Given name & surname
Václav
“one who receives more glory”
Václav is a form of Wenceslas. One Slavic interpretation is “one who receives more glory.”
Meaning & origin
What it means
Václav is a form of Wenceslas. One Slavic interpretation is “one who receives more glory.”
Explained through its name family
Where it comes from
Václav is a form of Wenceslas. An origin associated with Wenceslas is Slavic.
Explained through its name family
How it developed
In Czech use, Václav is used as a form of Wenceslas.
Václav’s family of names
In Czech usage, Václav has a diminutive in Vašek. Václav has a feminine form in Vaclava. In Czech usage, Václav has a conventional equivalent in the Spanish form WENCESLAO.
Inner ring: spellings · middle: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Around the world
Václav has relatives in 11 languages.
30 related names in 11 languages. Point at a dot, or tab to the map and use the arrow keys.
Nicknames & forms 13
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Spellings & scripts 1
The same name written differently, including transliterations into other scripts.
Across languages 26
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
- WenceslaoSpanish
- WenceslausEnglish, Latin
- Vyacheslavequivalent
- Wenselequivalent
- WenzelGerman
- Ventseslavequivalent
- Venčeslavequivalent
- Вацлаўequivalent
Show 18 moreShow fewer
- ВячеславRussian
- WacławPolish
- Václavafeminine form · Czech
- VenceslasFrench
- VenceslaoSpanish
- Wenceslascognate · French, English
- Więcesławequivalent
- Вячаслаўequivalent
- Венцеславequivalent
- WentzlaffGerman
- WenzeslausGerman
- ΒενσέσλαοςGreek
- ΒάτσλαβGreek
- ΒεγκεσλάοςGreek
- ВацлавRussian
- VencelHungarian
- VenceslausLatin
- Vaclavafeminine form
See also 2
Names our sources mention alongside this one. They are related in story or meaning, not forms of this name.
People named Václav
- Václav HavelCzech statesman, playwright, and former dissident, the last president of Czechoslovakia and the first president of the Czech Republic (1936–2011)
- Václav KlausPresident of the Czech Republic from 2003 to 2013born 1941
- Wenceslaus IV of Bohemiaking of Bohemia and Germany (1361–1419)
- Wenceslaus II of BohemiaKing of Bohemia and Poland1271–1305
- Wenceslaus I, Duke of Bohemiaduke and saint903–935
- Wenceslaus III of BohemiaKing of Hungary, Bohemia and Poland1289–1306
- Václav PilařCzech footballerborn 1988
- Wenceslaus I of BohemiaKing of Bohemia from 1230 to 12531205–1253
- Václav SvěrkošCzech soccer player and soccer representantborn 1983
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Appears in
Similar names
If you love Václav, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.