Family name origins & meanings
- Czech and Slovak : from Vlach ‘Italian’, ‘Romanian’, or ‘Wallachian’. This vocabulary word originally meant ‘foreigner’; it is cognate with German welsch meaning ‘Latin’ or ‘Romance-speaking’, and ultimately with Old English wælisc ‘foreign’ and modern English Welsh. At the time when surnames were formed, the Czech word was applied chiefly to Italians, but also to Romanians.
- Czech and Slovak : from a pet form of any of various personal names beginning with Vla-, for example Vlastislav or Vladislav.