Slovenia Naming Customs

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 * Behind the Name: Slovenia Surnames
 * Behind the Name: Slovenia Given Names

Surnames

 * Slovenian names follow the pattern:
 * personal name(s) + family name
 * e.g. Jozef ZADRAVEČ


 * Many Slovenian family names end in -ič / -eč.
 * Married women typically adopt their husband’s family name:
 * e.g. if Marja Ana BOZIČ married Jozef ZADRAVEČ, she would become Marja Ana ZADRAVEČ.

Types of Surnames
Surnames can be classified into one of 5 categories: given name, occupational name, location name, nickname and ornamental name.
 * Given names are the simplest of the 5 where the surname is derived from a parent’s given name.
 * Occupational surnames are those derived from the occupation of a person. Well known Slovenian “occupational” surnames would be Šoštar; shoemaker (or any of its transformations, Šuštar, Šušter), Zupan; mayor or žagar; sawer.
 * Location based surnames are very commonly used in the household name but these are surnames derived from where people came from or lived. Some well known Slovenian “location” surnames would be Kastelic; from a castle, Horvat; Croatian or Hribar; from the hill.
 * Nickname surnames are surnames derived from a person’s nickname which would have typically been derived from a person’s appearance, temperament or personality.
 * Ornamental names were typically names which adopted (or were forced to adopt) surnames in the 18th and 19th centuries. Evidence shows that surnames existed in Slovenia already in the 16th century so these typically do not exist here. They were much more typical in Jewish families and those from Scandinavia.

Given Names
Personal male and female names in Slovenia are quite easy to distinguish. A simple rule says that female names usually end with an -a and male names with a consonant. Still, there are some exceptions:
 * Nives, Ines, Karmen, Iris, Kim and Karin are female names ending with a consonant.
 * Mitja, Luka, Žiga, Jaka, Miha, Bine, Nino, Marko, Anže, Jože, Jure, Drago and Samo are some of male names ending with a vowel.

Names which follow an unwritten rule:
 * male names ending to consonant: Martin, Erik, Aleksander, Peter, Nik, Boris, Tomaž.
 * female names ending to -a: Teja, Tina, Manca, Katarina, Darja, Kaja.

Popular Names
Feminine:

Bogdana, Branka, Cvetka, Danica, Draga, Dragica, Dunja, Janina, Jasna, Ljuba, Ljubica, Milena, Milica, Mira, Morana, Mora, Nada, Neda, Nedeljka, Neva, Nevenka, Slava, Slavica, Spomenka, Stanislava, Stana, Stanka, Svetlana, Vedrana, Vera, Vesna, Vlasta, Vojka, Zdenka, Zdravka, Zlatka, Zora, Zorica, Zorka, Zvonka, Živa

Masculine:

Bogdan, Boris, Borut, Bojan, Božidar, Božo, Branko, Ciril, Cvetko, Črtomir, Dejan, Dragan, Drago, Dragotin, Dušan, Gojmir, Gorazd, Gregor, Jaroslav, Kresnik, Lado, Milan, Miran, Mirko, Miroslav, Miško, Perun, Radivoj, Rajko, Srečko, Slavko, Stanislav, Stanko, Stane, Vekoslav, Venceslav, Vitan, Vitomir, Vladimir, Vlado, Vojteh, Zdenko, Zdravko, Zoran, Žarko, Željko, Živko

For Further Reading

 * A GUIDE TO NAMES AND NAMING PRACTICES, UK Names Guide
 * Slovenian personal names (CIA)
 * Slavic names in Wikipedia

FamilySearch Library
Additional sources are listed in the FamilySearch Catalog: