Croats, Serbs, Bosnians, Macedonians, Montenegrins - Balkan Slavs, who once made up one big country called Yugoslavia. These peoples, separated from each other in different countries, have common historical events, neighboring territories, a lot in common in culture and traditions. Despite belonging to different faiths, Serbian, Bosnian and Croatian surnames are often difficult to distinguish by belonging.
Who are the Croats
Croats are Slavic tribes that settled the Balkans around the 7th century, after the collapse of the empire. Presumably came from Galicia. According to their genetic structure, Croats are related to the 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) - come from Moravia and Slovenia. Red Croatia is called the area of present Dalmatia and some areas 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, and 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 Slavs. The name was given to the Slavs great importance. It was believed that the name gives a person the quality that it carries in itself. Yes, it is in modern times: "As you call a boat, so it will float." Croatian surnames, like other peoples, arose only with the emergence of the need for documenting citizens. An interesting belief existed among the pagan tribes regarding the name. Very often a constant name was given to a child when he was already growing up, and his character traits and inclinations became clear, then Slavko (glorious), Goran (mountain man), Vedrana (funny) called him. Girls generally were often given names of plants and flowers. So at Croats the names Cherry, Berry, Fir-tree are not uncommon. Before receiving a permanent name, in order to hide the child from evil spirits, he was simply called Naida, Momche (boy) or was given the pet name of an animal, a piglet, for example (Gushyu).
Religion and Surnames
The need for adding names to the name appeared among the Slavs with the adoption of Christianity, as records of church books on births, deaths, and censuses were carried out. Croatian names and surnames form a full-fledged name of personality. Patronymics, like the Serbs, are not accepted. Actually, most of the original surnames are the changed names of the fathers, which later became transmitted by gender. This type of surname is akin to the middle names of the Eastern Slavs: Petrovich, Markovich, Yakovich.
Croatian surname forms
Surnames derived from the name of the father or occupation, with the ending -ich, occupy the first place in prevalence among the Serbs, and only the second among the Croats. The pronunciation of Croatian surnames, like Serbian surnames of this kind, is practically no different, because they have one language - Serbo-Croatian. Kovachevich, Vukovich, Shumanovich - this form is also common among Poles and Western Ukrainians. Thus, the townspeople and merchants called themselves in these regions. Russians with a similar ending formed patronymics, but the stress in Croatian surnames, in contrast to Russian patronymics, is on the first syllable in most cases, or on the third from the end - for long surnames.
Popular surnames
Not particularly modest, the Croatian surname leads the list of the most common. The second most popular Croatian surnames with endings are ich, of which the Kovachevichi precedence belongs. This is followed by surnames with endings -ak: Novak, Dvorak, and formed from the diminutive name of his father ending -ik Yurek, Mikhalek. Next in the list of popularity are family endings - uk: Tarbuk, Biyuk. Less common are groups - rts, -nts, -ar, -sh (Hvarts, Rybar, Dragosh). There are separate surnames peculiar only to certain regions or making up two-root combinations (Krivoshiya, Belivuk). There are also Oreshanin, Grachanin, Tsvetanin in Croatia. Surnames with such endings are carried by about 5 thousand inhabitants of the country.
Geography in last names
Croatian experts in anthroponymy have done tremendous work to describe the names of their region. Scientific papers on this topic describe not only how Croatian surnames are pronounced, how they were composed and what they mean. Linguists have compiled and classified the prevalence of their indigenous surnames by regions of Croatia and beyond. Knowing these patterns, it is possible to determine approximately from what region the ancestors of one kind or another originated. So, the most numerous surname Horvat, it turns out, is concentrated in the region of a small northern territory that once belonged to Austria-Hungary, apparently, once foreigners called the native inhabitants that way.
There are many Croats in Mountain Kotary, in these areas there are also the largest number of surnames of groups ––, –ets, –ats, –sh. In Slavonia, the forms –ich, –ac are prevailing. Dalmatia is inherent in the regional form of surnames, with the ending -itsa (Kusturica, Pavlitsa, Cinnamon).
