- Serbian name
This article is about naming of ethnic Serb people.
Given names
As with most Western cultures, a child is given a
first name chosen by their parents but approved by the godparents of the child (the godparents usually approve the parent's choice). The given name comes first, the surname last, e.g. "Zeljko Popovic", where "Zeljko" is a first name and "Popovic" is a family name.First names in the Serbian language mostly originate from the
Orthodox church tradition.Some names of Serb origin can also be found in other ethnic groups such as; Goran, Zoran, Dejan,
urnames
Most Serbian surnames have the surname suffix -ić (IPA: /itɕ/, Cyrillic: -ић). This is often transcribed as -ic. In history, Serbian names have often been transcribed with a phonetic ending, -ich or -itch. This form is often associated with Serbs from before the early 20th century: hence
Milutin Milanković is usually referred to, for historical reasons, as Milutin Milankovitch.The -ić suffix is a Slavic
diminutive , originally functioning to createpatronymics . Thus the surname Petrović means the little son of Petar (Petrić signifies the little son of Petra, the widow). It is estimated that some two thirds of all Serbian surnames end in -ić but that some 80% of Serbs carry such a surname with many common names being spread out among tens and even hundreds of non-related extended families.Most Serbian surnames are paternal (father), maternal (mother), occupational, or derived from personal traits.
Other common surname suffixes are -ov and -in which is the Slavic possessive case suffix, thus Nikola's son becomes Nikolin, Petar's son Petrov, and Jovan's son Jovanov. The two suffixes are often combined, most commonly as -ović.
The most common surnames are Nikolić, Petrović, and Jovanović.
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