Hi Peter and welcome to Rodoslovlje:)

If you are searching for possible connection with Serbian surnames then you need to know that  among Serbs, the -KO ending suffix  would indicate a nickname or a first name of a man *from Morava*, and the surname formation ending -VIĆ  would have been added to that. I can only tell you that I have located no MORAVKOVIĆ surname in Serbia / among ethnic Serbs in other countries, and that I have found MORAVKO used as valid first name.

You can only trace and document a connection if you have a migration of an individual or a group documented in historical sources - were there any troup movements or battles of the regiments with Military Frontier Serbs,  or migrations of ethnic Serbs to the area?

Also as general pointers I wrote this for surnames of people from eastern Europe / Slavic origin:

Things to be confirmed before you can research etymology of a surname:

1. original spelling of the surname in the native language of your ancestors

2. original spelling of the surname for the period when your ancestors were born in their place of origin  ( this will in many cases differ from 1. due to foreign languages that were used as official language)

3. ethnic and religious affiliation of your ancestors

then you can proceed to

4. trace the family within the vital and other records in the community of origin for as far back as they exist

5. trace the  surname/family/clan/community through earlier migrations and origin in historical sources

It is always a nice chapter of family and surname history to document all places around the globe where it is found.
 

Surnames that are same or similar in Eastern Europe:

-can be the consequence of pan-Slavic root word from which they were created and similar formation patterns :

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:List_of_Proto-Slavic_nouns/Animals

-common foreign language of origin of the root word:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Greek

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loanword#Loanword_transmission_in_the_Ottoman_Empire

- documented migrations :

http://republic-of-macedonia.jimdo.com/macedonian_polk_in_ukraine.php

-sheer coincidence:

http://www.zompist.com/chance.htm
 

Consider all of the above possibilities before connecting two same/similar surnames in two localities/among different ethnic groups.

Here is a scientific article about migrations and historical presence of ethnic Serbs in Ukraine ( available in Serbian language only) that you may find interesting :

http://www.rastko.rs/antropologija/ljcerovic_srbi_ukr.html

and one on Serbs in Slovakia ( Srbi u Slovačkoj) by the same author :

http://www.rastko.rs/antropologija/ljcerovic_srbi_slv.html

According to the historical documents, first know community of Serbs in Slovakia was recorded in 1511. when the seal of the Serbian Church district was registered in Komarno. It had around 8000 Serbs living in it at the time. You may want to contact the minority ethnic Serbian council in Slovakia as they will be able to direct you in your researches best if you believe your ancestors may have that origin.

Thanks for the reply.

I've done some research on the population movements prior to 1715 that would have included a Serb contingent. These are:

1. Ottoman occupation to 1686, primarily the viyalet surrounding Erszekujvar. The Turkish army woud have had Serb soldiers and multi-ethnic support groups.

2. Thokoly's Kuruc army that disbanded nearby - same time period - around 1686-1690

3. Rakoczi's revolutionary anti-Hapsburg armies to 1712.

Both Thokoly and Rakoczi would of had popularist armies sourced from all over the South of old Hungary. All are possibilities.

I too was thinking that a double diminuative ~KO + VICH is unusual. It is interesting to see that MORAVKO was used a first name.

The other alternative is that MORAVKO from Moravia (not Serb Morava) may have travelled south and named MORAVKOVICH. In 1664 the Turkish tax records (defters) showed that patrimony (named after the father) was common and could be the reason for the VICH ending.

Peter

actually Ottomans  did not record at all the surnames of Slavic population - it was a deliberate way of belitteling -  and the records I worked on which were Ottoman censuses of Serbian population  only listed first name of the person and first name of the father as a *surname*.

So not the full patronimic form with -ich suffix and not the actual family or clan surname at all.

I would be interested in your sources for that. The only source I can find that is relevant and not in Ottoman script (Arabic) is Blaskovics* who did an exhaustive study on Estergon and ErszekUjvar eyalets from defter records over a 20 year period.

He sounded out the Ottoman versions of the recorded names phonetically and transcribed them into Magyar and Slovak/Rusyn cognates to list the original names as they were pronounced to the local tax collectors (1664).

His theory was that the patronym names - eg (weaver) "TAKACS Janos, son Adam" or "TAKACS Janos, brother Mihal" was kept in Ottoman transcriptions. Even if Mihal was not a Takacs, he was recorded as a Takacs and thus the whole family was known by this name. This only lasted 1 or 2 generations, probably until the liberation of these vars in 1686.

Sometimes the family name as an occupation or status was added to the first name - so PAP Istvan, DEAK Daniel, BIRO Andras etc.

Racial names - Tot, Horvat, Bosnyak, Rusznyak, Hucul (Ukraine), Kun~Kumanko~Kumansky (Czigany-Gypsy) were also given to individuals by them.

Double names were also given to distinguish individuals: Deaki-Szabo Janos, Orosi-Radics Andreji etc.

Nicknames were given as well.

Why? Well the Roman Catholic Council of Trent in 1560 tried to formalize Marriages and Births by decreeing that witnesses be present at these sacraments and that the full name (first and last) be given to parents, bride and groom. This became common church law in all confessions (GK, Evangelical and Eastern~ Orthodox). The Ottomans apparently were faced with the problem of differentiating individuals. If the tax recorder did not understand the name(s) ~ they did not understand the naming conventions or the order of names~ then they were given a name of some description.

It is very confusing as apparently many of the Ottoman namings did not survive and many family individuals reverted back to their own chosen names, or names were swapped - first names and family names were confused.

Knowing this, at least in the northern parts of the Ottoman Empire, I cannot see that the Ottomans belittled any one race over the other. In fact, the Ottomans were pro-Lutheran as they were both against the Catholic regime of the Hapsburgs. It was more of a religious bias than a racial one.

So bringing this thread back to my original question - is Moravkovic possibly from Morava River valley in Serbia or, an Ottoman invention describing the Moravian family as Moravkovics instead of 'Morva, Moravec, Moravan, Moroc, Moravcsik (Moravcik)'?

The defter record keeper could have been Serb, otherwise a Serbian/Croat/Albanian male, travelled via one of the armies or as part of the army support or resettlement, part of the Kuruc army?

I don't think I will get an answer to this question, but the most interesting is that:

1. There is no Moravko~ Moravkovic family name from Serbia

2. That Moravko is/was a nickname-diminutive first name in Serbia

3. That the Ottomans used nicknames as family names in some instances.

As far as the origins of my family (Moravko - now Marafko), there is more evidence that they are from Moravia. But I am still not 100% positive about this.

Peter

*Dr Blaskovics Jozsef - 'Az Ujvari Ejalet Torok Adoosszeirasai' - Erdem Pozsony 1993

- lots of questions only briefly but I will provide you with translations and quotes/ excerpts as the subject is very interesting:

-The practice of ignoring family surnames of the Serbs by the Ottomans was ongoing in occupied territories until the end of their rule. Best examples of that are ethnic Serbian emigrants from Kosovo prior to liberation in 1912. who traveled with official Ottoman documents and their papers carried first name of the father instead of a surname of the family.

We discussed that in detail for one of our members here:

http://www.rodoslovlje.com/comment/4638#comment-4638

-The belittling is evident in derogatory names of individuals and nicknames of clans given to ethnic Serbian families under Ottoman rule and first recorded in their defters, and later just carried on as surnames by the Austro(-Hungarian) conscription clerks when families migrated in XVI, XVII and XVIII century. There is a huge corpus of such pejorative surnames, and often in Serbian Orthodox Church archival materials and other historical sources the family or a clan is listed under its original family name. Sources for this would include all onomastics and etymology authors of authority of the region, including Petar Šimunović and Trifun Pavlović or Velimir Mihajlović.

-As for the way they treated the Christian Serbs under their rule and the assumptions you made based on their ruling habits in the north - I will only highlight the example  of Ćele- Kula monument to their terror over Serbs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skull_Tower

-The census takers and clerks were not Serbian Orthodox ( Christians). Under Ottoman rule, they were not allowed to hold any such position without converting.

-It is wrong to make assumptions based on etymology and onomastics of a different region or a different historical context - Ottoman rule in the examples and literature you cited was only of temporary nature and in many cases in parts where the inherited feudal apparatus remained almost intact. Ottoman oppression over most of ethnic Serbian origin areas lasted five centuries and you need to take that into account when you look at the development of surnames.

-Also the variations between different areas are immense - for ethnic Serbs in Croatia the migration to Austrian or Venetian ruled territories meant that their surnames became solid and remained the same from as early as XV century when they were fist recorded, while in Serbia the patronimic swap with each new generation had to be ended with an official decree in 1851. and even later in Kosovo in 1912.

-An example page from the Ottoman *name* census from 1528. of the  population in Smederevo town area, Serbia transcribed and published by the Oriental Institute in Sarajevo in a book "Turski katastarski popisi nekih područja zapadne Srbije XV i XVI vek" ( Ottoman land censuses of some areas in western Serbia in XV and XVI century).

The district is called "Morava" ( nahija Morava) so of interest to your research directly.

It is in Cyrillic script but all individuals are recorded without surnames, only as X son of Y ( or brother, uncle...)

And as opposed to this manner of census taking I will list the example of Dečani monastery land and individuals censuses - "Dečanske hrisovulje" from 1330 and later as well as the merchant books from XV century of Dubrovnik city merchant Živan Pripčinović, in which Serbs are recorded with their valid surnames that can be tracked as such from there in other documents.

-On questions regarding the surname MORAVKO later, as it is getting rather late.

A very interesting perspective on Serb and Ottoman relations! You have enlightened me on 19th century atrocities against the Serb nation.

The Ottoman occupation of old Hungary from Mohacs (1526) to Mohacs (1687) - approximately 160 years included 2 regions: Greater Transylvania (which was an independent principality) and Ottoman Hungary. The 3rd region was Royal Hungary (now Slovakia) under Hapsburg (catholic) control. You are correct in that the feudal system wasn't altered and the Ottoman Muslims did not pro-actively convert Catholics or Evangelicals. The major income was based on beef exports to Western Europe of which the Ottoman overlords were happy to take a cut.

Now taxes were taken, but sources I've read stated that many taxable peasants ran into the forests to avoid being taxed, so their names were not recorded. Church records for the most part have gone missing and only restarted again circa 1770 when churches were rebuilt after the Ottomans were forced out. The only other records apart from defters, were some lists of Turkish~Hungarian (that includes all races, not just Magyar) prisoners who were ransomed, but allowed to collect their ransom from family, friends and even beg strangers. So the Ottoman economy was very successful, but not enough to keep their borders secure as they were continually attacked by Hapsburg (Holy Roman Empire) forces. That was true until 1663 when a treaty was signed between the Hapsburgs and Ottomans stating that all lands that were won by the Ottomans, could be kept by them. This included ErzsekUjvar (Gyor) that they won in the same year.

So the defter records are from 1664 - 1686 (liberation of Budapest) - only 23 years! By 1720 all of old Hungary was back in the hands of the Hapsburgs who proceeded to build massive forts on the Southern borders to prevent Ottoman expansion.

Even though the Ottomans could field an army of 100,000, many were not Turkish Janissaries, but Bulgar, Serb, Macedonian and Eastern Muslims. Not just the army, but also support groups, trades and resettlers as many 'Magyars' left their villages and moved into Royal Hungary leaving their farms vacant. The educated Ottoman administration would have also included Serbs (Servian), so there is a distinct possibility that some of the tax collectors, especially in the newly acquired lands were multi-ethnic.

I am not familiar at all with Ottoman atrocities post liberation. All I can say is that the Transylvanian Princes and many peasants in Ottoman Hungary preferred the rule of the Turks than their previous Hungarian nobles and sided with them during this period.

So to narrow my search, the Morava~Moravko~vic name would be confirmed in early church records in Serbia around 1650 - 1720 or even later if the Moravkovic name existed in Serbia, but not in the Morava region. After all, why would you call yourself Moravkovics if you lived in Morava? You would only be called that if you lived outside of Morava!

My research has indicated a strong presence of Moravko in upper Hungary (Slovak -Nitra) and only 1 instance of Moravkovics+Simonics near Erzsekujvar that lasted only a generation. But why the Serb version of the names - both husband and wife??? The name disappeared afterwards or was changed to Moravek, a much more common name. Could this be for political reasons? Were Northern Serbs belittled circa 1780-1800? Did a Morava family resettle there?

The introduction of surnames in Serbia started after Napoleon just as in the rest of Europe.

I think you are making this more complicated then it actually is. Jugoslava already pointed out the geographic connection to a surname. You mention the Morava river (which is a Celtic name), but have you checked the Moravia region? These two are not related. Moravia knows a small an ethnic group called Moravians, and they were expelled. Also a lot of troops were recruited from that region in the 15th century to fight against the Ottomans which would explain why the name showed up in the ranks down south. Not all Tefter records can be found in Eastern Europe, a lot of them are also in Istanbul. As for Serbian Orthodox and Catholic Church records. In Serbia we know a pretty strict data protection law, similar to that of Germany so a lot of information can not be found online. I can check some of the books I have in my library about Moravkovic, but my advice would be to follow the trail.

As for non-Seljuks serving the Ottoman empire, it is pretty much like today. You serve and get drafted in the territory that you live. That is why many Serbs moved to Krajina and other regions so they could contribute in liberating their homeland.

So Ill follow up on the surname thing, but you will need names, dates and places.