"To forget one’s ancestors is to be a brook without a source, a tree without a root." - Chinese Proverb.

 The Name Game - Part 1 of 3

I wanted to talk a little bit about the naming traditions of children in the Czech Republic. I was kind of shocked when I recently found out that people in the Czech Republic are not free to name their children anything they would like. So, it's not possible to name a child Hot Dog Lutovsky. There is a list of "government" approved names, (and I'm just guessing here, but probably Potato Headska isn't on the list either) which you must select from. 

Czech Potato Headskas

I put the word "government" in quotes because even though the government does manage this, the government wasn't the one who started this tradition, Catholicism was.

Now, the process is automated and there is a website you can check to make sure the name you have selected is approved. Below is the website if anyone is interested...and if you can read Czech.

https://www.kdejsme.cz/

Initially, I thought this was odd, that you must select a preapproved name from a list in order to name your child? But, once I started reading about the origins of this, it all makes a lot of sense and it's not odd at all. And anyone who was raised Catholic will also be able to understand as well.

Way back when I was born, prior to the inventions of color TV and the lava lamp, it was customary for Catholics to name children only after Catholic saints. Also, about this time, this tradition had started to loosen up a bit. The crazy drug fueled decade of the 1960's probably contributed a bit to this break in traditions. Then, we were starting to see children named things like, Sky, River, Sparrow and Peace...definitely not Catholic Saints' names.

Also contributing to this break in tradition was Vatican II itself. Things changed even more regarding the strictness of names. Catholic nuns no longer had to take the name of a male saint for example. So, for us here in the US, this tradition had started to wane.

Although, the use of Catholic Saint names continues to this day in the American Catholic culture though, through the sacrament of Confirmation. The individual, once old enough, selects a Saint's "confirmation name," which is the name of the saint you have chosen to guide you in your life or 

Saint Nicholas

the patron saint of something important to you. I chose St. Nicholas for my confirmation name because the legend Santa Claus was based off of him. So, I figured if I sucked up to St. Nicholas, I would get lots of gifts in my life...I know, but give me a break. This made total sense at the time, plus I was only 10 years old. Being motivated by gifts sounds about right though, but I do wish I had a bit more of a non-greedy reason for picking the saint that I did.

In the Czech Republic, the tradition of naming your children after Roman Catholic saints still remains today, so that's what the official list of names is all about. There are some names on the list which aren't the names of saints, or they are a version of a saint's name, however, the vast majority are names of saints.

Each name is linked to a different date on the calendar, which is the same day as the feast day for that particular saint. And in Czech Republic, celebrating your name day (or saint's feast day) is a big deal. These celebrations are very similar to birthday celebrations. They can involve a dinner of some type, gifts, flowers, etc. And the name day celebrations often include going to a church service offering prayers and seeking blessings. Not selecting a name from the approved list would mean that you are depriving your child of their name day celebration.

If anyone is interested, and if your name has a Czech equivalent, below is a link to the name day calendar, so you can start celebrating your name day.

Name Day Calendar

Until I started doing research, I had never heard of name day celebrations before. I kind of can't believe that it has taken me 62 years to learn about this. And, now that I have, the way I see it is everyone who is reading this owes me 62 gifts.

Unfortunately for me though, I really don't have a name day. There really is no relationship between my name Wesley and a Czech version, although my Dad thought Wesley was the English version of Wenceslaus, not realizing that Wenceslaus was the Latin version of Vaclav...so Vaclav it is! I know it's a stretch, but that's the best I could come up with. If there was no Czech equivalent, then I wouldn't have a name day for people to shower me with gifts...so I'm fine with Vaclav, which is celebrated on September 28th every year...so everyone can set a reminder on your calendar.

Next Blog post will be the Name Game Part II.