Croatian last names - why the -ić?

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: