Page:Gregor The story of Bohemia.pdf/84

 from “four corners;” that is, both his parents and grandparents had to be of noble blood.

During the reigns of Premysl and Václav, the lords built many fortresses, imitating in this the nobles of other countries.

These fortresses, built by the different lords, helped to establish the custom of taking surnames. Up to this time no family names had been used. Some times a son, wishing to have some way of being known from other men of the same name, took the name of his father; but this name was not permanent. Thus, supposing his name was John and that of his father Herman, he would be called John Hermanov, which meant Herman’s John. But Hermanov did not remain the distinguishing name of his family; for his son, in turn, might assume his father’s Christian name. Permanent family names were at first assumed by the nobles from some device upon their standards, and from their castles or fortresses. Thus Sir Wok, whose device was a rose, built a fortress (1241–1246), and named it Rosenberg; after that the men of the family were known as the Lords of Rosenberg. The same may be said of the origin of Sternberg, Lichtenberg, Wartenberg, and others.

There was a peculiar custom in those days of giving the same name to several sons of the same family. Thus, a father of one of the old families, called Vitek, had five sons, of whom one was called Frederick, and all the rest Viteks; consequently Vitek was adopted as the surname, in the Bohemian language the plural being Vitkovci.

The common people soon imitated the higher classes, but they generally adopted as surnames the