Macedonian Surnames

[Constellation]

Because there is some precedence in such naming conventions, let alone the fact that it is grammatically correct. Why on earth would they create something new

I was been sardonic. Obviously, in a Slavic language, there is protocol to follow. "Ski" is Slavic, and its meaning, similar to "ov", designates origin. This is no different than an Englishman's name ending in "son".

There may have been encouragement to use -ski instead of -ov and -ev in some areas and the imposed -ich in others. Right or wrong, I would suspect that many Macedonians were just fed up with Serbs and Bulgars laying false claim on them. If it was forced by the government then half of Macedonia would not be still using the -ov and -ev surnames.

Perhaps this is true. I cannot think of any other reason why my family's name was changed from "ov" to "ovski", when we are nowhere near Bulgaria. And eastern Macedonian surnames still end in "ov". You would think the government would force these peoples names to "ski", since the proximity with Bulgaria, but instead it seems the opposite.

Perhaps you should inquire, solider, from your family history what the original endings of your surname was and if it was changed and for what reason.

[Big Bad Sven]

Constellation, what is your theory on many Bulgarians today having 'ski' at the end of their surnames as well?

I just spent 15 minutes searching famous bulgarian people and found these examples:

Stanislav Ianevski
Paisiy Hilendarski
Tryphon Silyanovski
Galina Durmushliyska
Vassil Levski
Vassil Vassilev Karloukovski - Modern Day Bulgarian internet Propagandist
Georgi Sava Rakovski
Raina Kabaivanska
Alexander Stamboliiski
Hristo Smirnenski - 19th century Bulgarian poet
Stefan SOFIYANSKI - Politician, Union of Free Democrats
Dimiter Markovski - Modern Day Bulgarian internet Propagandist
Stojan Mihailovski (1856-1927)
Ilarion Makariopolski
Petur Gabrovski
Boris Kornovski - President of Varna
Martin Kavdanski - soccer player

I was able to find this with my google searchers as well:


Most Bulgarian surnames have the surname suffix -ov (bulg: -îâ. This is often transcribed as -off. (John Atanasov-John Atanasoff) The suffix -ov is the Slavic possessive case suffix, thus Nikola's son becomes Nikolov, and Ivan's son becomes Ivanov.
Another typical Bulgarian surname suffix, though much less common, is -ski. These two surname endings get an additional –a when the bearer of the name is female (Ivanov becomes Ivanova and Smirnenski becomes Smirnenska).

http://encyclopedia.lockergnome.com/s/b/Bulgarians

And that was with a quick google search. I know in the past i have seen/read about bulgarians with the 'ski' name such as basketball players, soccer players, politicians etc

Seems like many bulgarians also have the ski ending as well.

I find it strange that almost half of the macedonians in ROM have the 'ov' ending. If there was a mass yugoslavian conspiracy to remove the 'bulgarian' surname of 'ov' with the new and artificial yugoslavian invention of 'ski' wouldnt the communist project have a 100% success rate?
Why only do a half assed job?
When the soviets took over the central asian countries like Khazakstan they had a 100% success rate of forcing all of the local population to adopt russian surnames.

Remember in the 50' Tito was a brutal dictator killing and jailing people who were enemies. Examples are the almost complete removal of the german and italian presence in yugoslavia. The jailing of slovenian dobromanci, croat ustasha and even bulgarian sympathizers.

If bulgarian nazi's and pro-bulgarian sympathizers were eliminated by the yugoslavs with a lot of energy and resources - then why were the majority of 'bulgarian' surnames allowed to be kept?

Your theory does not make any sense because 'ov' was not seen as a bulgarian surname by the macedonains in Power of socialist macedonia at the time or the local population - hence why there was no 'mass' or 'forced' changing of surnames imposed by the yugoslavs.

[Big Bad Sven]

whats your theory on macedonians from greece (anti yugoslav and anti bulgarian country) having macedonians with the 'ski' ending surnames?

Whats your theory on Albania (anti yugoslav and most isolated nation at that time) having macedonians with the ski ending?

What about macedonians goranci in kosovo who have ski endings? They have had no support from anyone and have been isolated and ruled by albanians yet they have ski ending surnames as well......

[Niko777]

If there was a mass yugoslavian conspiracy to remove the 'bulgarian' surname of 'ov' with the new and artificial yugoslavian invention of 'ski' wouldnt the communist project have a 100% success rate?
Why only do a half assed job?
When the soviets took over the central asian countries like Khazakstan they had a 100% success rate of forcing all of the local population to adopt russian surnames.

No need to look all the way towards Russia... Just look at our southern neighbor

[Risto the Great]

whats your theory on macedonians from greece (anti yugoslav and anti bulgarian country) having macedonians with the 'ski' ending surnames?

Whats your theory on Albania (anti yugoslav and most isolated nation at that time) having macedonians with the ski ending?

What about macedonians goranci in kosovo who have ski endings? They have had no support from anyone and have been isolated and ruled by albanians yet they have ski ending surnames as well......

There was definitely a "ski" agenda in Macedonia at some time. Having met an Albanian from Macedonia with a "ski" name supports this in my mind.

[Big Bad Sven]

There was definitely a "ski" agenda in Macedonia at some time. Having met an Albanian from Macedonia with a "ski" name supports this in my mind.

Yeah, i read of a few macedonian albanians with the 'ski' ending, for example there is Daut Kadriovski - leader of the albanian mafia in australia.
From my observations all muslim albanians in macedonia dont have the ski ending, its just the few orthodox albanians in macedonia. The majoroty of albanians in macedonia still have their albanian surnames - but thats because a lot of them are new comers to macedonia

Its the same with orthodox roma in macedonia as well, i have met/read about some orthodox roma with the ski name, and also quite a few with the 'ov/ova' as well. Muslim roma almost never have the ski ending

I dont think i have seen a macedonian turk with the ski ending.

[Soldier of Macedon]

There was definitely a "ski" agenda in Macedonia at some time. Having met an Albanian from Macedonia with a "ski" name supports this in my mind.

If there was an agenda I don't think it was as cynical or brutal as some like to portray because not every Macedonian, Albanian or Vlach adopted the -ski suffix.

[Big Bad Sven]

If there was an agenda I don't think it was as cynical or brutal as some like to portray because not every Macedonian, Albanian or Vlach adopted the -ski suffix.

Very good point.

Also people forget about marriage as well.

I personally know of vlach people with ski surnames solely because of marrying a macedonian (e.g their grand dad was a macedonians but they are predominantly vlach).

[Constellation]

Slavic First Names

This is an educational thread (for me at least). I know some of you will not like this thread and conspiracy accusations will fly...

I have always been curious why in Slavic speaking nations, whether east or west, north or south, that some first names have the world "Slav" in it?

Like Tomislav, for example; or Miroslav; or Voijslav; etc.

I see these types of names in all Slavic speaking nations, including Macedonia.

Is this because of the old communist Yugoslav propaganda of a common Slavic pedigree?

Am I wrong? If not, what is the reason for this? I have never seen any other nation on earth incorporate such a practice.

Any serious theories...?

[Gocka]

This is an educational thread (for me at least). I know some of you will not like this thread and conspiracy accusations will fly...

I have always been curious why in Slavic speaking nations, whether east or west, north or south, that some first names have the world "Slav" in it?

Like Tomislav, for example; or Miroslav; or Voijslav; etc.

I see these types of names in all Slavic speaking nations, including Macedonia.

Is this because of the old communist Yugoslav propaganda of a common Slavic pedigree?

Am I wrong? If not, what is the reason for this? I have never seen any other nation on earth incorporate such a practice.

Any serious theories...?

All the old people I knew in my village in ROM, had very different names, I didn't really know any with the kind of names you mention.

Atanas, Anastas, Vojdan, Zdravko, Branko, Milcho, Zaro, Najdenko, Mihajl, Kliment, Naum, Risto, Ilija, Zivko, Spase, Petar, Nikola, Todor.

These are the names I was accustomed to as a kid in the village.

Then if you look at women s names I can only think of two like you mention, Slavica, and Slavjanka. Women's names were even more unique. Snezana, Ratka, Cvetanka, Trendafila, Zorica, Jasna, Elena, Krstana, Vesna, Todorka, Ljupka, Trena, Paraskeva.

Older Macedonian names are much more connected to the land, god, and peace.

I think the Slav ending really came to be from Serbian influence, because many of the names ending in Slav have a Macedonian version without it like Vojoslav and Vojdan, Branislav and Branko, Miroslav, Mirko etc

[Momce Makedonce]

Does anyone know some unique Macedonian first names that are not used by anyone else? I havent heard of any other nations using names like Orce, Vojo, Vojdan e.t.c

Perhaps we can compile a list like the unique Macedonian words in the Macedonian Language thread.

[DedoAleko]

Just as an example, I have 410 friends on fb and 4 have "slav" in their names: Slavko, Slave x2 and Slavica.

And the etymology is debatable.



Slav
Late 14c., Sclave, from Medieval Latin Sclavus (c.800), from Byzantine Greek Sklabos (c.580), from Old Church Slavonic Sloveninu "a Slav," probably related to slovo "word, speech," which suggests the name originally identified a member of a speech community (compare Old Church Slavonic Nemici "Germans," related to nemu "dumb;" and Old English þeode, which meant both "race" and "language").

Identical with the -slav in personal names (such as Russian Miroslav, literally "peaceful fame;" Mstislav "vengeful fame;" Jaroslav "famed for fury;" Czech Bohuslav "God's glory;" and see Wenceslas). Spelled Slave c.1788-1866, influenced by French and German Slave. As an adjective from 1876.

izvor: http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=Slav

But, also Slav(a) Слав(а) means Glory, Slaven (Славен)- Glorious/Famous, Slav(i) Слав(и)-Celebrate etc.

[Toska]

Does anyone know some unique Macedonian first names that are not used by anyone else? I havent heard of any other nations using names like Orce, Vojo, Vojdan e.t.c

Perhaps we can compile a list like the unique Macedonian words in the Macedonian Language thread.

orce is just jordan or ordan nagelno, like nikola and nikolce, Vojo is vojoslav shortened, its etymology would be a vojnik or a warrior, vojdan would derive from the same name.

[Momce Makedonce]

orce is just jordan or ordan nagelno, like nikola and nikolce, Vojo is vojoslav shortened, its etymology would be a vojnik or a warrior, vojdan would derive from the same name.

I didnt know that about Orce thanks for the info. Popped into my head because of the singer Orce Stefkovski.

[Gocka]

orce is just jordan or ordan nagelno, like nikola and nikolce, Vojo is vojoslav shortened, its etymology would be a vojnik or a warrior, vojdan would derive from the same name.

How can you be sure that a name like Vojo/Vojdan is shortened from Vojoslav? Many of the names like Spase/Spasislav, Branko/Branislav, Tome/Tomislav, from my experience the majority of Macedonians don't use the version with slav in it, not only in speaking but they are not Christened that way either.