Václav (Wenzel, Wenceslaus, etc.) around the world

[Mikula]

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, but about his name.
It is an old Slavic name with meaning "more famous" - the same meaning has name of hs brother
Boleslav (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. 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


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

- 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
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.


P.S. Václav is pronounced as vaTSlav, never as vaKlav

[Pribislav]

Is St. Vaclav for Czechs like St. Patrick for Irish people?

[Mikula]

Is St.Vaclav for Czechs like St.Patrick for Irish people?

There are some simillarities - both are saint patrons of the countries but Václav, unlike Patrick was not apostle of the countrymen.
But according catholic church, St. Václav is an ethernal ruler of Bohemia, and since Middle Ages the ruling Kings are seen as his temporarily deputies.

[Mikula]

Pribislav: Do you know some Vjenceslav in your country?

[Pribislav]

There are some simillarities - both are saint patrons of the countries but Václav, unlike Patrick was not apostle of the countrymen.
But according catholic church, St. Václav is an ethernal ruler of Bohemia, and since Middle Ages the ruling Kings are seen as his temporarily deputies.

Saint Vaclav for Czechs is like Saint Sava for Serbs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Sava
Saint Vaclav was Czech from the Czech medieval ruling dynasty, and Saint Sava was Serb from the Serbian medieval ruling dynasty.

Saint Partick was not Irish, and he was not from ruling dynasty.

[Ilma]

Hej For what I can say I have never heard about any Venceslas in Normandy and not in France but I can check it as a surname and I see there are only 3 Venceslas born in France the last decades.

As a name for boys we have the popular Milan though. The only slavic names I ever known in Normandy were from Polish ancestry and just got traditionnal names such as Vladimir, Ludwig.

[Seya]

i see u have a romanian version of his name? i have never heard of the saint nor of such name so no, we don't have it..or anything that may sound similar

[Pribislav]

Pribislav: Do you know some Vjenceslav in your country?

No.

Among Croatians is rare but exist name Vjenceslav. That people are/were Croatians of Czech origin.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vjenceslav_Novak

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vjencleslav_Richter


In the time of Austro-Hungary Czechs were more numerous in Croatia than today (they mostly lived in western Slavonia) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czechs_of_Croatia

They are mostly croatized in the last 100 years, same as Slovaks and Rusyns which lived in northern Croatia.

[Mikula]

Hej For what I can say I have never heard about any Venceslas in Normandy and not in France but I can check it as a surname and I see there are only 3 Venceslas born in France the last decades.

As a name for boys we have the popular Milan though. The only slavic names I ever known in Normandy were from Polish ancestry and just got traditionnal names such as Vladimir, Ludwig.

Stanislas is perhaps one the most frequent Slavic name in non-Slavic nations?

[Mikula]

i see u have a romanian version of his name? i have never heard of the saint nor of such name so no, we don't have it..or anything that may sound similar

It seems that the name appears among Moldovans