Serbian surnames were most often created by the name of father, there are many which are related to the person vocation, personal characteristics, place of origin, the tribe from which they originate.
Depending from which part of Serbian ethnic territory they originate, surnames among Serbs became fixed mostly in 18th and 19th century. By that time, several phases had passed. Firstly, there was no fixed surnames, and instead of that, it was widespread to add the name of the tribe to the name. Later, they began using the so-called, patronymics, derivations from the names of their fathers - from Petar become Petrovići, from Nikola Nikolići, from Jovan Jovanovići...
It is little known that prince Miloš Obrenović was actually born as Miloš Teodorović, and that in 1810 he decided to take the name of his grandfather Obren.
At that time, numerous other surnames are being made according to the following principles:
1. By the name of father - most often
2. By the name tribe - Vasojević, Drobnjak ...
3. By the title - Popovic (from priest), Kapetanovic (from captain) ...
4. By the profession - Kovačević (from blacksmith), Majstorović (from master) ...
5. By features - Mudrinić (from wise), Bjeloglav (from white-headed) ...
6. By the place of origin, homeland - Glamočanin (from Glamoč), Ličanin (from Lika) ...
7. By nickname (ger. spitzname) - Surla (proboscis), Zatezalo (one who's tightening)
8. By the foreign words - Tintor (painter, roman origin), Bomeštar (builder, german origin) ...
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