What's in a Prague street name

Originally posted on Twitter on 30 April 2022.

Strážní was built in 1925. It’s also the name of a nearby tram stop.

The area to the north-east of here (and immediately north of all the streets we’ve covered so far) is known as ‘Balkán’. It wasn’t urbanised until after World War I and most of the inhabitants were state employees.

And many of the streets were named after their professions. For example, a stráž is a guard. Other examples to come, no doubt.

For vocab fans, a vězeňská stráž is a prison guard, a pobřežní stráž is a coastguard, a tělesná stráž is a bodyguard and a strážmistr is a police constable.

Though it appears that a ‘bodyguard’ can also be an osobní strážce, and it certainly was in 1992.