# Does the name Kafka really mean blackbird?



## PERSEE

Hello everyone,

Reading _Kafka on the shore_, the novel by Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami, I stumble on a "translation" of the name Kafka. The author says it means "crow" in Czech. ("corbeau", in my French translation). Not taking it for granted, I check it in the WordReference anglo-czech dictionary, and there's nothing like it. (Quite logically, I find a word resembling ворон, as I'm a Russian learner...)

So does _kafka_ mean something in Czech?

PD: The character Johnny Walker is spelt Johnny Walke*n*. Almost every time an English word appears in the book (in the French translation?), it is misspelt...


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## jazyk

_Crow _is _vrána_.

Kavka (spelled kavka but pronounced kafka because of assimilation, as the k is voiceless) is a jackdaw according to Wikipedia.


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## PERSEE

A jackdaw is not a crow, but, granted, it belongs to the family of _corvidæ_.

Anyway, it's no proof that the name Kafka is related to _kavka_...

Either the French translator, or the Japanese author, or both, is a little far-fetched!


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## jazyk

This is what I found. I don't know how trustworthy it is.

Kafka – otec spisovatele Franze Kafky si dal na obchodní tiskopisy vytisknout ptáka kavku. Ale on s ptákem kavkou neměl nic společného. Toto příjmení je od jména Jakub! Lépe řečeno z jidiš podoby Jakub – Jakov je příjmení Kofka. 
http://alois-sassmann.wz.cz/zidprijm.htm

My translation:
The father of the writer Franz Kafka had the jackdaw printed on his business forms, but he didn’t have anything to do with the bird. This surname is derived from the name Jakub (Jacob)! Better yet, it comes from the Yiddish form Jakub, Jakov, which became Kofka.


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## bibax

The surname can be spelled Kafka (1753 persons in the Czech republic), Kavka (834 persons) or Kawka (24 persons).

The surname Kavka corresponds to the French Choucas (I know this surname from the movie "Pour la peau d'un flic").

The jackdaw is čavka in Serbo-Croatian.
Slovak čavka means chough (Crave à bec rouge, Chocard à bec jaune), = kavče in Czech.


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## bibax

Now I have found in Wiki:

*Koffka*, family name
Meaning: from Jewish given name "Kovka (Kovke, Kofke)" - Ya'aqov (= Jacob);

So it is highly probable that the Franz Kafka's surname has nothing to do with the Slavic word kavka (choucas) that is onomatopoeic: kaf - kaf (like cornix cornicatur: cor - cor).


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## werrr

bibax said:


> So it is highly probable that the Franz Kafka's surname has nothing to do with the Slavic word kavka (choucas) that is onomatopoeic: kaf - kaf (like cornix cornicatur: cor - cor).


Why nothing? The similar-sounding words (both surnames!) coalesced. And it happened in both Czech and Polish.


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