Calendar & Name-Days

People in Slovakia are celebrating twice a year: once their regular birthday and another time their name-day. If your name is used in Slovakia, then maybe you also have one.

Slovak Calendar

Slovakia uses the same Gregorian calendar as other Western countries including USA, Canada and the European Union. The Gregorian calendar (named after Pope Gregory XIII, 1640-1650) has replaced the earlier Julian calendar and introduced the ordinary year of 365 days, and a leap year of 366 days. Leap year occurs in every year whose number is exactly divisible by 4, except centenary years whose numbers are not exactly divisible by 400, as 1700, 1800, and 1900. Roman statesman Julius Caesar established the Julian calendar in 46 B.C., fixing the length of the year at 365 days and at 366 days every fourth year. The Gregorian calendar is much more precise in a long term. (Orthodox Christian churches still use the Julian calendar to determine church holidays.)

The names of months in the Slovak language come from Latin, and are therefore very similar to the English names. Slovak names of days of the week are original Slavic words. The only exception is the name of Saturday (“sobota”) which originates in the Hebrew word Sabbath (rest), probably also related to the word “seven” in Semitic languages. However today, the Slovak week begins with Monday (pondelok) and ends with Sunday (nedeľa), as in other European countries (e.g. Germany or France).

Namedays

Each day was assigned a name in the official Slovak calendar. People with identical given names can celebrate their name days. Namedays are similar to birthdays, but generally considered to be less important. However, there are always more people who know of your nameday than those who remember your birthday.

The names in this civil calendar are only in some cases identical with the names in the Catholic or Protestant church calendars, or with the Czech civil calendar.

You can see the official Slovak calendar below. To find a specific name, please use the “find” function of your browser (CTRL-F in general). Good to know:

• Bolded days are bank holidays consisting of state holidays and Christian holidays except for Easter (Friday, Sunday and Monday) which depends on the moon cycle.
• Names ending with “a” letter are female names.
• If a Slovak name has a translation in English or there is a similar name in English speaking countries, it is written in the brackets.

Namedays for January, February, March, April

Namedays for May, June, July, August

Namedays for September, October, November, December