Serbian surnames: features of origin, examples

Serbian families have certain characteristics that indicate their nationality. At the same time, they are close to all Slavic peoples, which allows us to draw an analogy and show how many of them unite. The article gives examples of the most common and well-known names, as well as the rule of their declension.

Features of Serbian names

Serbs as a nationality were formed by assimilation of ancient Greeks, descendants of the Roman Empire and Eastern Slavs, who created the South Slavic subgroup, settled in the north-west of the Balkan Peninsula, where the local tribes of the Illyrians and Dacians lived. For a long time, Croats, Serbs and Bosnians had a single literary language, but from the middle of the 20th century, based on the Cyrillic "Vulkovo", they created their own.

By tradition, the Latin "Gaevitsa" is used, which brings the Serbs closer to other Balkan peoples, whose languages are similar, and there is mutual understanding between the carriers. Today, two-thirds of the Serbs live on the lands of the former Yugoslavia (8 million people), including 6 million directly in Serbia. Another 4 million has a foreign diaspora, well represented in the US.

It is distinguished by Serbian surnames, as a rule, having in their composition a characteristic suffix - ich , which in the Slavic languages has a reduction value. For example, the surname Petric can be interpreted as a small Peter. The suffix is often associated with the word "son": Milkovich is the son of Milko. The difference is fundamental, because 90% of the names of Serbian citizens have a suffix - ich .

There are exceptions. For example, the native of Sarajevo Emir Kusturica, the world-famous film director, considers his ancestors Orthodox Serbs, but the uncharacteristic surname gives the presence of Muslim roots. 17% of the Belarusian surnames also end in the headwoman , but their peculiarity is the fact that they are usually due to their origin as baptismal names: Borisevich, Pashkevich, Yurkovic.

Serbian surnames: the list of the most popular

The study of the most common family names in Serbia since 1940 has produced the following results:

• The most used are from personal names: Jovanovic, Nikolic, Markovich, Petrovich, Djordjevic, Milosevic, Pavlovich.
• From professional activities, personal qualities and other words are popular: Stankovic, Ilic, Stojanovic.

On the example of the last name you can see how many famous people are its carriers:

• Nowadays the living writer and journalist Radosav Stojanović, author of the novels Lunar Ship, Angelus and Wild Vaccination.
• Serbian and Russian actresses with the same name Daniela Stoyanovich.
• Beginner tennis player Nina Stoyanovich.

Studies related to the most used combinations with male and female names, which most often have a Slavic origin and are not divided into complete and diminutive (in the passport can be found as Miloslav, Milana, and Milko). There are also Orthodox names (although the Serbs do not have a tradition to celebrate the name-day), as well as composite, "glued" from two words with the Slavic component (Marislav, Negomira).

The most common Serbian names and surnames are:

• Men's: Dragan Jovanovic (translated "dear"), Zoran Jovanovic ("dawn"), Alexander Jovanovic ("defender"), Dragan Petrovich, Alexander Petrovich.
• Female: Militsa Jovanovic (in translation "sweetheart"), Elena Jovanovic ("elected"), Maria Jovanovic ("welcome"), Milica Petrovich, Milica Djordjevic.

Beauty sounds and famous personalities

Beautiful surnames delight the hearing of their hearing and uttering. Nothing so pleases the residents of Serbia as the successes and achievements of fellow citizens glorifying their historical homeland. Today the whole world knows the Australian Nicholas Vuychich, to whom the lack of limbs has not prevented becoming famous and becoming the best motivational speaker of our time, inspiring hope in seriously ill people. But very few people know that his parents are Serbian emigrants, as evidenced by the surname, which sounds today in all the languages of the world and has lost its original correct reading - Vuichich.

Beautiful Serbian surnames belong to hundreds of athletes, cultural and scientific figures. Among them are the best tennis player Novak Djokovic, the football legend Dragan Djaich, the center player of the NBA Vlade Divats, world-class football players Branislav Ivanovich, Bojan Krkic, Milos Krasic, Hollywood beauty Milla Jovovich, composer Goran Bregovich, singer Radmila Karaklaich, the greatest scientist Nikola Tesla, X-ray and laser. By the way, the absence of " ich" often speaks of belonging to the lands of Vojvodina or Kosovo and Mitohia, where this suffix is less common.

Analogies

The accent in the long surnames of the Serbs, as a rule, falls on the third syllable from the end: Stamenkovic, Vukobratovich, which distinguishes them from representatives of other Slavic nationalities. If the root is a root-a wolf , a similar surname in Russian will be formed from the word wolf: Volkov, Volchkov, Volchaninov. For example, Vukic, Vukovich, Vukoslavlevich. From the names of animals, the following Serbian names also occur: Paunovich (peacock), Sharanich (carp), Vranich (crow). Russian analogues: Pavlinov, Karpov, Voronin.

The Russian surname, formed from professional activity (Kuznetsov, Bondarev, Karetnikov), correspond: Kovachevich, Kacharovich, Kolarevich. Interesting and other analogies with the words underlying. Example: Gromov - Lomich, Lukin - Lukovich, Bezborodov - Chosic, Koldunov - Veshtitsa, Kleimenov - Zhigich.

Declination

Serbian surnames tend to follow the rule of the Russian language, which states that surnames that end in a consonant -h in a female gender do not change in cases:

• I follow the game of Ana Ivanovich.

And in the male - they are obligatory:

• Impeccative (who?): Dusan Ivkovic;
• Genitive (of whom?): Dusan Ivkovic;
• Dacia (to whom?): Dusan Ivkovic;
• Accusative (of whom?): Dusan Ivkovic;
• The instrumental (by whom?): Dusan Ivkovic;
• Proposal (about whom?): About Dusan Ivkovic.