Czech Republic: freedom of surname for women, no longer the feminine of the father

Once again a question of rights intersects with tradition and grammar. In the Czech Republic, a law is being discussed that could change the historical way of indicating the surname of the women with the suffix -ova. So we have so far known all the women from the Czech Republic: Alena Seredova, Eva Herzigova, Martina Navratilova. Just to name a few of the best known names.

In all these cases, the name of the father has been joined suffix and the surname became feminine. It also happens in other countries with Slavic languages ​​and the rule also applies to foreign names. Angela Merkel becomes Merkelova in Czech.

The law under discussion will allow not to take the suffix, so you can choose to keep the surname in the masculine. It follows that not even the sex of the person will be made explicit in this way. The feminine patronymic should become optional and of free choice without the bureaucratic process that is now necessary to change it.

The Slovakia has already adopted such a law and even Iceland, which has the patronymic in the name, has adopted a law that no longer imposes male or female names based on birth sex. Parents can also choose to indicate the gender at birth, the person will then decide based on his or her life path.

Ondřej Profant, representative of one of the parties supporting the initiative, told the Washington Post of a survey of Prague Radio International according to which 28% of residents a Prague he would be ready to change his surname and 11% out of the capital.

The party opposed to change appeals to tradition and would not want the grammatical distortion that this would entail. THE linguists, as always in such matters, they object that language evolves with society.

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