My ancestors came to the La Grange, Texas area in the mid 1800s from what is now the Czech Republic. They had to change their name to Fojt upon arrival. If anyone has any information about the origins of the surname: what it means, where it comes from etc, that would be great. Also if anyone else has this surname that would be cool too. Thanks.
Hmm, according to this and this page, there are FOJT (536 men and 620 women) and FOIT (109 men and 134 women), but no FOJTOVICH (or something similar). Maybe people here also shortened their surname (there was a lot of shortening about 1900, e.g. my surname (Zima) was originally Zíma) or you came from another country. (Or maybe there was few Fojkovitch people and all was females and they accepted husbends' surnames ... or the rest died, i don't know.)
FOJT was an office during feudal period. He was the head of administration of the town or village. He was nominated by the feudal owner or his office was mostly hereditary. Fojt has also local juditial power. He was responsible for colecting taxes and administration of the village/town to the feudal owner. Surnames Fojt/Fojtová (woman) are quite common.
There are many variants of this surname (derived from fojt - village mayor or from the German first name Veit - Vitus, Guy) Fojt, Fojtík, Fojtů, Fojtl, Fojtášek, Fojta, Fojtek, Fojtách, Fojtíček, Fojtik, Starýchfojtů, Fojták, Fojtův, Fojtlík Foit, Foitl, Foitzik, Foitík, ... Fajt, Fajtl, Fajták, ... Voit, Voitl, Voitle, Voith, Voigt, Voigts, ... No Fojtovič or Fojtovic (but some Vojtovič's and Wojtovič's). There are two villages Fojtovice (Voitsdorf in German) in the CR.
Matt, In general, the "-ovich" surnames are not common in Czech, and I would think that they probably don't originate in Czech. It is more likely that the name originated in another slavic country, perhaps one of the former Yugoslav nations (Serbia, Croatia, etc.). Note, in Russia, "-ovich" names are usually formed by appending the suffix (meaning "son of") to a father's first name as his sons' patronymic, which usually is a second name, rather than a surname. In Serbia, Croatia, and perhaps the other former Yugoslav countries, these names are more often surnames, although they still may be patronymic in nature. Interestingly enough, however, with a quick Google search, I was able to find a webpage with a Czech family "Fojtovič" at http://rodina.cz/fojtovic (actually, I'm not 100% sure it's not a webpage for the "family" of the town "Fojtovice," as there's no diacritical on the "c"). Unfortunately the page is entirely in Czech and requires registration to see any information. It is possible, however, to send a message to the family by clicking the link that says "Napište vzkaz rodině Fojtovic" at the bottom. Anyway, it might be worth a look.
In this case, "rodina Fojtovic" means the Fojts, i.e. Fojt family. The prefix -ovic is quite common in colloquial Czech, denoting the members of the same family. E.g. an equivalent for Sova would be "rodina Sovovic" or "rodina Sovova", event. "Sovovi".
Hmm... First time I've heard that. The second and third variants, i.e. "rodina Sovova", "Sovovi" I have heard often, but not the "-ovic" variant. Thanks for the explanation.
I'm looking for descendants of or connections to several families who emigrated from Morava, Bohemia (especially Uherske Hradiste) in the early 20th century. The family names are Fojta, Stacek, and Yillik (has several spelling variations. My relatives settled mostly in Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio. If you have any information that you would like to share, please contact me at repperba@udmercy.edu. Thanks. Bev
Thanks for the replies everyone. One more question: is there anyway to guess where in the Czech Rep. my ancestors came from based on the last name? I'm not looking for anything too specific, just something like Bohemia, Moravia or Silesia. Thanks.
