Juraj
Juraj is a given name used in a number of languages in various forms. The variants used in Central, Eastern, and South-Eastern Europe may be coincidental with a Slavonic similar to the Russian word юркий (yurkiy) meaning nimble, quick, handy. Pronounced "yuwh-rie" or "yuwh-rai".
The English equivalent of the name is George, other national equivalents are: Georgio, Georgij, Georg, Jürg, Jürgen, Jurģi, Yury, Jerzy, Jiří - evidently developed one from another. Its origin comes from the victimized early Christian communities (first centuries after Jesus Christ) and its meaning was: the Christian coming from Georgia = country origin defining, similar to "Alabama-Joe" or "Nevada-Kid". And even the further religion meaning of Saint Juraj is the same as Saint George: horse riding man sacrificing himself for fight with dragons, what ist frequented topic of Christian religion legends, paintings, icons and statues, reminded (celebrated) mostly 24. or 23. April or even 6.May (because of Julian/Gregorian calendar)
Notable people
- Juraj Chmiel, Czech diplomat and politician
- Juraj Filas, Slovak composer
- Juraj Herz, Czechoslovakian director
- Juraj Jakubisko, Slovak director
- Juraj Jánošík, Slovak national hero
- Juraj Kucka, Slovak footballer
- Juraj Okoličány, Slovak ice hockey referee
- Juraj Sviatko, Slovak figure skater
- Josip Juraj Strossmayer, Croatian politician, Roman Catholic bishop
Other variants
- Yuriy: Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian
- Juraj: Croatian, Slovak, Slovene
- Juraš, Đuraš, Đurađ, Jurash, Yurash: Serbian, Montenegrin, Croatian, Slovene, Ukrainian
- Jure: Slovene, Croatian
- Jerzy, Jurek: Polish
- Jurij: Slovene
- Juris: Lithuanian, Latvian
Pet forms
- Jura: Czech, Slovak, Moravian, Ponašimu, Croatian and Romanian
- Jure: Croatian, Slovene
- Jurashek: Slovene
- Jurášek: Czech, Moravian, Ponašimu
- Jurajko: Ukrainian, Slovak
- Jurik: Russian and Armenian
- Jurko: Slovak, Croatian
- Juro: Slovak, Croatia
- Jurek: Polish, Croatian
See also
- Đurađ, Serbian variant