Croatian surnames: distribution, formation, pronunciation rules

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

Who are Croats?

The Croatians are Slavic tribes who settled the Balkans around the 7th century, after the collapse of the empire. Presumably came from Galicia. According to its genetic structure, Croats are related to Slavs and Northern Germans, or Goths. Croatian tribes were divided into white, black and red Croats. White - the ancestors of the population of Galicia (Western Ukraine), black (Czech Croats) - the people of Moravia and Slovenia. Red Croatia is called the region of present Dalmatia and some areas of neighboring Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Most people of this nationality live in the territory of present-day Croatia. Croatian surnames are also often found in all the former republics of Yugoslavia, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Romania, Poland, Hungary. Small groups of Croats can be found in many corners of the globe.

Pre-Christian names

The ancient tribes - the ancestors of the Croats - were pagans, like all the Slavs. Naming the Slavs gave great importance. It was believed that the name gives a person the quality that it carries in itself. Yes, so it is in modern times: "As you call the boat, so it will float." Croatian surnames, like those of other peoples, arose only with the need for documentary fixation of citizens. An interesting belief existed among pagan tribes concerning the name of naming. Very often a permanent name was given to a child when he was already growing up, and his personality traits and inclinations became understandable, then Slavkov (glorious), Goran (man-mountain), Vedran (merry) were called. Girls generally gave the names of plants and flowers. So the Croats are often the names of Cherry, Yagoda, Elka. Before obtaining a permanent name to hide the child from evil spirits, he was called simply Naida, Momche (boy) or gave the pet name of an animal, a pig, for example (Gushu).

Religion and surnames

The need to add names to the name appeared among the Slavs with the adoption of Christianity, as records were kept of church books of births, deaths, and censuses. Croatian names and surnames form a complete naming of the person. The patronymic, like the Serbs, is not accepted. Actually, most of the original surnames are the altered names of the fathers, which later became gender-specific. This type of surnames is similar to the patriarchs of the Eastern Slavs: Petrovich, Markovich, Yakovich.

Forms of Croatian names

Surnames derived from the name of the father or occupation, with endings-ich, occupy the first place in prevalence among the Serbs, and only the second among the Croats. Pronunciation of Croatian names, like that of Serbian of this kind, is practically the same, because they have one language - Serbo-Croatian. Kovacevic, Vukovich, Shumanovich - this form is also common among Poles and Western Ukrainians. Thus, mainly citizens and merchants named themselves in these regions. The Russians with such an end formed patronymics, but the accent in Croatian surnames, unlike Russian patronymics, on the first syllable in most cases, or on the third from the end - for long surnames.

Popular surnames

Not being distinguished by special modesty, in the list of the most widespread the surname Horvath is leading. The second in popularity Croatian names with endings are ich , of which the primacy belongs to the Kovachevichs. Next are the surnames with endings -a to : Nowak, Dvorak, and formed from the diminutive name of the father by the end- Ik Yurek, Mikhalek. Next in the list of popularity followed by family endings - uk: Tarbuk, Biyuk. Groups less often occur: pc, -nz, -ar, -sh (Khvarts, Rybar, Dragosh). There are individual surnames that are peculiar only to certain regions or constitute two-root combinations (Krivoshiya, Belivuk). There are in Croatia and Oreshanin, Grachanin, Tsvetanin. The names with such endings are about 5 thousand inhabitants of the country.

Geography in Surnames

Croatian specialists in anthroponymy did a great job of describing the names of their land. In scientific works on this topic, it is described, not only how Croatian names are pronounced, how they were composed and what they designate. Linguists collected and classified the prevalence of their indigenous families by the regions of Croatia and beyond. Knowing these patterns, it is possible to determine approximately from which edge the ancestors of one or another kind have occurred. So, the most numerous surname Horvath, it turns out, is concentrated in the area of a small northern territory that once belonged to Austria-Hungary, apparently, once foreigners so called indigenous people.

Many Croats in Mountain Kotar, in these areas also the largest number of family names - k, -ets, -ats, -sh. In Slavonia, the forms -ych, -ac are predominant. Dalmatia is characterized by a regional form of surnames, with the end - of the egg (Kusturica, Pavlitsa, Cinnamon).

Famous Croats

Many Croatian outstanding people glorified the names of their ancestors to the whole world. The first of them was the famous geographer and traveler Marco Polo. The parachute was invented by Faust Vrančić, the "Theory of Natural Philosophy" was composed by the physicist, mathematician and astronomer Rudzher Boskowicz, the method of fingerprinting was introduced to the world by Ivan Vuchečić. Widely known outside the country are the architect and sculptor Juraj Dalmatinets, the artist Yuliv Klovich, the politician Josef Broz Tito, the physicist Nikolai Tesla. This is only a small list of the famed Croat family names that have made a significant contribution to the development of world history.