What's in a Prague street name

Originally published on X on 5 July 2024.

In the early 1400s, this street – along with Mlynářská, which is one of the eight streets we haven’t covered yet – was called Mezi pekaři (Among the bakers), because they had set up shop round here.

At a later stage, it was called Mlýnská, after the New Town mills (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/11/10/prague-1-day-258-nove-mlyny/).

It’s been called Samcova since 1869, and this could be because number 1 – which has since been replaced by another building – was called U Samců.

It could also be because house number 1194/13 – admittedly on nearby Soukenická (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/11/10/prague-1-day-265-soukenicka/) – was owned by one Václav Samec ze Stráže in the early 1600s.

‘Samec’ can be translated as ‘male’ or ‘male animal’ (and, according to Seznam’s dictionary, could also be used to denote someone who is ‘macho’), but nobody seems to think this has led to the street name.