Serbian surnames 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 unites them. The article gives examples of the most common and well-known surnames, as well as the rule of their decline.
Features of Serbian last names
Serbs as a nation were formed through the assimilation of the ancient Greeks, descendants of the Roman Empire and the Eastern Slavs, who created the South Slavic subgroup settled in the north-west of the Balkan Peninsula, where the local Illyrian and Dacian tribes lived. For a long time, the Croats, Serbs, and Bosnians had a single literary language, but since the middle of the 20th century, their own was created on the basis of the Cyrillic “vukovitsa”.
By tradition, the Latin “gaewitz” is also used, which brings Serbs closer to other Balkan peoples whose languages are similar and there is mutual understanding between the speakers. Today, two-thirds of Serbs live on the lands of the former Yugoslavia (8 million people), including 6 million - directly in Serbia. Another 4 million are the foreign diaspora, well represented in the United States.
It is distinguished by Serbian surnames, as a rule, incorporating a characteristic suffix - ich , which in Slavic languages has the meaning of reduction. For example, the surname Petrich can be interpreted as little 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 has a suffix - ich .
There are exceptions. For example, Emir Kusturica , a native of Sarajevo , a world-famous film director, considers Orthodox Serbs to be his ancestors, but an uncharacteristic surname betrays the presence of Muslim roots. 17% of Belarusian surnames also end in - ovich (yevich) , but their peculiarity is the fact that they usually owe their origin to baptismal names: Borissevich, Pashkevich, Yurkovich.
Serbian last names: list of the most popular
Studying the most common surnames in Serbia since 1940 yielded the following results:
- The most used came from personal names: Jovanovic, Nikolic, Markovich, Petrovich, Djordjevic, Milosevic, Pavlovich.
- From professional activities, personal qualities and other words are popular: Stankovic, Ilic, Stoyanovich.
Using the last surname as an example, you can see how many famous people are its carriers:
- Nowadays, the surviving writer and journalist Radosav Stoyanovich, author of the novels “The Lunar Ship”, “Angelus” and “Wild Vaccination”.
- Serbian and Russian actress with the same name Daniela Stoyanovich.
- Novice tennis player Nina Stoyanovich.
The studies concerned the most used combinations with male and female names, which are most often of Slavic origin and are not divided into full and diminutive (in the passport you can find both Miloslav, Milan, and Milko). There are Orthodox names (although the Serbs have no tradition of celebrating name days), as well as compound, “glued” from two words with a Slavic component (Marislav, Negomira).
The most common Serbian names are:
- Men: Dragan Jovanovic (translated “dear”), Zoran Jovanovic (“dawn”), Alexander Jovanovic (“defender”), Dragan Petrovich, Alexander Petrovich.
- Women: Militsa Jovanovic (translated as “dear”), Elena Jovanovic (“chosen”), Maria Jovanovic (“desired”), Militsa Petrovich, Militsa Djordjevic.
Beauty of sound and famous personalities
Beautiful surnames sweeten the hearing of those who hear and pronounce. Nothing pleases the inhabitants of Serbia as much as the successes and achievements of fellow citizens who glorify their historical homeland. Today, the whole world knows the Australian Nicholas Vuychicha, who lacked limbs did not stop to become famous and become the best motivational speaker of our time, inspiring hope in seriously ill people. But few people know that his parents are Serbian emigrants, as evidenced by the surname that sounds today in all languages of the world and has lost its original correct reading - Vujicic.
Beautiful Serbian surnames today belong to hundreds of athletes, cultural and scientific figures. Among them are the best tennis player Novak Djokovic, football legend Dragan Jaich, NBA center player Vlade Divac, world-class football players Branislav Ivanovich, Boyan Krkich, Milos Krasic, Hollywood beauty Milla Jovovich, composer Goran Bregovic, singer Radmila Karaklaich, the greatest scientist Nicolae Nicolae, X-ray and laser. By the way, the absence of -ich often speaks of belonging to the lands of Vojvodina or Kosovo and Mitohija, where this suffix is less common.
Analogies
The emphasis in the long surnames of the Serbs, as a rule, falls on the third syllable from the end: Stamenkovich, Vukobratovich, which distinguishes them from representatives of other Slavic nationalities. If the root is the root -uk , a similar surname in Russian will be formed from the word wolf: Volkov, Volchkov, Volchaninov. For example, Vukich, Vukovich, Vukoslavlevich. The following Serbian surnames also come from animal names: Paunovic (peacock), Sharanić (carp), Vranić (crow). Russian analogues: Pavlinov, Karpov, Voronin.
Russian surnames formed from professional activities (Kuznetsov, Bondarev, Karetnikov) correspond to: Kovachevich, Kacharovich, Kolarevich. Other analogies with the underlying words are also interesting. Example: Gromov - Lomich, Lukin - Lukovich, Bezborodov - Chosich, Koldunov - Veshtitsa, Kleimenov - Zhigich.
Declination
Serbian surnames are inclined according to the rule of the Russian language, which states that surnames ending in a consonant -ch in the feminine gender are not changed by case:
- I follow the game of Ana Ivanovich.
And in the man’s, they are inclined without fail:
- Nominative (who?): Dusan Ivkovic;
- Genitive (whom?): Dusan Ivkovic;
- Dative (to whom?): Dusan Ivkovic;
- Accusative (whom?): Dusan Ivkovic;
- Creative (by whom?): Dusan Ivkovic;
- Prepositional (about whom?): About Dushan Ivkovic.