What's in a Prague street name

Krchlebská was built in 1941.

Its second street sign, meanwhile, is one I won’t forget in a hurry.

Krchleby is a village in Central Bohemia, six kilometres north of Nymburk, and about a sixty-kilometre drive to the northeast from Prague.

The origins of Krchleby’s name have never quite been agreed on. ‘Krch’ means ‘left’ in Old Czech, and ‘leb’ means ‘skull’, or ‘head’. And so there have been theories that the residents walked leaning to the left, bowed their heads to the left, or were left-handed.

Other theories suggest it’s derived from ‘kirles’, meaning ‘old church’, or that Krchleby initially had an S at the start, and that ‘Skrchleby’ denoted people who would save (skrbit) bread (chléb).

In any case, Krchleby was first mentioned in writing (that we know of) in 1323, has a population of 814, and shares its name with at least six other settlements in the country, and, no, nobody is certain why they’re called Krchleby either.