Czechia, Bohemia or the Czech Republic?

We bet you´ve heard about the Czech government´s brand new idea to promote the Czech Republic abroad under the name Czechia. As wierd as it may seem to locals and tourist too, we decided to educate you a bit about all the different names you can run into when speaking about this Central European country and its capital city Prague.

You mean Czechoslovakia?

A sure way how to instantly piss off a Czech is to address his country as “Czechoslovakia”. Man, it´s been almost 25 years since we split from the Slovaks so it´s time to get your geography knowledge right.

Bohemia is just a part of the Czech Republic

With calling the whole country Bohemia, you could possibly piss off the Moravians for a change. Bohemia is only the “Czech” part of the republic in the west, while the eastern part is called Moravia and the area by the north east border of the country with Poland is called Silesia.

Praha, Prague, Praga and Prag

You will also encounter different names associated with the capital city of the Czech Republic, but all of them are just the good old Czech Praha in different languages - English, Italian and German.
The origin of the name “Praha” is to this day still a mystery for both linguists and historians. Some suggest that it decribes the most shallow spot of the Vltava river (práh = doorstep), where our ancestors use to cross it. Another theory brings up the relation between a land beaten down by sun (pražit = roast or beat down), due to the fact that the Prague Castle stands on drying out slaty soil. The latter is said to be more probable.

Now that you´ve learned the basics, it´s time to hit the road and visit! ActiveCzech.com will be your guide when learning about Czech history so as experiencing unusual adrenaline adventures.