Černý (surname)

Černý (Czech pronunciation: [ˈtʃɛrniː]), rendered without diacritics as Cerny, is a common Czech surname. Originally, it is an adjective in the Czech language, meaning "black"; like many other surnames, this originally made reference to a person's physical qualities, namely dark hair colour or perhaps darker complexion.

Cognate surnames exist in other Slavic-speaking countries, e.g. Čierny in Slovak, Czarny in Polish, Cherny (Chorny) (Чёрный) in Russian, though they are not as prolific as in the Czech Republic. There also exist Anglicised, Germanised or Polonised forms (Cherny, Tscherny, or Czerny, respectively), and other mutations.

Surnames with the meaning "black" also exist in many other languages, including German (Schwarz and its variants), English (Black), Chinese (黑 Hēi), etc.

Related surnames include Černík, Chernenko, Chernov, etc.

Female form

Main article: Czech name

Unlike the majority of Czech surnames (and those of other Slavic languages), Černý does not use the suffix -ová for its female form. Instead, since the name is derived from an adjective, the feminine form of that adjective is used. This yields Černá in Czech, Čierna in Slovak, Czarna in Polish, etc.

Notable Černí and Cernys

• David Černý (born 1967), Czech sculptor
• Ervín Černý (1913–2001), Czech Professor, Archeologist and Poet
• Harald Cerny (born 1973), Austrian football midfielder
• Jan Černý (1874–1959), Czechoslovakian politician
• Jan Černý (mathematician)
• Jan Černý-Nigranus, 16th century historian
• Jaroslav Černý (1898–1970), Czech Egyptologist
• JoBe Cerny, voice-over personality and character actor
• Jon Cerny, programmer, teacher, and Civil War enthusiast
• Mark Cerny (born 1964), programmer
• Milan Černý, Czech footballer
• Petr Černý, Canadian mineralogist
• Radek Černý (born 1974), Czech footballer
• Vlastimil Černý (born 1963), Czech/Canadian competitive swimmer

See also

• Czerny
• Czerna (disambiguation)
• Černík
• Czerniak
• Chernov
• Černovský
• Chernenko
• Černohorský, Csernohorszky

• List of most common surnames

This page or section lists people with the surname Černý, Cerny, Tscherny, etc.. If an internal link intending to refer to a specific person led you to this page, you may wish to change that link by adding the person's given name(s) to the link.