20 Most Common Croatian Surnames

Most common surnames revealed

Smith, Jones, Williams and Brown are among Britain’s most popular surnames, whilst Smith Johnson and Williams are among the most common in America.

So what are Croatia’s most frequent surnames?

According to Croatian Genealogy and Forebears, the honour of the most common surname in Croatia belongs to Horvat, with over 25,000 people carrying the name out of a population of just over 4 million.

In second place was the surname Novak with just over 13,000, followed by Marić with just over 12,000.
Kovačević, Babić and Kovačić rounded out the Top 6.

“Earlier in history, women would typically not bear a surname but would use the name of a father, husband, brother or a son instead. A matronymic surname would be typically created using a name of a woman who particularly excelled in a community, or was famous because of some fortunate or less fortunate circumstance like becoming a widow early in life or being pregnant out-of-wedlock,” Croatian Genealogy says.

Zagreb (Photo: M. Gasparovic/Zagreb Tourist Board)

“Croatian female given names are recorded in oldest historical records between 9th and 13th century AD. Some of those names are Alba (white, happy), Buna or Bona (kind, good), Demetria (goddess of the Earth), Rosana (a rose), Stella (a star), Viola (violet), all of which are of early Christian origin. There were also widespread old Croatian female names like Bela (white), Dobra (kind, good), Gruba (rough), Ljuba (a kiss), Kazimira (utterance, speak), and Mira (peace). Many centuries after, we find Croatian surnames which echo those old Croatian female given names: Belić, Bilić, Dobrić, Grubić, Ljubić, Mirić, Stanić etc,” Croatian Genealogy concludes.

Top 20 Most Common Croatian Surnames (according to Forebears)
1. Horvat
2. Novak
3. Marić
4. Kovačević
5. Babić
6. Kovačić
7. Jurić
8. Matić
9. Petrović
10. Marković
11. Tomić
12. Perić
13. Knežević
14. Vuković
15. Radić
16. Sarić
17. Kovač
18. Božić
19. Pavić
20. Pavlović

(Photo: Forebears)