What are the 20 Most Common Croatian Surnames?
- by croatiaweek
- in News
Smith and Jones are Britain’s most popular surnames, whilst Smith again, Johnson and Williams are the most common in America. So what are Croatia’s most frequent surnames?…
According to Croatian Genealogy the honour of the most common surname in Croatia belongs to Horvat, with over 22,000 people carrying the name out of a population of just over 4 million. In second place was the surname Kovačević (15,835), followed by Babić (13,150) in third spot.
“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 women 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 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),” Croatian Genealogy says.
“Many centuries after, we find Croatian surnames which echo those old Croatian female given names: Belić, Bilić, Dobrić, Grubić, Ljubić, Mirić, Stanić etc.”
Top 20 Most Common Croatian Surnames
1. Horvat
2. Kovačević
3. Babić
4. Marić
5. Novak
6. Jurić
7. Kovačić
9. Knežević
10. Marković
11. Petrović
12. Matić
13. Tomić
14. Kovač
15. Pavlović
16. Božić
17. Blažević
18. Grgić
19. Pavić
20. Radić
