Vojtěch (Czech pronunciation: Vojtěch) or Vojtech is a, respectively, Czech and Slovak given name of Slavic origin. It is composed of two parts: voj – "troops"/"war(rior)" and těch – "consolator"/"rejoicing man". So, the name could be interpreted either as "consolator of troops" or "man rejoicing in a battle, warlike man". The name day is 23 April.

The name Vojtěch is since the Early Middle Ages also perceived as the equivalent of Germanic name Adalbert ("noble bright"), due to the saint Adalbert of Prague (Czech: svatý Vojtěch; Polish: święty Wojciech), however, the two names have no linguistic relationship with each other. Via the same artificial process have been the names Vojtěch/Adalbert assigned to Hungarian name Béla (like "noble").

Use in Czech

The proper Czech spelling of the name is 'Vojtěch', pronounced [ˈvojcɛx]. The name contains two Czech orthography elements. The first is the caron, which is a form of a diacritical mark, over the letter 'e'. The caron modifies the pronunciation of the letter 't' immediately preceding the ě. The second is a digraph at the end of the name: the last two letters 'ch' in fact form a single phoneme (pronounced as a voiceless velar fricative [x]). (The pair 'ch' is the only formal digraph in the Czech alphabet.)

A common shorter version of the name is Vojta, pronounced [ˈvojta]. According to a 2009 survey of the Czech Ministry of Interior, there were over 41 thousand men with the first name Vojtěch in the Czech Republic, which made it the 28th most used name on Czech territory.[1]

Use in Slovak

The name is spelled without the caron above the letter e.

Foreign variants

  • Polish: Wojciech, Wojtas, Wojtasek, Wojtak, Wojtek, Wojtczak, Wojcik, Wojcicki, Wojt, Wojteczek, Wojtuś.
  • Serbian: Воjтех / Vojteh
  • Croatian: Vojtjeh
  • German: Woitke, Witke, Voitke, Voytke, Woytke, Vogtke, Wogtke, Woetke, Wötke, Wotke, Woyzeck, Wozzeck
  • American: Watke

Given name

Surname

  • Adam Vojtěch, Czech singer and minister of health
  • Adolf Vojta-Jurný, Czech actor
  • Alexandr Vojta, Czech director of documents
  • Billy Vojtek (born 1943), Australian soccer player
  • Elmer Voight (born Elemír Vojtko), American golfer of Slovak origin and father of actor Jon Voight
  • Hermína Vojtová, Czech actress
  • Ivan Vojtek, Slovak actor
  • Jaroslav Vojta (1888–1970), Czech actor
  • Jaroslav Vojtek, Slovak director
  • Jiří Vojta, Czech actor
  • Josef Vojtek, Czech musician
  • Josef Vojtech (1925–?), Austrian weightlifter
  • Linda Vojtová (born 1985), Czech model
  • Martin Vojtek (born 1975), Czech ice hockey player
  • Roman Vojtek, Czech actor
  • Václav Vojta (1917–2000), Czech physician (inventor of the Vojta method)

See also

References

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