How Turks ended up in Croatian Surnames
There are quite a few surnames among Croats that are motivated by the word for Turkish nation (Croatian: Turci). Reasons are of a historical nature: for many centuries, influence of Ottoman Empire was exerted upon great portion of Balkan peninsula, and regions where Croats had been in majority were either occupied by Turks or had been neigbouring regions towards Turkish territories.
However, bearers of those Croatian surnames hadn’t necesarilly been of Turkish nationality. Scholars claim that those surnames were created as a response to a migration of Slavic people from areas under Turkish rule to regions in the Western parts of today’s Croatia. Local residents who welcomed immigrants would typically designate them as those who ran away from Turks.
Thus, surnames like Turčinić, Turčin, Turak, Turek, Turčec, Turček, Turčinec, Turković, Turčik, Turčinov, Turčinović, Turk, became part of Croatian anthroponymy. It is interesting to note that some of these surnames are most frequent in areas quite far away from regions ruled by Ottoman Empire. Those areas include island of Krk, Rijeka region, Istria and Međimurje.
A Croatian surname in our family is Serdar – from Sveti Rok in Lika. We believe the name was adopted from the Ottoman Empire’s military title “Serdar” meaning “war commander”. The surname is listed in the 1712 census of Lika-Krbava and I believe it can be found today thru out Turkey, the middle east, and even Egypt.
A mentor of mine once told me that my surname could possibly be Turkish origin. The name was originally spelled with diacritical marks shaped like little “v” over the s and the c to be pronounced like, “Tuurshchak”.
I would greatly appreciate any assistance.
I am a Tereschak but I believe originally we were Terešak” Have you seen this surname before
My maiden name is Turkaly I think the original spelling was different Turkaji?
My surname is Kuljevan from Croatia I read it could come from Turkic language. This surname has been traced down to 1,500, 16th century, it would be in relation to ottoman empire and military slaves. I would be thankful if you have any information about it.