what do names tell us about our former occupations-libre

Coll. Antropol. 28 Suppl. 1 (2004) 161–170UDC 811.163.42'373.232:81'373.237

Review

What Do Names Tell Us AboutOur Former Occupations?

Dunja Brozovi} Ron~evi}

Linguistic Research Institute, Croatian Academy of Arts and Sciences, Zagreb, Croatia

A B S T R A C T

The paper will analyze some linguistic, primarily onomastic evidence of still existentor extinct crafts and occupations within the framework of the former social structure.Many onetime crafts became extinct in the course of time, but traces of their former dif-fusion and importance can be reconstructed from their onomastic, primarily, anthro-ponomastic reflections. Similar surnames motivated by occupation can be found all acrossEurope. Some surname statistics in various European countries are given in the paper.

Key words: onomastics, anthroponymy, occupational surnames, Croatian surnames,crafts

Introduction

In many ways names express the iden-tity of a community. From a historicalperspective they bear witness to valuablenon-linguistic information on cultural,social, religious and other levels. So-cal-led occupational surnames represent anespecially interesting group of names foundall across Europe. Many former long for-gotten occupations and local crafts are ex-tinct, but the memory of their former im-portance is well preserved in onomasticevidence, mostly in surnames.

Originally, in the »pre-surname« peri-ods, names motivated by occupation usedto be a sort of nickname given to crafts-men in order to distinguish them among

other members of the local community.Today, when we view Croatia that groupof surnames covers about 10% of all fam-ily names1. Most of them originate fromthe period of the late Middle Ages, theage of a highly developed feudalism inwhich craftsmen settled at market placesand around medieval towns. At that timethey started to play an important rolewithin the framework of the feudal socialstructure. Since for centuries crafts andoccupations were mostly hereditary, agroup of family names motivated by themin most European countries developedand hence they represent one of the earli-est groups of hereditary surnames. It is

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Received for publication December 15, 2003

especially true for the period after theCouncil of Trent (1545–1563) when themajority of family names obtained an offi-cial status and gradually, throughout the16th and 17th century, became not only he-reditary but also an obligatory part of thenaming formula2.

The Development of MedievalCrafts

In most of Europe, crafts graduallyemerged by the end of the 10th and at thebeginning of the 11th century, a time inwhich medieval towns developed into cen-ters of trade and manufacturing. Fromthe 11th to the 14th century, the urban set-tlements were in a constant rise allacross Europe. That situation was some-what changed due to an economic and de-mographic depression in the 14th century,but already by the middle of the 15th cen-tury many urban settlements were offi-cially given a kind of an urban epithetand that represented the culmination pe-riod of medieval crafts. However, the Ot-toman army invasion in the 16th century,and the Turkish conquest of the large por-tions of the South-Eastern Europe andHungary, brought depression and stagna-tion of many former urban settlements.Well-established trade routes were sus-pended which in turn meant in manytowns a downfall in production for crafts-men. There were, however, European cit-ies in which the crafts were kept from de-cay almost in the continuity from the lateAntiquity until the present. This refersmostly to Italy, but also to some of theDalmatian cities that were under Byzan-tine and later Venetian rule.

The situation was, of course, quite dif-ferent in the rural communities wherethe local population was for the most part

able to produce its own goods. In most vil-lages, until the end of the 19th century,crafts often used to be just a complemen-tary seasonal activity in periods in whichthe farmers were not fully involved infarming, or cattle breeding. From the 19th

century onwards, in rural areas crafts-men gradually differentiated from farm-ers. Still, the market was too small to ini-tiate the growth of manufactures, andcraftsmen mostly traded within their ownregions. In spite of their undefined sta-tus, or better, as a result of that status,many of those »seasonal craftsmen« ob-tained nicknames that later became sur-names, that differentiated them withintheir communities. It should be noted thatin the 18th and 19th centuries, the differ-entiation of craftsmen in rural environ-ments had a somewhat negative conno-tation3. Those were the people that be-came craftsmen not because of their skillsbut out of necessity since they had losttheir land. They were often treated withcontempt within their communities andthe nicknames motivated by crafts weresomewhat pejorative.

Many craftsmen came to Croatia aboutthe 13th century. In the northern part ofCroatia, king Bela the Fourth (1235–1270) invited them to »his« territory asso-called »hospites«. Many of them wereof foreign, often German origin* and mostmedieval towns very soon became partlycosmopolitan settlements. Shortly after-wards craftsmen started to form marketdistricts within the cities and organizethemselves into brotherhoods on an eth-nic or occupational basis. However, itseems that the first brotherhoods weremore religious and social organizations.In Zagreb »the Croatian Brotherhood« ismentioned in historical records of 1355,»German« in 1357, and »Latin« in 13844.

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* Many German craftsmen stayed in Croatia for centuries, and only at the beginning of the 20th century theirnumber rapidly declined.

At that time the term Latin was mostlyreferred to Italian builders, such as sto-ne-carvers from Florence who came toZagreb to build the cathedral. A memoryof that ethnic group is preserved in thename of one of the major Zagreb streets,Vla{ka ulica, as well as in the name La{-~ina that used to be a village where theItalians had their properties. Germans,on the other hand were often shoe-mak-ers so the district they settled was knownas »German« or [o{tarska ves (Shoema-kers Lane). In later periods, when thecraftsmen suburban settlements becameintegrated districts of the cities, a mem-ory of their former importance is often, tothe present day, preserved in numerousstreet or district names that were namedafter them. Thus we find, for example inthe Croatian capital Zagreb, street nameslike Koàrska (koàr 'leather-worker'),Lon~arska (lon~ar 'potter'), Mesni~ka(mesar 'butcher'), Mlinarska (mlinar 'mil-ler'), [o{tarska ({o{tar 'shoe-maker' �

Germ.), [loserska ({loser 'lock-smith' �

Germ.), Zvonarni~ka (zvonar 'bell-maker'used in the sense of bell workshop) and soon. In Rijeka we had Uàrska (uàr'rope-maker'), in Dubrovnik Crevljarska(crevljar 'shoe-maker'), Zlatarska (zlatar'goldsmith'), in Zadar Kova~ka (kova~'blacksmith') etc. Since those names, thatdate back hundreds of years, very explic-itly bear witness to a historical develop-ment of medieval towns, and representan important part of their history, theyshould not be renamed as they unfortu-nately often are.

In the 15th century craftsmen began toform guilds, occupational associationswith the same or similar crafts that func-tioned as sort of medieval unions. Due tothe fact the guilds had to be authorized

by the responsible municipal authorities,or by the ruler, Croatian historical re-cords give us valuable information on theimportance of certain crafts and the orderin which they were established, untiltheir abolishment in 1872. According tohistorical records in the Zagreb regionthere were 28 guilds, most of them con-centrated in Gradec*, although the num-ber of various crafts that were present inthe Croatian capital from the 13th to the19th century certainly surpasses thatnumber. In the 15th century Gradec regis-tered 38 different crafts, while the histor-ical records of Vienna from 1454, that atthe time had about 20,000 inhabitants,list 68 different crafts that were orga-nized within 55 guilds. The number ofcraftsmen is of course proportionally re-lated to the level of the urban develop-ment of a certain town.

The situation in Zagreb5 mostly corre-sponds to the situation in other northCroatian towns. For example, accordingto a number of registered craftsmen inVara`din, the most numerous were but-chers, then came blacksmiths, shoe-mak-ers, tailors, small shop-keepers, millers,salt-producers or salt traders, weavers,bathers, goldsmiths, joiners, bow-makers,armoires, strap-makers, furriers, carpen-ters, organ makers, gun-smiths, stone-carvers, barbers, vessel makers, cartwrights, etc.6

The southern, coastal part of Croatiawas in general, economically more pros-perous then the north. The indigenousRomance population of Dalmatian townswas mostly assimilated before the coastalterritory came under the political and ad-ministrative influence of Venice. TheCroats, who originally lived outside thecity walls gradually entered the cities

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* The capital of Croatia that was until 1860 divided into Gradec (the royal free city on basis of a chartergranted in 1242 by King Bela IV), the capitular part of the town called Kaptol, and the Vlaška district thatwas under the Bishop's jurisdiction.

and started to participate in the urbaneconomic life. Craftsmen in Dalmatiantowns were usually organized in brother-hoods before those in the north of Croa-tia7. They were able to develop some tech-nologically more demanding productionas shipbuilding, shipping-trade, salt pro-ducing etc. Medieval Dubrovnik was wellknown for its production of very fine cloths,weavers and dyers (tinctoria)8.

What can be said about crafts all overCroatia is that they were mostly orientedto small, closed communities. For mosttowns it seems there were too manycraftsmen of the same branch, and inmost cases they did not produce goods fortrade outside their own town. In such asituation there was hardly any need fortechnical improvements. Furthermore,the Turkish invasion in the 16th century,and Ottoman plundering all across Cro-atia, had a devastating impact on a stillvery feeble economic production and inmany territories caused almost a com-plete manufacturing breakdown.

The Diffusion of OccupationalSurnames Motivated by VariousCrafts

From the number of people bearing oc-cupational surnames one can speculateover the diffusion of certain crafts andthus to a certain degree reconstruct theformer social structure of late mediaevaltowns. Furthermore, the anthroponymicdata also show us what was the ethnic or-igin of people bearing those surnames.Specifically, the analysis of foreign ele-ments in occupational surnames clearlyindicates which ethnic communities weremostly involved in certain crafts and oc-cupations in Croatia. Moreover, from the

surname geographical distribution wecan obtain very useful information for thestudy of migrations from a historical per-spective.

Since it is not possible to list all sur-names motivated by crafts on this occa-sion, I shall single out the most indica-tive, or the most numerous ones, accor-ding to the frequency list of all Croatiansurnames.

It is not surprising that among all oc-cupational surnames* in Croatia, the farmost wide-spread are those derived fromMETAL WORKERS, like the word kova~ 'black-smith', since from the time of the first his-torical records we know that almost eachsettlement had to have a blacksmith. Ac-cording to the surname statistics it seamsthat blacksmiths were mostly Croatssince the highest ranking are Kova~evi}(2), Kova~i} (6) and Kova~ (12) while [mit(�Germ.) is only on the 849th position.Other metal workers are not that numer-ous. Among spuriers and locksmiths

most common are [poljari} (93) and [po-ljar (252), both from {poljar (� Germ.Sporer, also 'locksmith'), while CroatianStrugar 'spurier' is listed at the 1778th po-sition and Bravar 'locksmith' at the 6160th.Tinmen were of Turkish: Kalajdì}(2313), Kalajì}, Kalaj � kalajdìja (Tur.kalayci), or German Klanfar (3690) (�Germ. Klampner) origin. It seems thatgoldsmiths were mostly Muslims sinceKujundì} is listed 721 and Kulundì}(2915) � kujundìja while from the Cro-atian term zlatar we list only Zlatar(1422) and Zlatari} (4079).

WOOD WORKERS' crafts terminology iswithout doubt mostly German. The mostnumerous are sawyers @agar (237) �

Germ. Säger, then joiners Ti{ljar (1259),

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* For each of the listed family names the rank of surname at a national list (according to the 1991 census) isgiven in the parenthesis since it is very important for the study of the diffusion of certain late mediaevalcrafts9. For the help in statistical elaboration I thank my brother, Hrvoje Brozoviæ.

Ti{ljari} (4483), Ti{ljarec (8015) � Germ.Tischler and carpenters Cimerman(3487) � Germ. Zimmerman. Croatianterms pilar, tesar, stolar are poorly repre-sented in surnames except for the sur-name Tesla (2323), as well as those de-rived from Ital. marangun (Marangon,Marangoni, Maranguni}). According tosurname statistics turners were not thatnumerous. Less then hundred peoplehave names such as [iftar, [iptar derivedfrom the term {iftar � Germ. Schifter.Much better represented were cart-

wrights and it seems that this occupa-tion was mostly reserved for the Croatssince Kolar (80), Kolari} (99), Kolarek(1941), Kolarevi} (2240) derived fromkolar are positioned fairly high amongCroatian surnames. Less represented areKolesar (2851) and Kolesari} (7879) fromthe synonimous term kolesar. Those ofHungarian Bognar (2703) � bognár, Ger-man Vagner (4032) � Wagner or Turkishorigin (Rabadìja, Raba|ija � arabac�)are even less frequent.

Since they were needed in eachHOUSE-HOLD potters were very numer-ous according to the Croatian surnamestatistics: Lon~ar (25), Lon~ari} (98) Lon-~arevi} (278) � lon~ar are of the Croatianorigin, while from geren~ar (� Hung. gö-röncsér � Slav.) Geren~ir is listed only at5390th position. It seems that the othervessel-makers were also mostly Croats:Sudar (491), Sudari} (3892), Sudarevi}(4055) � sudar, Stupar (743), Stupari}(3433) � stupar and Zdjelar (1493). Thesame can be noticed for tub-makers

Kablar (2813), trough-makers Koritarand kattle-makers Kotlar (4052), veryfew names Kazandìja, Kazandì} � Tur.etc. Regarding other craftsmen thatsupplied house-holds, we can single outas the most numerous the riddle-mak-

ers Re{etar (535), sieve-makers Sitar(1179) and much less common basket-

makers Ko{ara~, Korpar (1170), Korbar(3454) and Logoàr (3480) � rogoàr.

Worth mentioning are also soap-boilers

Sapunar (6626) and rope-makers Uà-revi} (2569) � uàr, while surnames suchas [trangar, [tranjgar etc. derived fromthe term {trangar of German origin arevery rare. On the contrary, very numer-ous are surnames representing coopers,

who were either mostly Germans or usingGerman terminology: Pintari} (105), Pin-tar (302), Pinter (2130) � Germ. �Fa��-binder, while the Croatian Ba~var hasonly 29 name bearers. Somewhat morecommon are names derived from the termbuter � Ital. bottaio, such as Buterin,Butijer, Butjer.

It seems that leather workers were ofvarious origin. The most numerous werefurriers, mostly Croats Krznari} (266),Krznar (570), Krznarevi} (7950) � krz-nar, but also we register some less com-mon surnames such as ûr~i}, ûr~ija �

~ur~ija (Tur. kürkçü) and Pelicari} � pe-licar (Ital. pellicciaio). Generic terms forleather-workers are not common in sur-names, for example Koàr (2453), Koàri}(5857), Koùhar, [tavli} of Croatian, Le-der, Lederer of Germ. and Sagradìja (�sa�r�c�) of Turkish origin. Here we shouldalso mention strap-makers Remenar(1929), Sara~, Sara~evi} (� Tur. saraç)and harness-makers such as Vuzdar,Vuzdari} � uzdar. Far more numerouswere saddlers. We register surnames de-rived from the Croatian sedlar: Sedlar(573) and from samardìja of Turkish ori-gin: Samardì} (317), Samardìja (333),Samarìja (1008).

Craftsmen involved in CLOTHING werealso of various origin. Weavers were mostoften Croats whose surnames are derivedfrom the term tkalac: Tkalec (329), Tkal-~ec (683), Tkal~evi} (1124), Tkal~i} (1339),Tkalac (4230) and through Hung. media-tion (� takács) Taka~ (845) or rarely Ger-mans: Weber, Veber. Although tailor's

terminology is to a large extent of Ger-man origin, and we register many varia-tions of Croatian surnames derived from

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{najder (� Germ. Schneider), they arenot as numerous as those of Croatian,Hungarian or even Turkish origin. Thehighest ranking from those derived of{najder are [najder (1366), @nidari} (2005),@nidarec, [najdar, @nidar, @najder etc.The most numerous are those derivedfrom Hung. szabó, such as Sabo (262),Saboli} (404), Sabol (613) then Sabolovi},Sabolek, Sabol~ec etc. Turkish term ter-zija (� terz�) is recorded in the surnameTerzi} ranking at the 351st position, whilesurname Sartori of Italian origin has only26 name bearers. The Croatian Kraja~i}� kroja~ 'tailor' ranks only at the 422nd

position, and much less frequent are Kra-ja~, Kraja~ec etc. It seems that shoe-

makers were mostly Germans since notonly the terminology is German but alsoa vast majority of surnames are derivedfrom the term {uster (� Germ. Schuster).The highest ranking are [o{tari} (136),[o{tar (1326) then [o{tarko, [o{tarec,[uster, [ostari} etc. However, here we en-counter a similar situation as with tailors.Although we do not find Hung. varga'shoe-maker' as an appellative in stan-dard Croatian, surnames derived from itare very numerous: Varga (85), Vargovi},Vargek, Vargi} etc. Much less frequentare surnames Kaligari, Kaligari}, Kali-garis, Kaliger derived from kaliger (�Venet. caligher, Furl. Caligaris), while ac-cording to surnames îzmar, îzmadija,îzmarevi} etc. it seems the Turks weremostly making boot for the army. Cro-atian terms cipelar, postolar etc. are notreflected in surnames. We register onlyrarely wide-spread surnames like Opan-~ar � opanak 'traditional shoe from moun-tanous regios', then êvljakovi}, Dretar.

However, it seems that Croats werethe only hatters since the family nameKlobu~ar ranked at the 267th position, fol-lowed by Klobu~ari}. According to sur-name statistics button-makers were notthat common. The only rare surnames

Gumbas, Gombar, Gombovi} etc. are de-rived from Hung. gomb.

Language Contacts Accordingto Occupational Surnames

Throughout the centuries, due to itsgeographical position, Croatia has longbeen a borderland between different cul-tural, religious and political influences inthis part of southeastern Europe. Sincethe Croatian territory has been very ac-tive with respect to migrations, variousethno-linguistic contacts are clearly re-flected in onomastics, both in place- andproper names. The level of phonologicalor orthographical adaptation of thoseloanwords of Romance, Turkish, Germanor Hungarian origin often bears witnessto the period in which they were formed,and thus represents important linguisticdata for the history of the Croatian lan-guage and the study of language contacts.

Over the centuries the Croatian lan-guage received considerable lexical influ-ences from different non-Slavic langua-ges. Many of them are no longer pro-ductive in Standard Croatian but theywere onomastically productive at thetime when Croatian family names wereestablished. The present-day distributionof surnames based on loanwords mostlycorresponds to the historical dominationof various languages in different parts ofCroatia.

The most numerous non-Slavic ono-mastic layer in Croatia is that of Ro-mance origin, but it is mostly restricted toa coastal region and mostly to place-na-mes. In the northern part of Croatia Ger-man and Hungarian made a considerableinflux to Croatian anthroponymy, whilein the hinterlands, and in Slavonia wefind a large number of surnames of Turk-ish origin.

In some Dalmatian towns the firstCroatian surnames were recorded asearly as the 12th century, and thus made

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the Croats the first of all Slavic peoples toadopt family names as a hereditary partof anthroponymic name formula. Al-though the influence of Venice was espe-cially prominent and aggressive in theso-called cultural lexicon, for the reasonthat surnames became hereditary veryearly along the coast, loanwords of Ital-ian origin that refer to various occupa-tions are not as represented in Croatiansurnames as, for instance, German andHungarian ones in the North, or Turkishones in central Croatia and Slavonia.Among surnames of Romance origin Ishall single out just one maritime occupa-tion of shipbuilders (Kalafat, Kalafati},Kalafatovi} � kalafat) and fairly numer-ous barbers (Barbir � barbir).

In the northern part of Croatia theGerman language had a huge impact onthe cultural lexis of the Croatian lan-guage, especially on crafts terminology.As the Germans, or more precisely theAustrians were known as skilled crafts-men, a lot of German words from that se-mantic field have entered the Croatiananthroponymic system, and are often re-flected in occupationally motivated sur-names. According to surname statistics,Germans were very often shoe-makers({uster) and tailors ({najder), locksmithsand spurriers ({porer), tinmen (klanfar)and coopers (pintar), sawyers (àgar),carpenters (cimerman), joiners (ti{ljar)and turners ({ifter). Many of them werealso rope-makers ({trangar), glaziers(glaàr) and bakers (fi{ter).

Eight centuries of political union ofCroatia and Hungary, as well as the longnorthern border, left a permanent tracein onomastics, especially in anthropony-my10. Occupational surnames of Hungar-ian origin are usually derived from Hun-garian stems, but often formed with Sla-vic suffixes. Except for those direct Hun-garian loan-words, Croatian anthropony-my also contains many originally Ger-man or Turkish words that were adopted

through Hungarian mediation. Althoughsome of presented surnames are very nu-merous they are certainly less diversethen those of German origin. According tothe diffusion of occupational surnames itseams that the Hungarians in Croatiawere very often tailors (szabó) and shoe-makers (varga).

Occupational anthroponymy of Turk-ish origin clearly reflects the type of mili-tary rule that was imposed by force.Countless different terms for soldiers,commanders of different ranks, militaryauthorities, camps and military equip-ment, all kinds of fire and side arms, cut-ting, stabbing and slashing weapons canbe recognized from numerous Croatiansurnames of Turkish origin. Except forthose, there are many surnames that tes-tify how manufacture and maintenanceof military equipment and Turkish cav-alry was economically very propulsive,especially in the regions of Slavonia, theDalmatian hinterlands and Lika, theparts of Croatia that were for centuriesunder the Ottoman occupation. Very nu-merous were saddlers (samardìja), tai-lors (terzija), goldsmiths (kujundìja) andbootmakers (~izmar, ~izmedìja). Termsfor other craftsmen such as ~ebedìja 'onewho makes blankets', }ur~ija 'furrier'dàmdìja 'glazier', kalajdìja 'tinman',kazandìja 'kettle-maker', rabadìja'cartwright' and so on, are only rarelyfound in Croatian surnames and they aremuch better attested in Bosnia.

From the given examples it is evidentthat most surnames of foreign origin arewell adapted to the Croatian phonologicalsystem, although the foreign origin canoften be recognized by the name suffix,for instance those of German origin usu-ally end in -er, the Turkish ones in -dìjaetc.

Some occupations were traditionallyrelated to certain ethnic groups. Further-more, there are quite a few ethnonymsthat have undergone certain semantic

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shifts, and gradually became commonnouns referring to a certain occupation.Many surnames were formed this way.For example, in regions under the Aus-trian rule German was the official lan-guage, and officials from German-speak-ing countries, primarily from the provin-ces of Styria and Carniola, were usuallyemployed as clerks. In northern Croatiathe ethnonym Kranjac became a syno-nym for 'clerk, office-worker', and thusmotivated many family names as Kra-njec. Cincar was originaly an ethnic namefor Macedonian Rumanians. Since Cin-cars were mostly travelling merchants,the ethnonym Cincar became an occupa-tional term for 'merchant, miser', cinca-rija 'trash', and cincariti 'to split hairs; betight-fisted'. Croatian family names suchas Cincar, Cincari}, should probably beinterpreted in the light of those mean-ings.

In conclusion, although surnames offoreign origin in many cases bear witnessto the ethnic origin of their primary bear-ers, that assumption should by no meansbe generalized. In the late Middle Ages,many individuals were given surnames offoreign origin according to their occupa-tional, military or social status at the mo-ment of naming, and regardless of theiractual ethnicity. Today, many peoplebearing these names have no idea of theiroriginal meaning, and they should not beautomatically identified with German,Italian, Hungarian or Turkish ethnic ori-gin.

Comparison with Some SurnameStatistics in Other EuropeanCountries

The ranking list of 20 the most fre-quent surnames* in various European

countries clearly shows different tradi-tion in naming patterns. In general,Germanic countries show the dominanceof occupational surnames. It is especiallytrue for Germany itself where the firstranking in the surname is Müller 'miller'then Schmidt (2), Schneider 'tailor' (3),Fischer 'fisherman' (4), Meyer 'estate ste-ward' (5), Weber 'weaver (6), Becker 'ba-ker (7), Wagner 'wagon-maker' (8), Schä-fer 'shepherd (9), Schulz 'village repre-sentative' (10), Hoffman 'regional admin-istrator' (11), Bauer 'farmer' (12), Koch'cook' (13), Klein 'small' (14), Schröder'tailor' (15), Schmitz 'blacksmith' (16),Schmitt 'blacksmith' (17), Schwarz 'black'(18), Wolf 'wolf (19), Meier 'estate steward(20), Neumann 'new-settler' (21), Schmid'blacksmith' (22), Braun 'brown' (23),Zimmerman 'carpanter' (24) etc. In Eng-land the first ranking of occupational sur-names is Smith, then Taylor (5), Clark(14), Baker (15), Wright (16) and Thurner(20). The others are mostly patronymicslike Jones (2), Williams (4), Harris (7),Wilson (8), Johnson (9), Martin (10), Da-vies (12) Davis (17), Evans (18), Thomas(19) or nicknames like Brown (3), White(6), King (11), Green (13). In Scandinavia,however, almost all first ranking surna-mes are patronymic for the reason thatfamily names just recently became oblig-atory and hereditary in those countries(and can be easily still changed).

For completely different reason, patro-nymics presents the vast majority of firstranking surnames in most Mediterra-nean countries, although this part of theworld was the first to introduce familynames as the obligatory and hereditarypart of naming formula. For example,among the first 20 surnames in France,the highest ranking of occupational sur-names is Lefebvre 'blacksmith' on the 15th

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* Some surname statistics in different European countries were given by many contributors and gathered byEnzo Caffarelli (1998)11. The number in parenthesis is the rank of a surname at the national level.

position and then Fournier 'baker' at the19th. The most numerous, however, arepatronymics like Martin (1), Bernard (2),Thomas (3) etc. and surnames of nick-name origin like Petit 'small' (4), Moreau'dark' (7), Leroy 'king' (13), Roux 'reddish'(16) etc.

In Italy*, which is of course much morerelevant for interpreting Croatian data,the best ranking of all occupational sur-names at the national level are those de-rived from a term meaning 'blacksmith'such as Ferrari (3), Fabbri (46), Ferraro(56), Ferrero (205), Ferrario (324) and Fa-bris (480) then Barbieri 'barber' (21), Sar-tori 'tailor' (120), Molinari 'müller' (128),Pastore 'shepherd' (156), Magnani (163)'smith', Vaccaro 'cowherd' (277), Carraro'cartwright' (333), Massaro (340) andMassari (495) 'peasant', Cavaliere 'horse-man' (384), Sarti 'tailor' (535) and so on.

In Hungary, where surnames becamestable as late as the 18th century, we findhighly ranked ethnonymic names (namesbased on ethnic or territorial origin) suchas the first ranking Tót(h) meaning Slo-vak or any Slav, then Horvát(h) 'Croat'(4), Német(h) 'German' (13), Török 'Turk'(16), Rác(z) 'Serb' (23). Occupational sur-names are also quite wide-spread, andthe most numerous is the 3rd rankingKovács(-ts) 'blacksmith' of Slavic origin,then Szabó 'tailor' (5), Varga'shoemaker'(6), Molnár 'miller' (7), Szücs 'furrier' (10)then Pap(p) 'priest' (12), Takács 'weaver'(14), Mészáros 'butcher' (17) all of Slavicorigin, followed by Juhász 'shepherder'(21), Csizmadia 'boot-maker' (22) and soon. The other surnames are originallynicknames like Nagy 'big' (2), Kis(s)'small' (8), Balog(h) 'left-handed' (11), Ve-res(s) 'red, reddish' (15) or patronymics.

If we compare some surname statis-tics in various European countries weshould not be surprised by the fact thatfirst ranking in most European countriesare of course surnames derived fromterms for the blacksmith. In Croatia, fewvariants of surnames derived from anappellative kova~ 'blacksmith' all toge-ther make it the most common Croatiansurname by far (the first ranking is eth-nonymic surname Horvat). A similar situ-ation can be noted among all Slavic peo-ples. In Russia it is Kuznjecov � kuznjec,(only in Moskow there are almost 100,000people bearing that name), in Czech R.Kovár, Poland Kowalczyc, Spain Herrera,Italy Ferraro, France Ferris, in GermanySchmidt, in England and USA Smith andso on.

Conclusion

Statistics on the diffusion of certainsurnames motivated by crafts and occu-pations often presents a valuable testi-mony on the everyday life of a certain his-torical period. For example, according toa number of registered butchers, whowere almost exclusively Croats, it seemsthat in many medieval towns people usedto eat a lot of meat. But even in medievaltimes eating habits varied in different re-gions. Thus, in a north Croatian townVara`din, that in the 15th century used tohave about 2500 inhabitants, there were24 registered butchers, while in the Dal-matian town of Zadar, that at the sametime had about 8000 inhabitants, we haveonly 8 butchers. They were, presumably,already at that time practicing healthy,fish oriented Mediterranean cooking. Ofcourse, it may partly be due to a re-stricted number for various professionsthat was imposed by the municipal au-

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* For more detailed statistics on Italian surnames I owe thanks to Enzo Caffarelli, editor-in-chief of RivistaItaliana di Onomastica.

thorities, but the distribution of sur-names motivated by that occupation con-firms that almost all family names areregistered in the northern part of thecountry.

Another example. According to num-ber of surnames derived from a Hungar-ian szabó 'tailor', it is obvious that in thelate Middle Ages that craft was largelyreserved for the Hungarians, or peoplewho came from a territory under Hungar-ian rule. [najder, a German loanword

that is even today very common for a tai-lor, especially in northern Croatia is notthat present in surnames, while the Ital-ian tailors were non-existent at that ti-me. As we see, quite a different situationfrom the present one.

In conclusion, the purpose of this pa-per was not to present an overall study ofoccupational names in Croatia, but toshow one of the many ways linguists andanthropologists can use extensive ono-mastic data.

R E F E R E N C E S

1. SEKERE[, S., Zbornik za filologiju i lingvisti-ku 29 (1986) 139. — 2. [IMUNOVI], P.: Hrvatskaprezimena. (Golden marketing, Zagreb, 1995). — 3.BI]ANI], R.: Doba manufakture u Hrvatskoj i Sla-voniji 1750–1860. (JAZU, Zagreb, 1951). — 4. [ER-CAR, M.: Stari zagreba~ki obrti. (Povijesni muzej Hr-vatske, Zagreb, 1991). — 5. KRIVO[I], S.: Zagreb injegovo stanovni{tvo od najstarijih vremena do sredi-ne XIX stolje}a. (JAZU, Zagreb, 1981). — 6. BUDAK,N.: Gradovi vara`dinske ùpanije u srednjem vijeku.(Dr. Feletar, Zagreb-Koprivnica, 1994). — 7. RAU-KAR, T. I. PETRICIOLI, F. [VELEC, [. PERIÎ]:

Zadar pod mleta~kom upravom. (Narodni list – Filo-zofski fakultet, Zadar, 1987). —8. LUÎ], J.: Obrti iusluge u Dubrovniku do po~etka XIV stolje}a. (Sve-u~ili{te u Zagrebu i Institut za hrvatski jezik, Zagreb,1979). — 9. ANI], V., D. BROZOVI]-RONÊVI],LJ. CIKOTA, I. GOLDSTEIN, S. GOLDSTEIN, LJ.JOJI], R. MATASOVI], I. PRANJKOVI]: Hrvatskienciklopedijski rje~nik. (Novi liber, Zagreb, 2002). —10. FRANÎ], A., Folia onomastica Croatica 2 (1993)67. — 11.CAFFARELLI, E., Rivista Italiana di Ono-mastica 4 (1998) 285.

D. Brozovi} Ron~evi}

Linguistic Research Institute, Croatian Academy of Arts and Sciences, Ante Kova~i}a 5,10000 Zagreb, Croatiae-mail: [email protected]

[TO NAM GOVORE IMENA O NA[IM NEKADA[NJIM ZANIMANJIMA?

S A @ E T A K

U ~lanku se obra|uje sloj hrvatskih prezimena motiviranih obrtnim zanimanjimate se na temelju jezi~nih, u prvome redu onomasti~kih podataka analizira dru{tveno ijezi~no okru`je unutar kojega su takva prezimena nastajala. Mnogi od neko} vrlo ras-prostranjenih obrta u dana{nje su doba gotovo izumrli, no tragovi njihove negda{njerasprostranjenosti i va`nosti bjelodano se ogledaju u hrvatskoj antroponimiji, prven-stveno u prezimenskome korpusu. Prezimena motivirana zanimanjima nalazimo u go-tovo svim europskim antroponimijskim sustavima te se u ~lanku saèto navode nekistatisti~ki podaci o njihovoj rasprostranjenosti.

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what do names tell us about our former occupations-libre

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