There are 309 villages that contain Lhota or Lhotka (diminutive form of Lhota) in their name, which makes it the most common name of villages in the Czech Republic.
[1] In addition, there are dozens of villages with derivations of those names (Lhotice, Lhoty, Lhůta and Lhůty in the Czech Republic, Lehota and Lehôtka in Slovakia).
[2] Lhotas were founded during the Middle Ages colonization in Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia.
[3] The name was first mentioned in 1199, but this first documented Lhota was later renamed Svatý Jiří.
[1] The inhabitants of newly-founded villages had obligations towards suzerains, but those duties were usually suspended for a certain period (such as 5–8 years) as a compensation for felling of forests and making the land available for agriculture.