My Name

My last name typically (and understandably) gives people some trouble. Since I am usually just called Martin, this is not an issue in conversations. However, if you are interested in the pronunciation (and some background) of the name Krejca, then read on.

Origin. The name originates from Czech, where—to the best of my knowledge—it is spelled Krejča and is derived from the diminutive of the Czech word for taylor. The Czech pronunciation is 'krɛjt͡ʃa. However, my name is actually Polish, as one of my Czech ancestors apparently went to Poland. Since Polish does not have the letter č, it was changed to a simple c, which entailed that the pronunciation changed.

Actual pronunciation. In Polish, the name is pronounced 'krɛjt͡sa, with a rolled R, stressing the first syllable. Basically, it is simply pronounced the way it is spelled (if you know Polish 😉).

Adjusted pronunciations. Since not everyone has an easy time to pronounce the name properly (no shame, I am incapable to do so myself, as I cannot pronounce the rolled R very well!), I usually adjust the pronunciation to the target language. For English, I pronounce the first syllable (krej) like cray in crazy. I pronounce the second syllable (ca) like tsuh in what’s up. Arguably, this only mispronounces the letter R.

Fun facts. I got the name from my father, who is Polish.

In German, if one reads the name as it is spelled, there would be a decent chance of actually getting very close to the Polish pronunciation (up to the pronunciation of the R, which depends on the region). The only problem is that the letter c has two possible pronunciations, one of which is like ts, which is correct for the name, and the other one is like k, which is incorrect. Assuming that the choice is made roughly uniformly at random, this gives a chance of about 50 % of pronouncing the name correctly. However, since the spelling of the name makes it obvious that it isn’t German and since Germans tend to pronounce foreign words closely to their original pronunciation, people typically get (very) creative in how to pronounce the name. Funny enough, a fair amount of people actually ends up with the original Czech pronunciation!

In French, the name is mispronounced consistently, since the pronunciation of the letters leaves no room for interpretation, although the order of the letters is very much not French.