Mikula
09-28-2018, 04:23 PM
Today is 28 September, St. Václav (St. Wenceslaus) Day - a National Holiday in my country.
I will not talk about historical, nor religious rule of the St. Václav (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wenceslaus_I,_Duke_of_Bohemia), but about his name.
It is an old Slavic name with meaning "more famous" - the same meaning has name of hs brother
Boleslav (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boleslaus_I,_Duke_of_Bohemia)(who led him to kill).
Ca. 3 years after his death (935?) he was canonize and became st. patron of Bohemia, and of Přemyslid dynasty.
His fratrcidal brother Boleslav I (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boleslaus_I,_Duke_of_Bohemia). supported the cult of him, as well as his descendents and therefore
a lot of mediveal churches at Bohemia and Moravia is dedicated to St. Václav (St. Wenceslas) - and since the times
the firstname Václav became very frequent among the Czechs.
Several Dukes andd later Kings of Bohemia received the name, and also 2 Czech Presidents were named Václav.
And of course numerous of ordinary people, there.
Today is Václav not so much popular like before, but belongs to the top twenty, still.
His cult (out of Czechia) reached mainly Poland and neighbouring German speaking countries - Austria and Germany.
As a saint is recognized by Roman Catholic, as well as by Orthodox churches.
His name appears at following languages:
Czech and Slovak - Václav
English, Dutch - Wenceslaus
German - Wenzel
French - Venceslas
Hungarian - Vencel
Polish - Wacław, Więcesław
Latin - Venceslaus
Russian, Ukrainian - Ва́цлав, Вячеслав
Italian - Venceslao
Spanish - Wenceslao
Serbo-Croatian - Vjenceslav
Bulgarian - Венцеслав
Romanian - Veaceslav
Portuguese - Wençeslaõ
I knew about Some German, polish and Russian holders of the Václav-derivated firstnames, but I was surprized
that exists also Italian, Spanish and Latino-American holders of the name - see here (https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%A1clav#Zahrani%C4%8Dn%C3%AD_nositel%C3%A9)
I am curious whether exists also some French, Romanian, Hungarian, Portuguese, Serbian, etc. holders of the name?
Or are the national language variants of his name used just for a name of the saint (and another historical Czech rulers)?
My question has following reason:
It exists an English language variant of Václav - Wenceslaus, Wenceslas, and even exists an English Christmas carol
Good King Wenceslas (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_King_Wenceslas)
- but I have never heard about any English or Anglo-American holder of the names.
And hundreds of Czechs named Václav who emigrated to the USA during 19th century had to solve one problem - how to anglicize his name?
For holders of another names it was easy:
Anna became Ann, Marie became Mary, Martin did not change, Josef became Joseph, Jan became John, Jiří became George, etc.
But for Václav the autorithies did not know any English equivalent.
I wonder whether they knew that Václav is Wencesla(u)s) in English. And if they knew it sounded not less exotic for them than Václav, perhaps.
Therefere hundreds of Czechs wwere renamed in America to JAMES :picard2:
It does not have any sense for me.
James is not Václav but Jakub in Czech.
There were several saints named James (Jacob) but no one of them is celebrated on 28 September nor close to the date.
I wonder why they were not renamed, for example to Vincent? It sounds simillar and his day is celebrated on 27 September.
http://www.infofila.cz/clanky/sv-vaclav-_-4386a1.jpg
P.S. Václav is pronounced as vaTSlav, never as vaKlav
I will not talk about historical, nor religious rule of the St. Václav (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wenceslaus_I,_Duke_of_Bohemia), but about his name.
It is an old Slavic name with meaning "more famous" - the same meaning has name of hs brother
Boleslav (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boleslaus_I,_Duke_of_Bohemia)(who led him to kill).
Ca. 3 years after his death (935?) he was canonize and became st. patron of Bohemia, and of Přemyslid dynasty.
His fratrcidal brother Boleslav I (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boleslaus_I,_Duke_of_Bohemia). supported the cult of him, as well as his descendents and therefore
a lot of mediveal churches at Bohemia and Moravia is dedicated to St. Václav (St. Wenceslas) - and since the times
the firstname Václav became very frequent among the Czechs.
Several Dukes andd later Kings of Bohemia received the name, and also 2 Czech Presidents were named Václav.
And of course numerous of ordinary people, there.
Today is Václav not so much popular like before, but belongs to the top twenty, still.
His cult (out of Czechia) reached mainly Poland and neighbouring German speaking countries - Austria and Germany.
As a saint is recognized by Roman Catholic, as well as by Orthodox churches.
His name appears at following languages:
Czech and Slovak - Václav
English, Dutch - Wenceslaus
German - Wenzel
French - Venceslas
Hungarian - Vencel
Polish - Wacław, Więcesław
Latin - Venceslaus
Russian, Ukrainian - Ва́цлав, Вячеслав
Italian - Venceslao
Spanish - Wenceslao
Serbo-Croatian - Vjenceslav
Bulgarian - Венцеслав
Romanian - Veaceslav
Portuguese - Wençeslaõ
I knew about Some German, polish and Russian holders of the Václav-derivated firstnames, but I was surprized
that exists also Italian, Spanish and Latino-American holders of the name - see here (https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%A1clav#Zahrani%C4%8Dn%C3%AD_nositel%C3%A9)
I am curious whether exists also some French, Romanian, Hungarian, Portuguese, Serbian, etc. holders of the name?
Or are the national language variants of his name used just for a name of the saint (and another historical Czech rulers)?
My question has following reason:
It exists an English language variant of Václav - Wenceslaus, Wenceslas, and even exists an English Christmas carol
Good King Wenceslas (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_King_Wenceslas)
- but I have never heard about any English or Anglo-American holder of the names.
And hundreds of Czechs named Václav who emigrated to the USA during 19th century had to solve one problem - how to anglicize his name?
For holders of another names it was easy:
Anna became Ann, Marie became Mary, Martin did not change, Josef became Joseph, Jan became John, Jiří became George, etc.
But for Václav the autorithies did not know any English equivalent.
I wonder whether they knew that Václav is Wencesla(u)s) in English. And if they knew it sounded not less exotic for them than Václav, perhaps.
Therefere hundreds of Czechs wwere renamed in America to JAMES :picard2:
It does not have any sense for me.
James is not Václav but Jakub in Czech.
There were several saints named James (Jacob) but no one of them is celebrated on 28 September nor close to the date.
I wonder why they were not renamed, for example to Vincent? It sounds simillar and his day is celebrated on 27 September.
http://www.infofila.cz/clanky/sv-vaclav-_-4386a1.jpg
P.S. Václav is pronounced as vaTSlav, never as vaKlav