Czech-American Names
Written for the Student Life by Monsignor J. B. Dudek, K. C. H. S.
| This interesting article on the changes undergone by Czech surnames in America was written especially for the Student Life magazine by Monsignor J. B. Dudek, Knight Commander of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre and Chancellor of the Diocese of Oklahoma. He has contributed noteworthy articles in Slavic philology to two American periodicals, dealing specificaly with the Bohemian language in America. He is, in fact, the author of a book on the subject, which, however, has not as yet been published in toto. His articles have been liberally quoted both in this country and abroad; and, not long ago a literary critic, writing in “The Chicago Tribune”, stated that “the best philology visible” in a certain publication “is from a Catholic priest”. Anonymously, or under various noms de plume, Msgr. Dudek has contributed critical essays, poems, and apologetic articles to several well known magazines, preferring to keep his identity a secret. Editor’s Note. |
N 1925 I contributed, almost simultaneously, to “The American Speech” (December) and to another American periodical, two articles containing various observations on the changes undergone by Czech surnames in America. In these I assigned, as the principal reason for most of the alterations recorded, the difficulty that a great many Bohemian names necessarily present to an English-speaking people. I intimated that a Jestřáb, the first time he called for his mail, would naturally cause some commotion in the postoffice of an American village, and that an accomodating real estate agent, confronted with the prospect of drafting a deed or mortgage for a customer blessed with some patronymic like Chtivý, Bertič, Cvrkál, Kostořis, Ranhojič, Skořepa or Žížala, might well be filled with despair. The postmaster, after searching vainly through the C’s for Chestrob and the Y’s for Yesjob, could hardly be expected to do less than call the new patron of the office aside and suggest the advisability of adopting some designation more penetrable by the American mind if he did not wish the delivery of his mail impeded. And the real estate agent, having erroneously made out the deed or mortgage in favor of Tibby, Bertiss, Swottle, Costeritz, Ranhodges, Scarrippy or Cecily, as the case might be, under which it was recorded at the courthouse, perhaps innocently forced his client to adopt the new name to protect his title to the property conveyed. Be that as it may, a great many such revised versions—for better or worse—now adorn Czech families domiciled in the United States.
