Last Names with -ová
Last week I read an article in the Slovak Spectator about the fact that women in Slovakia will soon find it easier to have a last name that doesn’t end in ová.
Currently in Slovakia, it is the law that female Slovak citizens must have a name that ends in ová or á. The tradition of females using these suffixes is long, not only in Slovakia but in many Slavic nations such as Poland, Ukraine, and Russia.
How do you know if a name should have an ová or an á ending in Slovak names? Why is it Jana Kováčová and Anna Čierná? The most basic explanation is if a name is a noun like Kováč (“kováč” means “smith” in English) then the ending ová is applied. If a name is an adjective like Čierný (“čierný” means “black” in English) then the ending ý is dropped and á is applied.
In Slovakia, it’s one thing for a woman to have a Slovak name and keep the naming conventions in her last name, but in the case where a Slovak woman, say her name is Jana, marries a foreigner whose name is John Smith, and they live in Slovakia, would she really want to be Jana Smithová? Probably not. This is when a Slovak woman might appreciate having the choice to opt out of ová.
10 Comments on “Last Names with -ová”
its the *law*?? OMG. First I read about the whipping with branches, and dunking with cold well water, now this. Sucks to be a chick in Slovakia...
August 21st, 2007 at 07:24 PM
The whipping with branches is just symbolic, Slovaks don't beat girls :) And with the names - well it's a normal thing in here when you born as -ova you really don't care about it :)
February 18th, 2008 at 10:10 AM
This isn't exactly the law. The article on the slovakspectator is wrong. The two main conditions under the law, in which you can have a name without ová or ská or if the woman is non-Slovak "nationality" (primarily meaning first language is not Slovak), or if either the woman or the man have non-Slovak "citizenship" (meaning a subject of another country). The example with Smithova doesn't apply now - my own wife doesn't have to have ova because I am English. By the way, the law doesn't actually mention allowing non-ský adjective names to change the "y" to "a" so the registry offices are acting illegally when they let women have Cierna instead of Ciernyova. It would be interesting to see them try to refuse that one though!
June 3rd, 2008 at 08:52 PM
Thi IS the law. It is a problem for the ethnic Hungarians in Slovakia (about half a million or so people). This is special for the Slovak language, but Hungarians would never call the wife of Mr Kovács "Kovácsová" but "Kovácsné" instead. Forcing the Sklovak grammar reduces the freedom of speech, especially the freedom to use the mother's tonge in Slovakia.
June 4th, 2009 at 09:53 AM
No Zoltan, THIS is the law. There are also provisions for people who were forced to have -ova under communism or Mecairism. What you might be thinking of is the habit of adding ova to the end of any female name, sample "Britney Spearsova". This is done because Slovak grammar doesn't really work properly with female names that don't end with an a. This habit is considered to be "correct Slovak" so certain TV presenters have to have ova on their names on TV (especially for serious programs like the news), even though their ID card has their name without. 154/1994 Z.z. ZÁKON NÁRODNEJ RADY SLOVENSKEJ REPUBLIKY z 27. mája 1994 o matrikách Zmena: 222/1996 Z.z. Zmena: 416/2001 Z.z. Zmena: 198/2002 Z.z. Zmena: 515/2003 Z.z. Zmena: 36/2005 Z.z. Zmena: 36/2005 Z.z. Zmena: 14/2006 Z.z. Zmena: 335/2007 Z.z. Národná rada Slovenskej republiky sa uzniesla na tomto zákone: § 16 Ženské priezvisko osoby inej ako slovenskej národnosti sa zapíše bez koncovky slovenského prechyľovania, a) ak o to požiadajú rodičia 9) pri zápise priezviska ich dieťaťa ženského pohlavia do knihy narodení podľa § 13 ods. 1 alebo osvojitelia pri zápise priezviska osvojeného dieťaťa, ak ide o osvojenie podľa osobitného predpisu, 9a) b) ak o to požiada žena pri zápise uzavretia manželstva do knihy manželstiev podľa § 14, c) ak o to požiada žena v súvislosti so zápisom rozhodnutia o zmene priezviska podľa osobitného zákona.
September 3rd, 2009 at 09:03 PM
I still laugh every time I think about this .... the Slovak cousin comes and brings her music CDs and television DVDs ... a few of which are labeled Allie McBealova. LOL -- and thinking back to my Slovak grandmother, she REFUSED to use ova -- I remember asking her about it and she HATED it -- must have been a war or government imposed thing.
January 20th, 2010 at 08:57 PM
I think I also heard once that "ova" is more appropriate if the surname ends in a consonant (rather than a vowel).
January 31st, 2010 at 07:09 AM
We just attended the Sweden - Slovakian women's ice hockey preliminary at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, and man was the crowd giggling when the announcer read the names of the Slovak players; ova ova ova ova ova! I guess Slovaks learn not to notice it, but it makes it *real* hard to tell the difference between hockey players! Who scored that? Gapova? Kapustova? Oh, it was Cupkova!
February 16th, 2010 at 06:20 PM
Nice, Brian :)
February 16th, 2010 at 09:35 PM
-ova comes with two meanings: 1) from latin language meaning 'egg' which represents the female population 2) from slavic group of language which means 'belonging to' So when a woman marries a man, -ova added to her name means that she belongs to his family now. There are exceptions to the law and if you do have a good reason, it's not that hard to keep your maiden name or to use your surname in a different form. Zoltan there's another law which you may be referring to - the language law which prevents other language groups of taking over our language. Slovakia is fairly small country and by allowing all other nationalities to freely use their language Slovak language may simply disappear. Freedom of speech is one thing, protecting our language is another.
April 18th, 2010 at 10:41 AM