Vojtech
Vojtěch or Vojtech is a Czech and Slovak given name of Slavic origin. It is composed of two parts: voj - war, warrior and "tech" - happy, eager. The name day is on April 23.
The name Adalbert is occasionally associated with Vojtech, due to the saint Adalbert of Prague, however, the two names have no linguistic relationship with each other.
Use in Czech
The proper Czech spelling of the name is 'Vojtěch'. The name contains two Czech phonology 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.) Pronounced as "vawy-tekh".
A common shorter version of the name is Vojta, pronounced as Voyta. 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 in Czech republic.[1]
Use in the Slovak
The name is spelled without the caron above the letter e.
Foreign variants
- Polish: Wojciech, Wojtas, Wojtasek, Wojtak, Wojtek, Wojtczak, Wojcik, Wojcicki, Wojt.
- Serbian: Vojteh
- Croatian: Vojtjeh
- Bulgarian: Vojtech
- German: Woitke, Witke, Voitke, Voytke, Woytke, Vogtke, Wogtke, Woetke, Wötke, Wotke, Woyzeck, and Wozzeck
Famous bearers
- Saint Adalbert of Prague (ca. 956 - 997), his name was Vojtěch Slavník; known in Czech (and sometimes in English) as Saint Vojtěch, bishop of Prague
- Vojtěch Šafařík (1829–1902), Czech chemist.
- Vojtech Alexander (1857–1916), Slovak radiologist.
- Vojtech Tuka (1880–1946), Slovak prime minister.
- Vojtěch Jarník (1897–1970), Czech mathematician.
- Vojtech Zamarovský (1919–2006), popular Slovak writer of historical non-fiction.
- Vojtěch Machek, Czech professional footballer
- Vojtěch Preissig (1873–1944), Czech type designer
- Vojta Merten, Czech actor
- Vojtěch Dyk, Czech rock singer and actor
- Vojtěch Kotek, Czech actor
- Vojtěch Bernatský, Czech moderator of Czech television
- Vojtěch Adam, doctor of medicine
- Vojtěch Adamec, Czech innkeeper
Vojtech and variants as surname
- Elmer Voight (born Elmer Vojtka), American golfer and father of actor Jon Voight
- Alexandr Vojta, Czech director of documents
- Jaroslav Vojta, Czech actor
- Jiří Vojta, Czech actor
- Václav Vojta, Czech physician (inventor of the Vojta method)
- Adolf Vojta-Jurný, Czech actor
- Adam Vojtěch, Czech singer
- Ivan Vojtek, Slovak actor
- Josef Vojtek, Czech musician
- Jaroslav Vojtek, Slovak director
- Roman Vojtek, Czech actor
- Hermína Vojtová, Czech actress
- Linda Vojtová, Czech model
See also
- Wojciech, a Polish variant
- Slavic names
- pronunciation of the name Vojtěch Czech: Vojtěch (the second word in the audio recording)