguistic point of view it is appropriate to inflect both If only the second surname is inflected, e.g. when the model Kateřina Průšová was named Kateřina Konvalinka Průšová, the uninflected surname can be mistaken for a middle name.

Sandra Měřínský si nemyslí, she doesn't think that her name "spoils the Czech language", and on the contrary, she resents her colleague who writes "na základě dotazu paní Měřínského", or over a cousin who misspelled her husband's Italian surname Alagi to Alagiaová, making him damaged. Jana Valdrová, a linguist, Germanist and gender researcher from the University of South Bohemia, is a very active promoter of uninflected surnames for women. She is of the opinion that "uninflected surnames do not cause major misunderstandings, and if they do, we can ask questions about the ambiguities". Names like Kateřina Konvalinka Průšová or Kristýna Liška Boková can sound joking, cause ridicule and be misleading, for example, someone may consider an uninflected surname to be a middle name or a nickname, while the first name Petra Eliáš Voláková sounds less controversial. A MF Dnes survey in 2011 investigated how people react to female surnames such as Michael Bakal.  41 percent of those polled said that they find such a shape ridiculous and against the rules of the Czech language, and (another?) 41% disagreed with not inflecting, but at the same time considered that it is everyone's business what the name is. The MF Dnes survey also showed that there are more supporters of diversion among women than among men.

Jana Valdrová reminds that in Czech there are a number of uninflected first names (Dagmar, Miriam), but also uninflected surnames (Martinů, Janů, Krejčů, Hrejsemnou, Osolsobě, Šerých), in the case of some names and surnames, the feminine variant is uninflectionable (Krejčí), while the masculine has different forms in different cases.  Some dialects with endings -ová they avoid it by replacing it with a genderless and indeclinable ending -ů, -ojc, -ovic, -ých. Valdrová concluded from this that female surnames without -ová are grammatically correct in Czech, used for hundreds of years, their use is not hindered by any language specifics and there is no reason to prevent their registration by legal provisions.

Legal regulation of surnames in the Czech Republic

The use of names and surnames in common language or in the media is not regulated by law. The law does not regulate the practical application of unbiased registry (recorded) surnames of women in Czech texts, whether in written or spoken form. Some women who wrote down the uninflected surname assume or directly demand the uninflected use, others are neutral in this regard and do not mind the common use of inflected forms of the surname. The inflection of surnames in common language use is usually preferred by linguists from Ústav pro jazyk český Akademie věd České republiky.

Legislation regulating the registration of surnames

Registration of surnames upon marriage in the Czech matrik is subject to regulation according to § 69 and § 69a of Act No. 301/2000 Coll. (version 28)., about registers, name and surname. According to him, the surnames of married people who change their surnames after marriage are formed on the basis of the Czech dictionary, but on the basis of the application, the uninflected surname is entered without any other conditions. The names of offspring born out of marriage are formed on the basis of an agreement on the surnames of spouses and children without further specification.  In 2000, the easing of the requirement to change surnames was also enforced into law thanks to foreign women who complained to the Czech Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in 2000.

Practice of surname legal regulation

The registered surname entered in the register is taken over in an unchanged form in other official documents (including citizen's card) and registers. In all cases, however, it is written only in the basic form. No other principles for the declension or use of names are recorded in registers and documents and are not regulated by law. The Czech legal system does not regulate the form or use of the names of women who are not Czech citizens. If a woman with a foreign nationality is issued a document by the Czech authorities, e.g. a permanent residence permit, the name and surname are given in their original form without inflection, only if necessary transliterated into Latin.

A specific problem is the names and surnames used by transsexual and intersexual people. Pursuant to § 72 paragraph 5 of the Registry Act No. 301/2000 Coll. the registry office will allow, based on the request of the natural person and the confirmation of the health service provider, the change of the name, or names, and surname to a neutral name and surname, if treatment for gender reassignment has been started.  However, the criterion for recognition of gender-neutral surnames is usually their gender non-specificity. Her assessment is related to a very narrow concept of gender neutral According to Jana Valdrová, the task of linguists is to reevaluate the criteria for determining the gender neutrality of surnames in favor of expanding the choices of surname bearers. The only handbook used by the authorities comes from Miloslava Knappová, whom Jana Valdrová evaluates by saying that she "has been performing forensic expert work since the days of deep socialism".  This guide recognizes as both gender surnames:

• originally soft adjectives or similar to them like Hoření, Krejčí etc.,
• names ended with -ů, -ůj anf -ův, formed from possessive adjectives (Petrů, Pavlů etc.)
• names ended with -ých, -ech and another version of this ending.

Despite the growing number of foreign women and men in the Czech Republic, Knappová does not mention gendered foreign surnames at all.

Liberalization of uninflected surnames registration

In 2013, the Senate rejected a bill that would have allowed women to register their surnames in the masculine form based on their own decision in all cases. The proposal was submitted by the chairman of the ODS senate club Richard Svoboda.

In 2019, the Czech Pirate Party proposed the same change Vice Prime Minister Jan Hamáček argued against this second proposal, that "inflection of surnames is a characteristic feature of the Czech linguistic system".  The linguist Karel Oliva also expressed his agreement with this opinion, who stated that the Czech language requires inflection throughout its grammatical structure and also that thanks to it the wording of the name clearly defines gender, which prevents awkward misunderstanding in communication situations. The proposal of the Czech Pirate Party was also rejected.

In 2020, the representative of the government of the Czech Republic for human rights Kateřina Valachová prepared a proposal for liberalization, as she stated in an interview with Czech Television. It was only in 2021 that the House passed the proposal of deputy and government commissioner for human rights Helena Válková (YES) and deputy Ondřej Profant (Pirates). According to him, Czech women will now be able to choose whether to have their surname entered in the Register inflected or not, without having to fulfill any conditions. 91 members of parliament voted in favor, 33 against, and 48 abstained from voting.

As of 1 January 2022, there is no condition for the right to write in an untilted form. Just ask for registration without any justification.

Slovak language

It developed simultaneously with the emergence of the two-name nomenclature system. The first written mention of women surname inflection in Slovakia comes from the Žilina City Book from 1454: "tehda pani Blasskowa rekla". The practice of women surname inflection began to be abandoned in Slovakia in the second half of the 18th century, and due to the Kingdom of Hungary influence, it did not inflect even in the 19th century.

Slovak language inflects in a very similar way to Czech, but has fewer exceptions to inflection. Specifically, for example, the bearer's express wish not to change her name is more often respected in Czech language. For example, Kateřina Emmons in Slovak language it is often obliquely Kateřina Emmonsová, almost never in Czech language.

Sorbian language

In Lower Sorbian language, surnames are inflected differently for married and unmarried women.  Names of married women most often have a suffix -owa, (Nowak – Nowakowa), i.e. similar to Czech language. There are also female surnames with the suffix -ka, tathese are formed mainly from male surnames of foreign origin (Budarka, Urbanka). Lower Sorbian language has also a suffix -ina/-yna, (Markula- Markulina, Nowka – Nowcyna).

Inflected surnames of unmarried women for male surnames ending with consonant or -o are formed with a suffix -ojc/-jejc (Nowak – Nowakojc, Wuglaŕ – Wuglarjejc). From male surnames ending with -a oblique forms are formed by the suffix -ic/-yc (Markula- Markulic, Nowka – Nowcyc). Similar forms of these forms can be found in Czech dialects (e.g. Mařka Novákojc or Mařka Novákovic).

Also in Upper Sorbian language surnames are inflected differently for married and unmarried women. For the extension -owa here it is used for male surnames ending with a consonant (Rawp - Rawpowa). Male surnames ending with -a, -o, -ski a -cki are inflected by suffixes -ina/-yna, (Andricki - Andryccyna). Addressing with a suffix -ka (Urbanka) are considered unwritten.

Inflected surnames of unmarried women with male surnames ending with a consonant and with -ka or -ca forms a suffix -ec (Kral – Kralec, Čornak – Čornakec). From male surnames ending with -a or -o oblique forms are formed by the suffix -ic. (Róla – Rólic, Nedo - Nedźic).

Polish

Inflection rules

In Polish, surnames are inflected in a similar fashion as in Czech, with the main exception of the surnames of unmarried women. Currently, however, the inflection pattern previously used for unmarried women (daughters) is being abandoned, and married women also often use unchanged (masculine form) surnames, or add the uninflected surname of their husbands to their original surname.

• Male surnames that are adjectives (Czarny, Farny), are inflected like adjectives by changing the grammatical gender: Czarna, Farna.
  • This also applies to the most common surnames ending in the suffix -ski or -cki, which also deviate by changing the gender to -ska or -cka: Bujnicki – Bujnicka, Ciszewski – Ciszewska.
• If the husband's surname ends with a consonant, the usual suffix is -owa: Kupisz – Kupiszowa, Michalak – Michalakowa.
  • Common masculine nouns are inflected in the same way when used to designate a female craftsman or official: kowal – kowalowa – žena kováře, kovářka.
  • In these cases, a girl receives a surname created from the father’s surname with the suffix -ówna [read: -uvna]: (Pawlak – Pawlakówna, Kupisz – Kupiszówna).
• If the husband's last name ends in the vowel -a the suffix used is -ina: (Zaręba – Zarębina, Kulesza – Kuleszyna).
  • However, women often use such surnames unchanged (Bożena Ladra, Magdalena Krupa).
  • A girl's surname is here formed from the father's surname with the suffix -anka or -ianka: (Zaręba – Zarębianka, Kulesza – Kuleszanka).
  • The same suffix is used when forming girls' surnames from male surnames ending in the consonant -b: (Gołąb – Gołębianka).
• In certain Polish dialects, similar to some dialects of the Czech language, the inflectional suffix -ka is used: (Pawlak – Pawlaczka, Kupisz – Kupiszka, compare Czech Kubeš – Kubeška).

Inflection

Similarly to what happens in Czech, female surnames created from masculine surnames capable of inflection are inflected as common feminine adjectives.

Uninflected surnames remain so when used for women: Rozmawiałem z panią Beatą Tyszkiewicz – “I spoke with Mrs. Beata Tyszkiewicz”. Many Polish women also have compound surnames. If at least one of the two names in such a combination is not inflected when used on its own, as in Janina Pawluk-Nowakowa or Mirosława Nowak-Dziemianowicz, then the compound surname as a whole remains uninflected: z Janiną Pawluk-Nowakową, z panią Mirosławą Nowak-Dziemianowicz.

Further, some masculine names of foreign origin designating professions, e.g. dyrektor, reżyser, profesor, doktor, minister, premier, prezes or prokurator, are not inflected in Polish. When speaking of a woman, the title is usually preceded by the word pani (polite “you”) as an indication of the gender of the person (“indirect inflection”). For example, Interview with Professor Nowakova-Dziemianowicz becomes Wywiad z panią profesor Nowak-Dziemianowicz.

Lithuanian

In Lithuanian, female surnames are inflected differently according to whether the woman is married or not. Male surnames have the endings -as, -is, -ius or -us. Suffixes for unmarried women are -aitė, -ytė, -iūtė and -utė, and the one for married women is -ienė.

Latvian

Latvian consistently uses inflected female surnames. The nature of the suffixes used (mainly -a, often -e for names of foreign origin) is purely grammatical, i.e. it is enough to lean the surname to the feminine declension pattern (Ozoliņš – Ozoliņa). Surnames that already end in -a or -e in the masculine form do not change.

The surnames of foreign women are also inflected according to the same rules, but in addition, foreign proper names (not only personal ones) are transcribed to better fit the phonetic reality of Latvian, even names from other languages that use the Latin alphabet (Bills Klintons – Hilarija Klintone). For the above reasons, Czech surnames ending in -ová or Russian ones ending in -ina, -ova etc. therefore do not need to change.

Greek

In Greece, if a man called Papadopoulos has a daughter or wife, she will likely be named Papadopoulou, the genitive form, as if the daughter/wife is "of" a man named Papadopoulos. Likewise, the surnames of daughters and wives of males with surnames ending in -as will end in -a, and those of daughters and wives of males with the -is suffix will have the -i suffix.

Finnish

Between the 17th and 19th centuries, Finnish female surnames contained a suffix which was either simply attached to the name or used instead of another suffix such as -nen, -inen or -lainen. For example, the feminine inflection of the name Karhunen resulted in Karhutar.

The possibility of inflecting Finnish surnames in Finland ceased in 1929, when the law on marriage was passed. The wife's obligation to take her husband's name was abolished in 1985, when a new Act on surnames was adopted, abolishing the relevant section of the Marriage Act.

Today, Finnish surnames are common to both men and women, usually both using the masculine variant.  Exceptionally, names with a female suffix can also be encountered (e.g. Kerätär) but they are also used by men. Since the grammar of Finnish does not distinguish between genders, the use of both variants is linguistically unproblematic.

Icelandic

In Iceland, surnames in the narrower sense of a family name are relatively rare and used by only about 4% of the population. Instead, most people use a patronymic or matronymic, see Icelandic name. A child receives a last name created from the first name of one of the parents—traditionally the father, but in recent decades increasingly the mother—to which is appended one of the three suffixes -dóttir (feminine), -son (masculine), or -bur (neutral, an option available since 2019).

Thus, the child of a man called Garðar can have one of the surnames Garðarsson (literally “Garðar’s son”), Garðarsdóttir (“Garðar's daughter”) or Garðarsbur (“Garðar’s child”). However, the neutral option -bur is normally only used by persons who choose to change the official registration of their gender (which can be done without any restrictions or medical requirements from the age of 18, or even sooner with parental assent).

Sometimes, both a matronymic and a patronymic is used. A patronymic or matronymic surname is normally retained through adulthood, although there are legal options to change it.

The declension of Icelandic matronymics and patronymics follows the normal rules for nouns. For example, Garðarsson becomes Garðarssyni in the dative and Garðarssonar in the genitive. By contrast, Icelandic family names, such as Scheving or Thoroddsen, usually do not inflect.

Literature

• Miloslava Knappová: Přechylování příjmení v češtině, Naše řeč, Volume 62 (1979), Issue 5
• Miloslava Knappová: Začleňování cizích ženských příjmení do češtiny, Naše řeč, Volume 64 (1981), Issue 2
• Miloslava Knappová: Přechylování příjmení jako problém kodifikační a legislativní (návrh doplňkové kodifikační úpravy), Naše řeč, Volume 75 (1992), Issue 1
• Jan Petr: O začleňování litevských a lotyšských příjmení do češtiny (s návrhem na přepis litevských a lotyšských písmen), Naše řeč, Volume 65 (1982), Issue 2

External links

• Přechylování ženských příjmení pocházejících z jazyků, které mají vlastní přechylovací prostředky, Internetová příručka Ústavu pro jazyk český AV ČR (in Czech)
• Karel Sekvent: Přechylování v překladech ze stylistického hlediska. Online archived copy. Jednota tlumočníků a překladatelů, undated (documented in the archive as of 02/02/2014). (in Czech)