Croatian surnames: distribution, formation, pronunciation rules

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:42

Croats, Serbs, Bosniaks, Macedonians, Montenegrins - Balkan Slavs, who once made up one big country called Yugoslavia. These peoples, separated from each other into different countries, have common historical events, neighboring territories, much in common in culture and traditions. Despite belonging to different faiths, Serbian, Bosnian and Croatian surnames are often difficult to distinguish by affiliation.

Who are Croats

Croats are Slavic tribes that settled in the Balkans around the 7th century, after the collapse of the empire. Presumably they came from Galicia. According to their genetic structure, Croats are related to the Slavs and North Germans, or Goths. Croatian tribes were divided into white, black and red Croats. Whites are the ancestors of the population of Galicia (Western Ukraine), blacks (Czech Croats) come from Moravia and Slovenia. Red Croatia is called the area of \u200b\u200bpresent-day Dalmatia and someareas of neighboring Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Most people of this nationality live in what is now Croatia. Croatian surnames are also often found in all the former republics of Yugoslavia, in Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Romania, Poland, Hungary. Small groups of Croats can be found in many parts of the world.

Pre-Christian names

Ancient tribes - the ancestors of the Croats - were pagans, like all Slavs. The naming of the name among the Slavs was given great importance. It was believed that the name gives a person the quality that it carries in itself. Yes, this is how it is in modern times: "Whatever you call a boat, so it will float." Croatian surnames, like those of other nations, arose only with the advent of the need to document citizens. An interesting belief existed among pagan tribes regarding naming. Very often, a permanent name was given to a child when he was already growing up, and his character traits and inclinations became clear, then they called him Slavko (glorious), Goran (man-mountain), Vedrana (funny). Girls in general were often given the names of plants and flowers. So among Croatians, the names Cherry, Yagoda, Elka are not uncommon. Prior to receiving a permanent name, in order to hide the child from evil spirits, he was simply called Naida, Momche (boy) or given an affectionate name for an animal, a piglet, for example (Goose).

Religion and surnames

The need to add surnames to the name appeared among the Slavs with the adoption of Christianity, as records were madechurch books of births, deaths, population censuses. Croatian names and surnames form a full-fledged name of the person. Patronymics, like those of the Serbs, are not accepted. Actually, most of the original surnames are the changed names of the fathers, which later began to be passed down by genus. This type of surname is akin to patronymics among the Eastern Slavs: Petrovich, Markovich, Yakovich.

Forms of Croatian surnames

Surnames derived from the name of the father or occupation, with the endings -ich, are the most common among the Serbs, and only the second among the Croats. The pronunciation of Croatian surnames, as well as Serbian ones of this kind, practically does not differ, because they have one language - Serbo-Croatian. Kovacevic, Vukovich, Shumanovich - this form is also common among Poles and Western Ukrainians. Thus, in these regions, mostly townspeople and merchants called themselves. Russians with a similar ending formed patronymics, but the stress in Croatian surnames, unlike Russian patronymics, is on the first syllable in most cases, or on the third from the end for long surnames.

Popular last names

Not distinguished by particular modesty, the surname Horvath leads the list of the most common. The second most popular Croatian surnames with endings are ich, of which the primacy belongs to the Kovacevics. This is followed by surnames with the endings -a k: Novak, Dvorak, and formed from the diminutive name of the father with the ending - ik Yurek, Michalek. Next in the list of popularity are family endings - uk: Tarbuk, Biyuk. Less commongroups - rts, -nts, -ar, -sh (Khvarts, Rybar, Dragos). There are separate surnames that are peculiar only to certain regions or that make up two-root combinations (Krivoshia, Belivuk). There are also Oreshanin, Grachanin, Tsvetanin in Croatia. Surnames with such endings are about 5 thousand inhabitants of the country.

Geography in last names

Croatian anthroponymic specialists have done a colossal job of describing the surnames of their region. Scientific works on this topic describe not only how Croatian surnames are pronounced, how they were composed and what they mean. Linguists have collected and classified the prevalence of their native surnames by regions of Croatia and beyond. Knowing these patterns, it is possible to determine approximately from which region the ancestors of one kind or another originated. So, the most numerous surname Horvath, it turns out, is concentrated in the region of a small northern territory that once belonged to Austria-Hungary, apparently, once foreigners called the natives that way.

There are a lot of Croats in Gorny Kotar, in these areas there are also the largest number of surnames of groups - k, -ets, -ats, -sh. In Slavonia, the forms -ich, -atz predominate. Dalmatia has a regional form of surnames, with the ending - itza (Kusturica, Pavlitsa, Cinnamon).

Famous Croats

Many Croatian prominent people glorified the names of their ancestors throughout the world. The first of them was the famous geographer and traveler Marco Polo. Invented the parachute Faust Vrancic, Theory of naturalPhilosophy” was compiled by the physicist, mathematician and astronomer Rudzher Boskovic, and the method of fingerprinting was introduced to the world by Ivan Vucechich. Widely known outside the country are the architect and sculptor Juraj Dalmatinets, the artist Yuliv Klovich, the politician Josef Broz Tito, and the physicist Nikolai Tesla. This is just a small list of famous Croatian families who have made a significant contribution to the development of world history.