SUMMARY: Last names in Macedonia
Lou Buis
Some time ago I had posted an article about the last names in
Macedonia.
I would like to make a summary of this issue, and after that try to answer few
specific questions and comments.
* * *
There are basically six stereotypes of the Slavic last names in today
Republic of Macedonia:
A) Ending with -OV and -EV: Miladinov, Pop-Yordanov, Gruev, Delchev
B) Ending with -SKI (not w-ovski!): Zografski, Sandanski, Kalemarski
C) Ending with -OVSKI or -EVSKI: Miladinovski, Gruevski, Delchevski
D) Ending with -ICH: Pop-Yordanovich, Traichevich, Gruevich, Delchevich
E) Irregular endings: Krainichanetz, Noshpal, Krivoshia, Andreichin
F) Ending with -OSKI or -ESKI: Miladinoski, Grueski, Delcheski
Please note the difference between groups B and C. Group C can be derived from,
or, reduced to, group A, while group B can not.
The overwhelming majority of the last names before 1913 were from the
group A. Much smaller percentage (order of magnitude) were the last names from
groups B, C, D and E.
Last names from group F did NOT exist before 1944. I have not seen
them in any document on Macedonia prior to the communist take-over, nor in
personal research done in Macedonia, despite the sincere try.
(The first time that I have heard a clam that there is a document showing the
existence of the last names ending on -OSKI and -ESKI (group F) prior to 1944,
was from Mr. Naumoski, and I would be very pleased if he can provide some data
on that, since it would be a real discovery).
Also, the emigrants from all the three parts of Macedonia who came to
America, Australia and other countries between 1903 and 1944 kept their last
names unchanged if they ended with -OV or -EV, and changed them to this form if
they had it differently.
People coming from Vardar Macedonia, whose last names had to end with
-ICH (since that was South Serbia at that time, and the population was
considered Serbian, by the authorities of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) as soon as
they arrived in the "free world" they switch their last names back to the ones
ending in -OV and -EV. (Never to the endings like -OSKI or -ESKI!)
People coming from the Aegean Macedonia, whose slavic names were
hellenized, switched back to the names ending in -OV and -EV. The hellenized
last names, like Stoyanidis (which has a clear slavic routh - from the old
pan-slavic name Stoyan ["one who stands"]) were switched back to the
old form Stoyanov.
People coming from Pirin Macedonia, which is a part of Bulgaria, never
changed their last names after arriving in USA or Canada, unlike their
fellow-countrymen from the Vardar and Aegean part. Also, the number of people
emmigrating from the Pirin Macedonia was very low, since many Macedonians from
the other two parts of Macedonia use to emigrate to Bulgaria in that period
(1903-1941).
There are tons of data on this issue in the USA and Canada, and it is
more than easy for everyone to rasure himself in the above statements.
Based on the previous:
1. The Last names of the Slavic population in Macedonia before 1913
were in almost all the cases with endings -ov and -ev.
2. The percentage of the names ending on -ovski and -evski was
similar to the percentage of those last names today in Bulgaria.
3. In 1944 started the last "big change" of the names in Macedonia.
Whenever possible (or not) an extension -SKI was added to the
-OV and -EV endings, to make the last names as different as
possible from the Bulgarian ones, i.e. make them "originally
macedonian".
(I have heard stories when confused people were asking: "What the
hell they are doing to us, what is that -SKI? We are not Poles!
This is not Poland!?")
But the youngsters had the power and the force, and clear
instructions from the Center what to do.
3. There were no, WHATSOEVER, last names ending in -oski or -eski
prior to 1944. This is a pure Yugo-macedono-communist
creation (dropping the "v") with the only POLITICAL motivation to
make the last name as distant as possible from the Bulgarian last
names: Mishev -> Mishev + ski ->(drop v)-> Mishe - ski.And you can
generate examples like: Glusheski, Magareski, Konjeski, Prtzoski.
The distribution of this names was much higher in the SW
part of SR Macedonia, mostly in Prilep, Kichevo and Prespa.
Those were the areas that adopted easily the "new way of living"
in 1944 and most enthusiastically began to "build the new man".
(Note that the so called "communist uprising" in the late 1941
initiated in Prilep, and later mostly on that dialect was based the
new Macedonian language)
In the Eastern part of the R. of Macedonia these last name endings
are not so often.
On my previous posting there were few comments and questions that
I would like to address here:
Mr. Naumoski wrote:
[Goce]:Yes, I checked this too. Before 1913, his name was Naumoski (suppose
[Goce]:his first name was Vasil, his father name Todor, because I don't wanna
[Goce]:write the proper names), so his name was: Vasil TodorOV Naumoski.I found
[Goce]:this (some years ago) in an old documentation of the local church. There
[Goce]:is not much, because of the wars, but however there are left some papers
[Goce]:on papyrus. Why Todorov? Todorov means 'the son of Todor" ot 'Todor's
[Goce]:son' and Naumoski, means 'of the family of Naum' (possesion case). I
[Goce]:think it would be doubtfull as Vasil Todorov Naumov, and you couldn't
[Goce]:know who is the father?
So, if you knew who is the father, than you kept the old last name
ending on -OV and -EV, and if you didn't know who is the father you added
-SKI! (No offence! I couldn't resist!)
No, Goce, both Naumov and Naumovski are the "possesion case" , but the
first one is used for humans beings like: "Petro-VA vodenitza" or "Stoyan-OV
chiflik", but when you are talking about a non-human beings than you use -SKI
like: "furnadzhi-SKI kamen" "prilep-SKA nosiya" "ovchepol-SKO yagne" Using the
second type of endings on humans beings is grammatically incorrect and that is
the reason why it used to cover smaller population than the -OV and -EV
endings. (Please note, that even incorrect, people are free to use it, no doubt
about that, but they have the right to know it, as).
Also, Naumoski DOES NOT mean "of the family of Naum". Where do you get
those things, please? If you want to say of the family of Naum, you will use:
"na NaumOVoto semeistvo", "NaumOVata vodenitza" or "kai NaumOVite chiflitzi" or
the old type that is very common "kai dukianot na Naumovtzi", but NEVER EVER
one would say "kai dukianot na Naumoski"!
The old type of referring to the families in Macedonia was derived by
adding -TZI at the end of the family last names: TeoharovTZI, StrezovTZI,
FilevTZI, TatarchevTZI, DimovTZI, Pop-AntovTZI, etc.
Just one more comment regarding the statement that there is not many
documentation left in the local churches in Macedonia because of the wars. That
is partially true, since many church books were burned, and destroyed in other
ways, after 1944. The old church books, written in Church-Slavic, looked "too
bulgarian" and "decadent" for the new "peoples government", and were subject to
destruction, together with many other historical documents that could have
pointed to the past in different way than the officially desired one. The
concrete example of "Macedonian crystal nights" can be found in the villages
around Bitolya, like Tzapari.
>After the WWII, (maybe some years after that), it was changed so
>that the name was (should be): Vasil Todor Naumoski. But ofcourse you are
>not obligated (in Macedonia) to have certain endings of the names. I have
>a friend whose last name is different to that of his father, and to that of
>his son (who is 3 years old), but in Greece you are not free ie.
>it must have '-s' on the end (or maybe not?).
You WERE obligated in Socialist Republic of Macedonia after 1944 to have
certain endings of the names in order to get the benefits of the society.
(How many Communist Army officers were with non-SKI endings from Macedonia?)
Vasil Todorov Naumov is not confusing at all, since the middle name is always
the fathers name. That is not confusing for more numerous nations like
the 10 million Bulgarians, or several million Russians whose last names
end with -ich (Vladimir Ivanovich Kaganovich, or Ivan Petrovich Rostropovich).
so why should be confusing for 1+ million Macedonians?
And, how the hell, VASIL TODOROV NAUMOV is confusing while VASIL TODOR NAUMOSKI
is not? Is Vasil or Todor the first name, or maybe the person has two first
names (so common for the catholics)?
The reason why you are writing in Macedonia now VASIL TODOR NAUMOSKI is because
that is the serbian way of writing the fathers name without an extension! And
that was the politically allowed way to write the names in the SR Macedonia.
(note that even in Montenegro is used the -OV ending for the denomination of
the father's name in personal names: ex. Nikola Miljanov Vasovich, while that
was not the case in Serbia, where in some occasions in the past the russian way
was used: ex. Vuk Stefanovich Karadzhich)
Writing Vasil TodorOV Naumoski would have been "too much bulgarian" no
matter that it would have been less confusing.
Hence, Mr. Naumoski, do not try to find any logic, convenience or practical
reasoning for the name changes in Macedonia after 1944. The ONLY reason for
this changes was the POLITICAL one - and NO OTHER reasons existed!
>Some days ago, I asked a friend about that papyrus, and I hope he (they)
>will put it safe (There are names of people who built the old church in the
>village of my grandfather, ~150 years ago, and the endings are on "ski").
Are there names ending on -OSKI and -ESKI? I would LOVE to see that!
>> The names of the people taking part in the Ilinden uprising were
>>with the -ov and -ev endings in almost all the cases. Let me mention just
>>few examples:
>>
>Yes, it is true. But were those names their last names or their fathers'
>names? Why didn't you mention: Jane Sandanski, etc.
Those were their LAST names! Like in the case of your famous namesake
Georgi (Gotze) Nikolov Delchev, his father's name was Nikola (not Delche!).
The last name of Yane Sandanski belongs to group B and NOT C. That is the
reason why it is not interesting for this discussion. Had it been Sandanoski
it would have been VERY interesting!
(Believe me, I would have mention the name of Sandanski had that been
appropriate for the discussion, regardless of his socialist ideas and the
serious damage that he has done to the macedonian movement, mostly in 1908 with
his collaboration with the Young Turks).
The comments of Ms. Konecni were, in my opinion, very good, although I would
like to address them more closely if discussing the issues of the Macedonian
language sometimes in the future.
Regards,
Lou
APPENDIX
Few lines from the history of Macedonia that are relevant to this issue:
1. The names of the most prominent writers from Macedonia in the
last two centuries were mostly with -ov and -ev endings:
Konstantin Miladinov (Struga, born 1829), Dimitar Miladinov (Struga, 1810),
Raiko Zhinzifov (Veles), Yordan Hadzhi Konstantinov-Dzhinot (Veles), Grigor
Parlichev (Ohrid), Kuzman Shapkarev (Ohrid), Dimitar Matov (Veles, 1864), Naum
Sprostranov (Ohrid), Iosif Kovachev (Shtip), Arseni Kostentzev (Shtip), Georgi
Dinkov (Salonica), Georgi Gogov (Voden) etc.
2. As stated before, the names of almost all of the organizers and
partecipents of the Ilinden uprising in 1903 were with -ov and -ev
endings:
Gotze Delchev, Dame Gruev, Pere Toshev, Hristo Matov, Mishe Razvigorov, Todor
Aleksandrov, Boris Sarafov, Ivan Garvanov, Traiko Kitanchev, Todor Lazarov,
Lazar Traikov, Vassil Chakalarov, Pando Klyashev, Toma Davidov, Hristo
Tatarchev, Hristo Uzunov, Lazar Moskov, Slaveiko Arsov, Kolyo Rashaikov, Todor
Saev, Nikola Karandzhulov, Georgi Sugarev, Luka Ivanov, Metodi Patchev, Hristo
Chernopeev, Angel Sprostranov, Aleksandar Panov, Andrei Dimov, Alekso
Turundzhov, Angel Andreev, Atanas Karshakov, Aleksandar Stanoev, Alekso
Dzhorlev, Andrei Kazepov, Andon Zlatarev, Apostol Petkov, Atanas Lozanchev,
Argir Manasiev, Boris Drangov, Boris Sugarev, Vasil Popov, Vasil Diamandiev,
Velyo Markov, Vasil Monchev, Vladimir Slankov, Grigor Manasiev, Georgi
Korubinov, Georgi Churanov, Georgi Muchitanov, Gono Yanev, Georgi Nikov,
Georgi Kiosev, Georgi Peshkov, Grigor Popev, Deyan Dimitrov, Dimitar Gushtanov,
Dimitar Vladev, Dimche Tsvetanov, Dobri Daskalov, Dicho Andonov, Dimitar
Dalkalachev, Dimche Matliev, Dzole Gergev, Dime Fildishev, Ekaterina
Simitchieva, Efrem Miladinov, Efrem Chuchkov, Evtim Karanov, Ivan Naumov,
Ivan Dulev, Ivan Dukov, Ilyo Kotev, Ivan Tsonchev, Yordan Varnaliev, Ivan
Pop Kostadinov, Kuzo Dinov, Kosta Mazneikov, Kuzo Stefov, Krsto Asenov,
Konstantin Nunkov, Lazar Madzarov, Lecho Gioshev, Mirche Atzev, Milan Delchev,
Mitze Tzitzkov, Mihail Mladenov, Maksim Kostov, Mihail Daev, Nikola Kokarev,
Nikola Petrov, Nikola Ivanov, Nikola Andreev, Naum Petrov, Nikola Ivanov,
Petar Atzev, Pesho Radev, Petar Samardzhiev, Petar Yurukov,
Pandil Shishkov, Pavle Naumov, Pavel Hristov, Panayot Konstantinov, Petar
Nachev, Petar Pogonchev, Parashkev Tzvetkov, Psaltir Antonov, Petar Mihov,
Petar Hristov, Petar Vaskov, Sando Kitanov, Stefan Petkov, Stoyan Lekov,
Simeon Molerov, Spiro Kalemanov, Stefan Dimitrov, Spiro Dzherov, Stoyan
Lazov, Sofroni Stoyanov, Sava Mihailov, Stamat Georgiev, Stefan Malchankov,
Stefan Nikolov, Tane Stoychev, Todor Milev, Tase Milosov, Simeon Denkov,
Tarpena Dimitrova, Trendafil Dumbalakov, Tushe Deliivanov, Hristo Silyanov,
Hristo Dimitrov, Hristo Kuslev, Hristo Velyov, Hristo Sarakinov, Tzvetko
Panov ... etc.