Help on Croatian Name

Question

I'm researching a friend's Croatian line, and he entered the US as 'Etorovic Kosta, Petar' but used the name Peter Kosta throughout his life.

Could anyone tell me where I would but the 'Etorovic' part of the name in a name field please? Is it a middle name or are the both surnames, and is it mother's and father's surnames or what? Thank you!

Answer 1

This page from the FamilySearch Wiki gives some general information, along with some references and links:  https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Croatia_Naming_Customs

Much of the info at FamilySearch is from Wikipedia:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croatian_name

Comments

Thank you for this. I see that ETOROVIC is usually a last name, and in 1907 he entered the US with ETOROVIC KOSTA, but only used KOSTA. Not knowing his siblings means he might have taken his father's KOSTA, but the ETOROVIC will be seen in time (if there are indeed, any records or DNA matches). I thank you for this very helpful answer. Blessings from Australia. kg

Answer 2

Croatians traditionally had a surname placed first (like in East Asia) name order. I don't know when their name reform made them more uniform with the rest of Europe, where the surname is placed last.

Answer 3

In Croatia (and also in Serbia) it was that way that the surname was written first and then the given names. It is still visible in the word for surname (prezime, literally "before the name") and given name (ime "name"). Nowadays the usual version of names is "given name, surname".

But it is still today usual in official letters that a person is identified in the way "given name, given name of father (or initial of that), surname". I once saw that in a hospital letter that a relative of mine got.