The Czech Senate has just passed the law referred to in the following article.  In Polish, the analogous ending "-owa" for noun-like last names is optional and never used in women's register records.  The distinction feminine/masculine remains, of course, mandatory for the last names which have the form of adjectives ending in -cki, -ski, i.e. probably the majority of all the Polish last names.

Law would mean surname options

Foreigners who marry here, and some Czech brides, may avoid -ova

By Lenka Ponikelska
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
(March 4, 2004)


With Czech women famous for their beauty and Prague known for its romantic atmosphere, it is little wonder that 35 percent of marriages registered at Prague 1 City Hall involve nationalities other than Czech.

Couples walking down the aisle here have a last hurdle to clear before heading off on their honeymoon: choosing the bride's last name.

Traditionally, the last names of all women married here are formed in accordance with Czech grammar rules that add feminine endings of -ova or -a to all masculine surnames. Hence, you might meet Jan Novak, whose wife is Jana Novakova.

This rule is set to change due to a bill on registries that the Chamber of Deputies approved late last month. The bill will allow Czech women who marry foreigners or who have permanent residence abroad to keep their surname in the masculine form instead of using their feminine derivatives. The same would apply to foreign women marrying in the Czech Republic.

Lucie Malakova, a Czech who married an American, Richard Malak, admits the feminine version of her name is a source of humor for her in-laws back in America.

"My relatives don't understand the difference between Malak, Malakova or Malakovi," she said. "Once, some e-mail arrived with the name Malakova and my father-in-law deleted it because he thought he didn't know the person. Also, we're used to receiving mail addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Richard Malakova."

Although Malakova takes the issue in stride, other women in the same situation have stronger feelings.

Kamila Murphy, 35, executive manager of the Czech Society for Human Resources Development, said she didn't want to add -ova to her name after she married an American.

"I was relieved to find out that Czech legislation allows an exception for that rule when the husband's name ends with a vowel, as in our case," she said. "If I became Murphyova instead of Murphy it wouldn't just be the spelling but also the Czech pronunciation of my surname that would be weird."


Masculine surnames

The Chamber of Deputies passed the bill Feb. 24. If subsequently passed by the Senate, it will allow women marrying foreigners or living abroad to use a masculine version of the surname and would grant the same right to foreign women who marry here.

At present, Czech women can opt for the masculine surname -- but only if they are a member of one of the minority nationalities recognized by Czech officialdom: Bulgarian, Croatian, Hungarian, Polish, German, Romany, Russian, Greek, Slovak, Ukrainian or Ruthenian. Czech passports identify both the holder's citizenship and nationality.

Pavel Hrncir, the Civic Democrat deputy who entered the provision into the bill, told the Czech News Agency it's unfair that for a woman who prefers to keep the masculine version of a surname, "it actually means giving up Czech nationality."

Jana Talmanova, head registrar at Prague 1 City Hall, said she is asked 10 times a week about keeping the masculine version of a surname. "It is a general rule that women marrying foreigners want to avoid adding -ova to it," Talmanova said.

She said the current law has forced many women to give up their Czech nationality. "Sometimes it's so absurd that brides of Czech nationality want to be registered as Greeks, Ukrainians or Hungarians."

The same rule applies to foreign couples coming here to marry, often leading to bizarre results, said Jana Masopustova of the Prague City Hall registry.

"When Mr. Parker marries Mrs. Parker here, it is not just her but all the female names she has in her documents that have to be changed to the Czech feminine version, according to the law," Masopustova said. "So when she arrives back in America, I can imagine how hard it must be to explain to the officials there how she got this -ova added to her name. The result is she has documents with two different names."

Karel Oliva, head of the Institute for Czech Language at the Czech Academy of Science, explained the linguistic reason for adding the feminine endings to surnames. "The Czech language has a declination system that applies to names also. When you keep a masculine version for a woman it becomes undeclinable and it sounds strange," he said. "The problem is insoluble, and every solution here is a bad solution."

Some women don't want to abandon the tradition.

"Although I married an American, I am Czech and I don't feel [that] I need to adopt an American style," Malakova said. "If I would have a masculine version of my surname, I'd feel I was losing my femininity."

http://www.praguepost.com/P03/2004/Art/0304/news7.php

Very interesting. I think that Polish is different. My knowledge of Polish is very limited, but I have noticed that women that do not have a typical old Polish name, even if it's common, say Hirsch, do not feminise their names. This has never happened in Czech. We had Margaret Thatcherova. We just don't know how to decline feminine names otherwise, I guess.

I suppose it's a good idea to let the people choose what their name is. Now I think a woman who gets married can elect to keep her maiden name, but I'm not too sure about that. In practice, her name will be the feminine form, otherwise it's too difficult too speak.

Hi Jean Pierre,

(What time is it by the way?!)

Polish is different because, indeed, "Thatcherowa" would be unthinkable. But not so "Hirschowa," I would say.  The latter is more likely to be "domesticated," i.e. it could well happen that if a Mr. Hirsch were your neighbor and a Polish citizen, then, particularly with the older generation, the feminine form "Hirschowa" for his wife could still be used, although young people, in big cities, would no longer do it.  When I say that "Thatcherowa" would be unthinkable I not only mean that, unlike in Czech, in Polish we do not change names of foreigners (so the name of the "Iron Lady" is fixed forever unchaged in our collective linguistic memory), but also that it is very unlikely that a Mr. Thatcher would be a Polish citizen living next door, which is more likely in the case of a Mr. Hirsch.

Jacek

(Very late, I've had insomnia for a couple of days.)

I just happened to notice that when I watch Polish films, there is a lot of women that have a masculine surname, something impossible in Czech. For foreign names, I suppose you can say Thatcher in Czech too in the nominative, but in other cases you still have to revert to the feminine form. I suppose another possibility is not declining it at all. It could work, but it's not really natural.

And what should Horne be in Czech and Polish? Hornov/Hornow?

Both Horne and Koch would have to be indeclinable in Latin (though the former could theoretically be third-declension neuter), but in Russian they would seem to work perfectly well as ordinary masculine nouns. Krankowski in Latin could be construed, with some etymological basis, as the genitive singular of the hypothetical *Krankowskus. The given name would be inflected while the surname remained in the genitive, so that, for example, 'to all of the Jacek Krankowskis' could be translated Iacobis omnibus Krankowskorum.

Ščóťť/Śćótt

Thank you, Scott, for having removed the floreal ornaments for TC purposes...

Here is how the respective full names are declined in Polish:

N.: Scott Horne
G.: Scotta Horne'a
D.: Scottowi Horne'owi
A.: Scotta Horne'a
I.:  Scottem Horne'em
L.: Scotcie Hornie
V.: Scotcie Hornie!

N.: member5578
G.: Jeana Pierre'a Kocha
D.: Jeanowi Pierre'owi Kochowi
A.: Jeana Pierre'a Kocha
I.:  Jeanem Pierre'em Kochem
L.: Jeanie Pierze Kochu
V.: Jeanie Pierze Kochu!

A note about the Vocative case: archaic, everybody would call you today Scott! Jean Pierre!

And obviously not even all Polish newspaper proofreaders have got a handle of the use of the apostrophe which is required when a foreign noun ends in a vowel as opposed to a consonant.

For the Locative case of Scott and Pierre I admit even I preferred to double check the dictionary before posting my hypothesis of Scotcie and, particularly, Pierze.

That is why in sworn translations and notarial deeds the healthy tendency is not to decline foreign names, although it may sound awful and is instinctively avoided with morphologically simpler names.

Jacek

That dative ending surprises me. It would be Скотту Горну (or Хорну) in Russian. Otherwise all of the other forms are pretty close to the Russian. Of course, Russian has a prepositional case instead of a locative and does not have a vocative.

I promise to start studying Polish as soon as we have set the date for the Varsovian/Żelazowa Wolan TC get-together.

Scotta

That ending is exceptional in Polish masculine nouns (such as Bóg, brat, chłopiec, diabeł, kot, pies, pan, lew but not Lew Tołstoj, although yes Lew Rywin, the hero of the biggest corruption scandal these days).  It is reserved for neuter nouns which BTW typically end in -e or -o.

But, if your final -e were pronounced as a full vowel, like in nouns Linde or Blikle (remember the doughnuts?), then such a name would be (in singular only!) declined like... an adjective:

Blikle
Bliklego
Bliklemu
Blikle
Bliklem
Bliklem
Blikle

Scott, here you are:

N.: Scott Horne
G.: Scotta Horna
D.: Scottu Hornovi
A.: Scotta Horna
I.:  Scottem Hornem
L.: Scottu Hornovi
V.: Scotte Horne!

N.: member5578
G.: Jeana Pierra Kocha
D.: Jeanu Pierru Kochovi
A.: Jeana Pierra Kocha
I.:  Jeanem Pierrem Kochem
L.: Jeanu Pierru Kochovi
V.: Jeane Pierre Kochu!

(I'm following the same order Jacek used so it's easier to compare, though in Czech the instrumental would be the 7th case and the vocative the 5th.)

As you can see, it is very similar to Polish. Unlike in Polish, though, the vocative is compulsory.

As double first names do not exist in modern Czech, most people treat Jean Pierre as a single name, but my personal preference is to decline both names.

The feminine would be, obviously, Hornová and Kochová.

Thanks, Jeane Pierre! And you, too, Jaceku!

For comparison, here they are in Latin:

N: Iohannes Petrus Koch
G: Iohannis Petri Koch
D: Iohanni Petro Koch
Acc: Iohannem Petrum Koch
Abl: Iohanne Petro Koch
V: (O) Iohannes Petre Koch!

N: Iacobus Krankowski
G: Iacobi Krankowski
D: Iacobo Krankowski
Acc: Iacobum Krankowski
Abl: Iacobo Krankowski
V: (O) Iacobe Krankowski!

The rather artificial Scotius would follow the declension of Petrus and Iacobus, except in the vocative (Scoti). Despite my little joke about Krankowskorum, none of our surnames would be declined.

Jean Pierre's name has the very unusual property of being different in all six cases. Indeed, if we had the occasion to form a locative (needed only for certain kinds of place-names), it too would be distinct (Iohanne Petri).

Scott