Naming Customs Among Ethnic Serbs XIX century

On names and customs  – from the anthropology and ethnology  books  that study  ethnic Serbs of Croatia  – XVIII, XIX and XX  century

Marrying:

– nine generations direct line relatives never married. Church did not allow it, genealogy was part of fixed oral tradition  and there was no *special circumstances* to go around this rule. If it happened, the couple would have had to move away from the community. Also, men were not allowed to marry by the church  before they completed the initial round of obligatory military service – so they married *late* – men around 25, women around 20 -sometimes having had children before that but she would have remained with kid(s) living with her family until getting married.

-although there were strict rules who women could marry –  into which clans and families, the ultimate choice of individual partner was female and they had the right to choose as they wished – special *preview* visits of the groom were set up if the family tried to arrange a future marriage and women had to like the man  and *speak it* for the deal to be sworn by the heads of two families.

 First name naming patterns:

-male line was the primary source of names for male children :

– always a deceased great-grandfathers/grandfathers names, never of those still alive – they believed that if you named a child after a living grandfather or such  direct relative (great-grandfather, father) , the older person would die soon,

– brothers of the parents, uncles  (living )

-always deliberately skipping the names of siblings of parents who died as infants  – these names were considered to be *weak* and *un-protective*

-never repeating the first name of a child that died (something that was quite common among  Roman Catholics  both in Croatia and Hungary well into XX century )

-names like Stojan, Ostoja, Stana, Stoja  after losing children – root of these names is word meaning *to stay* (alive)

– never naming a son after a father unless it was last resort protection after losing many male children, or losing children in particularly tragic way – if the son had been given the same first name like his father that was very, very rare occurrence and  such naming would indicate that the family was even prepared to *sacrifice* the father  to have the child live.

-name of a male line relative killed as soldier, or known for his bravery or social status  was in his honor repeated among children of all of his siblings – if it were a head of household  after his death you would see all males to be given his first name over the next couple of years/generation of children

-it was considered same as blood relation, so they never married into the family of the godparent

-male head of the household was the KUM at baptism (not the eldest of the clan, *head* was never someone above the military retirement age -60 at first, later 50). If head of household  was unavailable – in a war somewhere – then his *stand-in* from same household would baptize the child

-the KUM (godparent)  at baptism was never  the man who was KUM (witness)  at marriage ceremony

-a female godparent -KUMA only occurred if the head of the kumovi  household had died recently, and less than obligatory one year of mourning had passed since his death , the period during which all celebrating in that household was on stand-by  – they could not reject the *kumstvo* as that would be a grave insult, but the household was considered *headless* during that period  to honor the deceased head, so a woman  was delegated to carry the family duty  of baptizing the godbrotherhood families –  the widow of the head , or the oldest woman in the household if there was no widow .

-KUM (witness) at a marriage was usually someone who served in the obligatory army service with the groom ( they all served from the age of 16, at first eight years, later six and five) and same age as the groom – around 25.

– children born in poor health or prematurely would  be baptized by the priest/monk – this skipping of the traditional KUM of the family was done because the child  was thought to soon pass away – reasons are twofold- not to summon *bad luck* on the KUMSTVO relationship , and also to cut costs – each time KUM baptized a child the family had to give him customary presents which had to be of best quality.

Middle name

-Serbs have no middle name or different christening name given at baptism . If you see or have a different name used as middle name it is the name of the father.

Special childhood name

Sometimes, people used for a child  one first name and the first name in the church vital records was something totally different – this was the consequence of a particular naming custom documented in Krajina too – the godparent (KUM) would baptize the child without the parents and tell them the different name to use for the child, not  the one he gave to the priest  and that was written into the baptism record – again done to prevent the *bad spirits* from knowing the real name of the child and taking it away (to prevent death). Belief was and there are many folk tales and songs about demons and evils spirits that *call the child by first name* and snatch it away to the underworld.

Such a child would learn its real name upon coming of age – male  child for the entering into army service at 16 , girl before  starting attending the village parties and fairs and officially being of suitable age for getting married.  The family  villagers and this child  often continued to  use the childhood  *protective* first name as *nickname* even after that revealing of the real one that was in the records.

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