Original scientific paper

Zoonyms in Croatian surnames

Nada Vajs ; Institut za hrvatski jezik i jezikoslovlje
Dunja Brozović Rončević ; Zavod za lingvistička istraživanja HAZU

Abstract

The paper analyses Croatian surnames which are motivated by various animal
appellations. It is a particularly interesting anthroponymie group which is
distinctly reflecting a Slavic linguistic origin of the majority of such surnames in
Croatia, but also various foreign lexical levels mainly in the Croatian bordering
regions. As well, the noted surnames bear the dialectological manifoldness of the
Croatian region. By their origin zoonymic surnames are either metaphors taken
from everyday life or carry diverse metonymical relations. Most surnames motivated
by zoonyms developed from nicknames the majority of which presents
prophylactic or protective appellations. The presented sources show that the most
frequent zoonymic base in the Croatian surname corpus is vuk, which is followed
by medvjed and some other appellations of domestic animals.

Keywords

zoonymys; Croatian surnames; anthroponymy; onomastics

Hrčak ID:

180388

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/180388

Publication date:

10.3.2003.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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