What's in a Prague street name

Every street in Prague, one by one.

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I could talk about myself for ages, or I could point out that https://english.radio.cz/ed-ley-englishman-recording-stories-pragues-streets-one-one-8806941 is over two years old but still largely stands (other than the Twitter links).

  • Prague 4, day 312: V Hodkovičkách

    V Hodkovičkách was built in 1927.

    Until 1935, it was called U rybníka, after a pond which was once in the centre of Hodkovičky, but now isn’t there at all.

    There are only two streets left in Hodkovičky before we move on to Lhotka, but somehow we’ve left it until now to discuss the place itself (‘somehow’ = ‘I forgot to take a picture of the street sign until last Sunday’).

    And, to do this, we actually have to start eight kilometres to the south-east, in the village of Hodkovice, first mentioned in 1314 (as Hotkowicz).

    It appears that this village was also called Hodkovice, but was later called Malé (Little) Hodkovice to distinguish it from the other one; another way of saying Little Hodkovice is Hodkovičky, which is the name that’s stuck.

    By 1900, Hodkovičky was a village with 346 inhabitants. When it was annexed to Prague in 1922, it gained part of Zátiší (discussed on https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2026/02/05/prague-4-day-301-k-zatisi/), raising its population to about 1,200.

    It’s a bit bigger now, but still a lot smaller than the other parts of Prague 4 we’ve covered so far: in 2021, it had a population of 3,956.

    However, it’s now bigger than the village that it was originally the ‘mini’ version of: Hodkovice has 406 people and forms a single municipality with its neighbour, Zlatníky. Quite a nice flag the two of them have:

  • Prague 4, day 311: Nad pruhy

    Nad pruhy was built in 1935.

    A ‘pruh’ is a strip, a stripe, a band or a lane. This street has its name due to its location near strips of fields.

    For fans of pruh-related vocabulary, a ‘silniční pruh’ or a ‘jízdní pruh’ is a traffic lane.

    Specific lanes include a ‘předjížděcí pruh’ (overtaking lane), ‘odbočovací pruh’ (turning lane), ‘připojovací pruh) (merge lane), ‘krajní pruh’ (inside lane) and a ‘odstavný pruh’ (breakdown lane, or, if you’re a Brit, the hard shoulder).

  • Prague 4, day 310: Nad hájem


    Nad hájem was built in 1930.

    Very easy one today: ‘Nad hájem’ is, quite literally, above a grove.

  • Prague 4, day 309: Půlnoční


    Půlnoční was built in 1973.

    Continuing (and completing) the ‘times of day’ series last seen on https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2026/02/03/prague-4-day-299-vecerni/, ‘půlnoční’ is the adjective from ‘půlnoc’, literally ‘half night’ and therefore midnight.

    Outside of its literal meaning, the most likely place in which you’ve heard the word ‘půlnoc’ is in relation to the band of the same name, founded in 1988 by three members of the Plastic People of the Universe.

    If you’re after a Plastic People-related Prague street story, you may want to take a look at https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/08/31/prague-2-day-134-jecna/ (Hlavsa was also one of the members of Půlnoc).

  • Prague 4, day 308: Šenácká


    Šenácká was built in 2023. Making it younger than this series.

    The internet tells me that a ‘šenák’ is a small rowing boat which is manned by two or three ‘plavci’, literally ‘swimmers’, or, in the Vltava context, the people responsible for floating wood across the Vltava when this was a mainstay of the local economy.

    In other words, a ‘punt’, which you may know from being a tourist in London or Oxford or Cambridge. I can’t find a Prague-specific punt picture, so here’s a next best thing: a 1765 picture of boats in Gdańsk by Matthaus Deisch (punts are at the front).

    But it seems that ‘šenák’ can also be used to denote a slightly larger boat, i.e. what we previously discussed under https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2026/01/24/prague-4-day-289-sifarska/.

    Such a ‘šenák’ was recreated in 2018 by Jakub Schuster, then a student at the VOŠ, as commissioned by the Vltavan Association, who also came up as the very long road here is named after them: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2026/01/21/prague-4-day-286-vltavanu/.

  • Prague 4, day 307: Na dubině

    Na dubině was built in 1925.

    I said there’d be a new story today. It turns out that I lied.

    ‘Dubina’ is an oak forest, and we’ve been here before: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2026/02/06/prague-4-day-302-k-dubinam/.

    I promise that tomorrow’s post is completely new and not a dubina, a zátiší or a lysina.

  • Prague 4, day 306: U Zátiší


    U Zátiší was built in 2007.

    Yes, another one after K and V (see https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2026/02/05/prague-4-day-301-k-zatisi/). There’ll be a new story tomorrow (maybe).

    Although this does have the distinction of being the first of the 956 streets that I’ve written about that was built in 2007. And, in fact, the first to be built between 1999 and 2008. So there’s that.

  • Prague 4, day 305: V Zátiší


    V Zátiší was built in 1925. It was looking a bit slippery when I was round here, so here you can see the street at the end, rather than a street sign.

    I did say that there would be a set (four, I currently believe) of Zátiší-based streets, and, as this is the second of them, let me politely point you back to the first one on https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2026/02/05/prague-4-day-301-k-zatisi/.

  • Prague 4, day 304: Československého exilu


    Československého exilu was built in 1979.

    Unsurprisingly, the street was not called that in the still-a-decade-of-Communism-to-go days of 1979.

    Instead, it was called what is basically the exact opposite of condemning the harsher sides of communism: it was named Pětiletky, a ‘pětiletka’ being a five-year plan.

    There was a bit of a time lag between the Velvet Revolution and the renaming of the street – it took place in 1992 (would it have been Českého exilu only if the renaming had taken place in 1993? We will never know).

    The street now commemorates the many Czechs and Slovaks who were forced abroad during the communist period. While exact numbers are hard to come by, I’ve seen articles saying 300,000 left in total, including 70,000 directly after the crushing of the Prague Spring in 1968.

    (Stop press: there is indeed an Alej Českých exulantů in Bubeneč, Prague 6, although that commemorates those who fled Bohemia 300+ years earlier)

  • Prague 4, day 303: Pod Lysinami

    Pod Lysinami was built in 1991.

    I did warn that there would be a bit of repetition in the next few days, so feel free to go and find out why this area was named Lysiny by clicking on https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2026/01/28/prague-4-day-293-na-lysinach/ (which we already had to recycle on day 294).

    Pod Lysinami had the dubious opportunity to be named in a few news articles in 2020 and 2021, when it turned out that a red Honda Civic had been parked there for over a decade, but its removal was being delayed by an argument over how the removal costs would be reimbursed: https://www.impuls.cz/regiony/praha/vrak-hodkovicky-auto-parkoviste-sprava-sluzeb.A210903_192402_imp-praha_kov/.

    P.S. Anyone know why WordPress is so reluctant to upload the map pics? They are not huge and it’s quite annoying.

  • Prague 4, day 302: K dubinám


    K dubinám was built in 1935.

    A ‘dubina’ is a forest dominated by oak trees, or ‘duby’. You could also call it an ‘oak grove’. Due to its surrounding vegetation, the area once here was once known as Na dubině.

    Unrelatedly, a long way to the west, a group of Czechs created a settlement called Dubina in Texas in 1856 – it was the state’s first Czech settlement.

    It’s down to 44 inhabitants now, but here’s a nice article about it: https://texashighways.com/travel-news/my-favorite-texas-fayette-county-prairie-saint-rocha-dubina/.

    This is pretty great too:

    A synonym for ‘dubina’ is ‘doubrava’, which has given its name to a river and several settlements in Czechia, and is also the source of the female given name Doubravka (Doubravka of Bohemia, who died in 977, is pictured).

  • Prague 4, day 301: K Zátiší


    K Zátiší was built in 1983.

    Around the mid-1870s, the settlement around here was called Klánov, on which see https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2026/01/19/prague-4-day-284-klanova/.

    Klán was not alone – this had become a popular area for Prague people to go on trips, or stay a bit longer, and many a villa was built as a result. Klán himself started to sell parcels of land after about 1880.

    The area’s popularity meant that it had a good number of restaurants, of which one called Zátiší was either opened in 1887, or given its name in that year.

    Aptly, ‘Zátiší’ can be translated as ‘seclusion’, ‘secluded place’ or ‘retreat’ (as well as ‘still life’ if you’re a painter).

    The name then started to be used for the entire area, and the local stream also became known as the Zátiší.

    Here are two fine postcards from the 1930s or 1940s of ‘Rückle’s Healing Sun Spa’ which was located just by the stream. One of them even has directions on how to get there.

    These streets were quite close to being part of What’s In a Prague 12 Street Name instead – until 1 January 1922, they were in Modřany, not Hodkovičky. But, on that date, they got given to Hodkovičky, which became part of Prague on that day (Modřany would be its own town until 1968).

  • Prague 4, day 300: V lučinách


    V lučinách was built in 1925.

    Until 1952, the street was part of V Zátiší (coming up), but then it was separated and became its own street. A further portion of V Zátiší was given to V lučinách in 1979.

    A ‘lučina’ is a synonym for ‘louka’, i.e. a meadow.

    We’ve been on this topic before, including two days after I started writing about Prague streets almost four years and 946 streets ago: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2022/11/18/prague-3-day-2-u-knezske-louky/.

    While I let it sink in that I’ve almost written a thousand of these now, it’s a safe bet that, however nice your home is, it doesn’t have as spectacular statues outside it as number 9, V lučinách does.

  • Prague 4, day 299: Večerní


    Večerní was built in 1973.

    Part three of the times-of-day series that started on https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2026/01/14/prague-4-day-279-poledni/ and continued with https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2026/02/02/prague-4-day-298-jitrni/: ‘večer’ is ‘evening’.

    This reminds me of the first time I lived in Prague; I was an English teacher, and, in the practice lessons, I learned that Czechs learning English may get very confused if you ask what they did ‘last night’ – because, when we say ‘last night’, what we really mean is ‘yesterday evening’.

    In other words, those Czechs are not at all wrong.

    The adjective from ‘večer’ is ‘večerní’; a ‘večerní škola’ would be a night school – proving my point above very effectively – although, when it comes to ‘večerní šaty’, we are quite consistent, and say ‘evening dress’.

  • Prague 4, day 298: Jitřní


    Jitřní was built in 1965.

    When we were still in Braník, we started on what is a four-part set of streets named after times of day: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2026/01/14/prague-4-day-279-poledni/.

    ‘Jitro’ means ‘morning’, and I now have to sheepishly admit that I’ve been spelling it as ‘jítro’ until today. Ah well, we live and learn.

    Czechs will often look surprised when you tell them you can say ‘good morning’ until 11:59 – ‘jitro’ (and its synonym ráno) both mean *early* morning.

    On the other hand, I still struggle to get used to people saying ‘dobrý den’ when it’s the evening, so, swings and roundabouts.

    The adjective from ‘jitro’ is ‘jitřní’, which I guess you could translate as ‘matutinal’, although I can’t imagine choosing that over ‘morning’ is a way to win people over.

    Of course, there’s a false friend of sorts, what with ‘jutro’ meaning ‘tomorrow’ in Polish and Bosnian/Serbian/Croatian (but ‘morning’ in Slovenian).

  • Prague 4, day 297: Stavbařů


    Stavbařů was built in 1973.

    A ‘stavbář’ is a builder, or a construction worker. They would typically work on a stavba or a staveniště (a construction / building site).

    Without such people, these streets would either not exist or just be a bunch of paths, so fair play to whoever decided they deserved to have a road named after them.

  • Prague 4, day 296: Nad údolím

    Nad údolím was built in 1935.

    Keeping things geographical today: the street is above (‘nad’) a valley (‘údolí’).

    Anyone who thinks they’ve heard this one before is probably right: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2025/12/22/prague-4-day-267-udolni/ is nearby, but somehow a month has passed since I wrote about it.

  • Prague 4, day 295: Nad lesem


    Nad lesem was built in 1935.

    While we’ve established that parts of Hodkovičky are quite barren (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2026/01/28/prague-4-day-293-na-lysinach/), you can go a tiny bit further to the north and find yourself just above a forest.

    Or, in Czech, ‘nad lesem’. The forest is on the border between Hodkovičky and Braník.

    I mean, this is based on what I’ve looked up; it’s been a very icy January, and everything round here looked much nearer to being barren than forest last weekend.

  • Prague 4, day 294: Mezi Lysinami 

    Mezi Lysinami was built in 1935.

    The creativity is the equal of the vegetation today: Mezi Lysinami is named after the same barrenness as yesterday’s https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2026/01/28/prague-4-day-293-na-lysinach/, but is ‘between’ these patches of nothingness rather than ‘on’ them.

    To make today’s story about 0.1% more interesting, the street was called Mezi Lysinami I between 1938 and 1952. We’ll get onto its sequel very soon.

  • Prague 4, day 293: Na Lysinách 


    Na Lysinách was built in 1925.

    When talking about humans and their heads, a ‘lysina’ is a bald spot.

    When talking about landscapes, a ‘lysina’ is a forest area without vegetation, and so the area around here was once known as such.

    Based on my walk around the area last weekend (and a new record for ‘time walked before finding a single damn street sign’), I’d agree, while conceding that this particularly long January is not the best time to judge an area’s greenery or lack thereof.

    We’ve been in ‘lysina’ territory already in Nusle: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2025/06/24/prague-4-day-126-na-lysine/.

    Back on Na Lysinách, number 2 is a standout (photo by Wikipedia user Packa): https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vila_Anton%C3%ADna_Ho%C5%99ovsk%C3%A9ho#/media/Soubor:Na_Lysin%C3%A1ch_str_4,_Prague_Hodkovi%C4%8Dky.jpg.

    It was built in 1921 for Antonín Hořovský, who was manager of Žluté lázně in Podolí (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2025/07/05/prague-4-day-137-podolske-nabrezi/).

    Also interesting is number 15, built for Czech film director Martin Frič  (1902-1968): https://www.kudyznudy.cz/aktivity/fricova-vila-v-hodkovickach.