Every Monday we will post an entry that hasn’t yet been published with a view towards harnessing the collective onomastic power of the internet. If you have any thoughts about the name’s origin, other variants it might be related to, other examples of its use, etc., please share them in the comments! If you wish to browse other Mystery Monday names, there is an index.
Today’s name is another Czech name, and the -ko ending indicates it is likely a diminutive. But what is the root name? Possibly some form of Louis? We’d be happier with that identification if we had forms of Louis beginning with Low- in this linguistic area. Do you have any to share?
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Looks similar to a diminutive of Slavic “lew” (lion), which is a proper noun but also a name (Lew), which is a slavicisation of the name Leo(n) (λέων). On the other hand, in 14th cent. Cracow (Poland) there was a Jewish banker Lewko (d. 1395), who appears is a number of Latin sources. His name in gen. is “Lewkonis”. A Jewish name Lewko might have easily appeared in a similar form in Bohemia/Moravia. It might be a slavicisation of Yiddish name “Leyb”.