Of all Croatian surnames that originate from words denoting various spiecies of the animal kingdom, probably the most frequent are those with the word “vuk” (wolf) in their root. Scholars claim that the wolf had been a motivation for forming surnames in South Slavic nations sensibly more often than among other Slavs.

Surnames with the wolf in their root can be found in several varieties. Surnames like Vuk, Vukić, Vukas, Vukojević, Vukota, Vukomil, Vukman, Vukelić, Vukasović, Vukman, Vuko all have the basic Croatian word for wolf (“vuk”) in their root. (Here should be noted that not only Croats bear some of those surnames, but Serbs and Montenegrins as well.)

Other surnames like Vuco, Vucić, Vucković has sybilarized variant of the word “vuk” (“vuc”) in their root. Also, palatalized variant (“vuč”) can be found in surnames like Vučko, Vučinić, Vučina, Vučković, Vučetić, Vučemil, Vučak, Vučemilović, Vučica, Vučić, Vučinić, Vučinović.

Vujo, Vujić, Vujević, Vujica, Vujčić, Vujko, Vujkić, Vujković, Vujinović, Vule, Vulić, Vuleta, Vuletin, Vuletić, Vulović, Vulas, Vulasović, all those surnames also originate from the same root word.

But that’s not all. Croatian surname Farkaš comes from the Hungarian word for the wolf (“farkas”) and is among more frequent family names in Croatia (almost fifteen hundred persons bear that name). Also, not uncomon Croatian surname is Volf, which originates from the German language, and it also has the meaning of the wolf.