Croatian last names

Falling in love with Croatia?

Check out our Croatian courses or learn Croatian with our free resources – perfect for beginners and advanced learners who want to truly experience the country, not just visit. Also discover the vibrant Croatian communities and cultural offerings in various cities, as well as alternative ways to learn Croatian.

Forming surnames in this way was a traditional practice in many languages. The suffix –ić is typical in several other south Slavic languages (e,g, Serbian, Bosnian, Montenegrin) and is roughly equivalent to the Scandinavian –sen, (Danish, Norwegian) or –sson (Swedish, Icelandic).

Father’s first name (patronymic surnames)

As mentioned above, most Croatian surnames are patronymic, i.e. derived from the first name of the child’s father. Here are a few common examples:

• Antić – child of Ante
• Filipović – child of Filip
• Jurić – child of Jure
• Stjepanić – child of Stjepan

Mother’s first name (matronymic surnames)

Matronymic surnames, albeit far less frequent, also exist in Croatian.

Women who their offspring were named after were either women who were particularly appreciated in a community or were “marked” by some more or less fortunate events, such as becoming pregnant out-of-wedlock or becoming a widow at an early age.

• Anić – child of Ana
• Babić – child of a baba (Slavic for an old woman)
• Marušić – child of Marija
• Zorić – child of Zora

Professions

Surnames are sometimes also constructed from the parents’ profession:

• Ribar – fisherman >>> Ribarević – child of a fisherman
• Kovač – blacksmith >>> Kovač, Kovačević, Kovačić – child of a blacksmith
• Mornar – sailor >>> Mornar, Mornarić – child of a sailor
• Vitez – knight >>> Vitez, Vitezić – child of a knight

The most frequent Croatian surnames

Here’s the list of the 20 most frequent Croatian surnames, according to several sources:

Horvat	Kovačević	Babić	Marić	Novak
Jurić	Kovačić	Vuković	Knežević	Marković
Petrović	Matić	Tomić	Kovač	Pavlović
Božić	Blažević	Grgić	Pavić	Radić