Čapek

surname · Latin script

Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise

Čapek is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Czechia than in any other country. Recorded meaning: Diminutive of čáp (“stork”), from Proto-Slavic *čapľa.

rarermore common
  • CZCzechia1 in 3.8K(measured from records)
  • HRCroatia1 in 19K
  • SKSlovakia1 in 76K

carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.

Czechia (measured from records)

2,848 people

Sources
58 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

1 in 3.8K (inferred from the name graph)

Czechia

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Spellings & scripts(measured from records)

One other spelling is counted as the same name:

Locally spelled Capek in US United States, SK Slovakia, PL Poland and 1 more.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin(measured from records)

Diminutive of čáp (“stork”), from Proto-Slavic *čapľa

Sources 1

Attested across 14 languages in the etymology graph.

Where in the world(measured from records)

Čapek counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.

Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.

Where Čapek is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
CZ Czechia#3242,8481 in 3.8K2.8KČapek58
US United States—5291 in 629K608Capek58
PL Poland—3091 in 124K160Capek19
HR Croatia—2171 in 19K217——
CA Canada—≈79 est.≈1 in 478K—Capek5
SK Slovakia—721 in 76K72Capek27
SI Slovenia—101 in 210K10—2

2,848 people counted by MVČR — living population register 2017. Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.

Registers cited: MVČR — living population register 2017; Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020; DZS — Imena i prezimena (per-token lookup form); JÚĽŠ SAV — Databáza priezvisk na Slovensku (surname database, 1995 census); dane.gov.pl — PESEL living persons (surnames); stat.si Imena rojstva — full name register (per-token frequency + rank). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.

Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).

Other names spelled this way(inferred from the name graph)

Čapek is also recorded as 5 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • Croatian surname15 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Croatia, United States, Switzerland, Serbia

    Languages: Croatian, Bulgarian, Serbian

    Also written Capek, Чапек, Ćapek, Chapek, Cápek

  • English surname7 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Germany, United Kingdom, Australia

    Languages: English, German

    Also written Capek, Čápek

  • a separate name4 spellings in the group

    Also written Ĉapek, Capek, Čápek

  • Hindi surname3 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States

    Languages: Hindi, Urdu

    Also written Capek

  • Italian surname2 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States

    Also written Capek

9 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Notable people with this name(measured from records)

18001850190019502000Josef Čapek, b. 1825Jindřich Václav Čapek, b. 1837Antonín Čapek, b. 1855Karel Matěj Čapek-Chod, b. 1860Josef Čapek, b. 1887Karel Čapek, b. 1890Josef Čapek, b. 1902František Čapek, b. 1914Vítek Čapek, b. 1954Karel Jan Čapek, b. 1962

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence(measured from records)

Attested in 9 sources across 3 countries.

Official registers attesting Čapek
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
CZ CzechiaMVČR — living population register 2017—2.8K#368
CZ Czechianaše jména — 2016 MVČR snapshot—2.8K#367
CZ CzechiaKdeJsme.cz — četnost jmen a příjmení (MVČR population register front-end)—2.8K#367
SK SlovakiaJÚĽŠ SAV — Databáza priezvisk na Slovensku (surname database, 1995 census)199572—
HR CroatiaDZS — Imena i prezimena (per-token lookup form)202145#14,323
HR CroatiaDZS — Učestalost prezimena (Popis 2021)202141—

Reference works 3

  • Wikipedia surname tokens
  • Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
  • Kotík, Antonín, Naše příjmení (nové vydání, 1897)

These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

Frequently asked questions

What does the name Čapek mean, and where does it come from?
Diminutive of čáp (“stork”), from Proto-Slavic *čapľa Recorded by Wiktionary.
In which country does Čapek have the most bearers?
In Czechia, the national register counted about 2.8 thousand people named Čapek, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled čapek.
Where is Čapek most common?
Čapek is densest in Czechia, where the national register counts about 1 in 3.8 thousand people carrying it.
How common is the name Čapek?
In Czechia, the national register counted 2,848 people named Čapek, about 1 in 3.8 thousand residents.
How common is Čapek compared with other names?
In Czechia, Čapek is the 324th most common surname of 114,573 surnames recorded there.

What do you want to know about Čapek?

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Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/%C4%8Dapek

The same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), and bulk access is licensed separately.

About this data

measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated

These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.

Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.

Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.

Cite this page Mondonomo, “Čapek” — the 324th most common surname in Czechia. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Čapek parses inside a full name →