# Nominative determinism in Slovakia? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 31, 2019, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nominative-determinism-in-slovakia/831818 "2019-03-31T19:19:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2019, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nominative-determinism-in-slovakia/831818/1 "2019-03-31T19:19:01Z")
Zuzana Caputova has been elected as president of Slovakia (BBC story [here](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-47756368)). I’m looking at her surname, Caputova, and I immediately see the stem word _caput_, and thence the Latin word _caput_, meaning head. Is this the correct derivation? ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2019, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nominative-determinism-in-slovakia/831818/2 "2019-03-31T20:01:02Z")
Bonus question: is she related to the Capets of France? (Same derivation, I guess.) ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2019, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nominative-determinism-in-slovakia/831818/3 "2019-03-31T20:10:01Z")
Slovak is a Slavic language (unsurprisingly, really) not a Romance one, so I’d be surprised if there was that simple and obvious a connection. The closest word in Russian (and, as it turns out, Slovak too) that I can think of that sounds like caput is ‘kapusta’. It means cabbage. I guess a cabbage looks kind of like a head… ---
**Author:** ![Telperion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telperion/32/509_2.png) [@Telperion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperion)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2019, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nominative-determinism-in-slovakia/831818/4 "2019-03-31T20:26:21Z")
I believe it’s pronounced Chaputova, so probably not. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2019, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nominative-determinism-in-slovakia/831818/5 "2019-03-31T20:38:58Z")
> [@Telperion](#): > > I believe it’s pronounced Chaputova, so probably not. By that logic, _achieve_, _chapter_, _chapeau_, _chief_, etc. are also probably not descended from _caput_. ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2019, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nominative-determinism-in-slovakia/831818/6 "2019-03-31T20:39:11Z")
The correct spelling, probably lost in most media reports is Čaputová, meaning the first letter is pronounced ‘ch’. A Čap can be a cap, but given the tradition in Slavic languages for trade-based names is just as strong or stronger than in English my bet would be hatter or cap-maker. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2019, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nominative-determinism-in-slovakia/831818/7 "2019-03-31T21:15:46Z")
> [@Banksiaman](#): > > The correct spelling, probably lost in most media reports is Čaputová, meaning the first letter is pronounced ‘ch’. Just to be clear, do you mean “ch” as in Church or “ch” as in L’chaim? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2019, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nominative-determinism-in-slovakia/831818/8 "2019-03-31T21:38:17Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > Just to be clear, do you mean “ch” as in Church or “ch” as in L’chaim? The first. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2019, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nominative-determinism-in-slovakia/831818/9 "2019-03-31T22:48:07Z")
In Church Latin, _c_ is often pronounced _ch_. ---
**Author:** ![JacobSwan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@JacobSwan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JacobSwan)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2019, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nominative-determinism-in-slovakia/831818/10 "2019-03-31T23:36:15Z")
> [@Banksiaman](#): > > The correct spelling, probably lost in most media reports is Čaputová, meaning the first letter is pronounced ‘ch’. > > A Čap can be a cap, but given the tradition in Slavic languages for trade-based names is just as strong or stronger than in English my bet would be hatter or cap-maker. I’ve just checked and hat maker is klobucnik in Slovak, which is almost the same as the czech word. (Slightly different accents and pronunciation and the Czech has an extra O). I used to live near a street in Prague called kloboucnicka, which translates as street of the hat makers. Although a Russian friend tried to tell me that it translates as ‘street of head’. The Ova ending is the female form of the surname and is often added to non Czech or Slovak names. Harry Potter translations list the author as J K Rowlingova for instance. So it could be a foreign family name that has been Slavic-ised and therefore its origins may well be related to head in its original tongue. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2019, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nominative-determinism-in-slovakia/831818/11 "2019-04-01T04:05:25Z")
> [@JacobSwan](#): > > I’ve just checked and hat maker is klobucnik in Slovak, which is almost the same as the czech word. (Slightly different accents and pronunciation and the Czech has an extra O). I used to live near a street in Prague called kloboucnicka, which translates as street of the hat makers. Although a Russian friend tried to tell me that it translates as ‘street of head’. > > The Ova ending is the female form of the surname and is often added to non Czech or Slovak names. Harry Potter translations list the author as J K Rowlingova for instance. > > So it could be a foreign family name that has been Slavic-ised and therefore its origins may well be related to head in its original tongue. I was wondering myself if it might be a form of the Italian surname _Caputo_. Polish does a similar thing with the ending _-owa_ (pronounced as “ova”), so I’ll hear my dad refer to Hillary Clinton simply as _Clintonova_. Wouldn’t explain exactly why the “C” would have morphed to a “ch” sound, so I’m not betting on this as being the derivation, but it is a thought. ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2019, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nominative-determinism-in-slovakia/831818/12 "2019-04-01T12:31:38Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I was wondering myself if it might be a form of the Italian surname _Caputo_. Polish does a similar thing with the ending _-owa_ (pronounced as “ova”), so I’ll hear my dad refer to Hillary Clinton simply as _Clintonova_. Wouldn’t explain exactly why the “C” would have morphed to a “ch” sound, so I’m not betting on this as being the derivation, but it is a thought. Note that it’s a “Č” not a “C”. The first is the “ch” sound. ---
**Author:** ![Bayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bayaker/32/3454_2.png) [@Bayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bayaker)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2019, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nominative-determinism-in-slovakia/831818/13 "2019-04-01T13:03:25Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Zuzana Caputova has been elected as president of Slovakia (BBC story [here](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-47756368)). I’m looking at her surname, Caputova, and I immediately see the stem word _caput_, and thence the Latin word _caput_, meaning head. Is this the correct derivation? It’s more fun if you impart a Latin meaning to both caput _and_ ova. Obviously she’s an egg(s)head 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2019, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nominative-determinism-in-slovakia/831818/14 "2019-04-01T13:20:30Z")
> [@BwanaBob](#): > > Note that it’s a “Č” not a “C”. The first is the “ch” sound. That’s what was meant by my last sentence about “c” morphing into “ch.” I am aware her name is Čaputova. That said, a “k” sound shifting to a “ch” sound is not linguistically unheard of.”Kebabs” became “čevaps” when they reached the South Slavs, for instance. In this case, like I said in my initial post, though, I don’t think that is the likely situation. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2019, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nominative-determinism-in-slovakia/831818/15 "2019-04-01T15:40:59Z")
> [@Bayaker](#): > > Obviously she’s an egg(s)head 🙂 Groan! ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2019, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nominative-determinism-in-slovakia/831818/16 "2019-04-01T15:42:33Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > That said, a “k” sound shifting to a “ch” sound is not linguistically unheard of. And happened in Latin. ---
**Author:** ![Bayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bayaker/32/3454_2.png) [@Bayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bayaker)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2019, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nominative-determinism-in-slovakia/831818/17 "2019-04-04T01:15:52Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Groan! You’re welcome! ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2019, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nominative-determinism-in-slovakia/831818/18 "2019-04-04T14:33:30Z")
For what it’s worth … **čáp** is Czech (but not Slovak) for English “stork”. Maybe the surname is something akin to English surnames like “[Heron](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heron_(surname))”. What do we make of the “-uta” part of the masculine surname ( **Čaputa** )? ---
**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2019, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nominative-determinism-in-slovakia/831818/19 "2019-04-04T17:02:55Z")
It looks very like the Polish surname Czaputowicz. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2019, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nominative-determinism-in-slovakia/831818/20 "2019-04-04T17:17:05Z")
> [@hibernicus](#): > > It looks very like the Polish surname Czaputowicz. It does, but I don’t get the sense Czaputowicz is a usual Polish surname, so it could have come via other Slavic countries or language sources.