Why do so many (southern) Slavic surnames have the suffix 'ic'?

June 20, 2012 9:41 PM

While watching the Croatian National team play in the UEFA Cup, it occurred to me that 9 of 11 starters had names ending in 'ic.' As a big tennis fan as well, I realize this is also true of virtually every male and female player from Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Slovenia. I'm asking purely out of curiosity, and was wondering if anybody could shed some light on how this one specific suffix became so common. Likewise, I'm interested in knowing if unto itself it means anything, as well as just about any other relevant info that the hive might offer--for example, why is the suffix so common among southern Slavs, but less common among non-southern Slavs? Thanks.
posted by BadgerDoctor to Society & Culture (6 answers total)

The -ic ending can indicate both a diminutive and a descent, it says you are the descendant of someone with the the first part of the last name - so Petrovic would indicate you are from the family of 'little Peters'- roughly equivalent to Peterson. I don't know why this is so common in Serbian and Croatian family names, but I know what Czech and Slovak can have somewhat similar naming conventions - so something like Petruska, in which the -ka is also a diminutive suffix, would indicate that you are a descendent of "little Peter," or his family.

Here is a link about the -ik ending in Slovak family names.
posted by that possible maker of pork sausages at 10:01 PM on June 20, 2012 [1 favorite]

…for example, why is the suffix so common among southern Slavs, but less common among non-southern Slavs?

This is not really true. In Russian and closely affiliated languages, the -ic is an obligatory part of the patronym, which absolutely everyone carries. Etymologically, it's exactly identical to the Serbian equivalent. It's an accident of history that the word that indicates your parentage evolved into one's family name in Croatia and a different part of one's name in other countries.

Actual family names with -ic in Russian (etc.) aren't unheard of either, the canonical one being Rabinovich, the "default" Jewish last name.

Farther abroad, you can find a close analog to the Croatian -ic in the Icelandic -sson and -dóttir. Notionally, I think, last names in Icelandic are strict patronyms, their bearers don't even think of them as family names. Every person carries one and they all end in exactly the same way.
posted by Nomyte at 11:00 PM on June 20, 2012 [1 favorite]

> Actual family names with -ic in Russian (etc.) aren't unheard of either, the canonical one being Rabinovich, the "default" Jewish last name.

But they're mostly Polish (-owicz) in origin.
posted by languagehat at 7:02 AM on June 21, 2012

A lot of Balkan family names are patriarchal signifiers of the "tribe" or "zadruga" which was the extended clan system in use until the industrial era, which in places like rural Croatia or Bosnia only arrived after WWI. It defined who you were and where you lived and whose sheep you would steal and who you could marry.

Today they use Facebook.
posted by zaelic at 2:51 PM on June 21, 2012

My real Polish-American surname is an -icz, if that helps to illuminate this. It is not at all uncommon among northern Slavs.
posted by Robert Angelo at 3:45 PM on June 21, 2012

> It is not at all uncommon among northern Slavs.

To be pedantic, there is no such thing as "northern Slavs." There are Western Slavs (Czechs, Slovaks, Poles), Eastern Slavs (Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians), and Southern Slavs (the ones who used to live in Yugoslavia, which means 'SouthernSlavia').
posted by languagehat at 5:08 PM on June 21, 2012 [1 favorite]