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.
The Czech Republic is such a fount of beautiful and unusual feminine names, and today’s Mystery is one of them. We have a single example of it, from the middle of the 14th century. Have you ever seen any examples of it? Do you have any thoughts concerning its origin? Please share in the comments!
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According to its entry in the index (Inhalts-Verzeichniss), p. X, Dywa is a Bohemian masculine, actually Tiva, shortened from Protiva. The Dywa de Sczekyny 1368 of Nr. 1096 is the same man as the Protywa de Sczekyn of Nr. 1093, both on p. 54. The place-name is in the index as Čekýn; as Čekyně it is now part of Přerov, German Prerau, in the Czech Republic. The other Dywa in these records is Dywa de Ratay 1050 in Nr. 157; this place-name is in the index as Rataje.
The Czech noun protiva appears to be ‘opposite, reverse; nuisance, pain in the neck (disliked person)’; we may be looking at an original byname from the second of these senses.
The index does show a Bohemian feminine name Dyewa, cross-referenced to Počenice. It appears in Nr. 879 from 1365.