Family Nicknames in Pučišća on the Island of Brač

Abstract

This paper discusses family nicknames in Pučišća on the island of Brač. Family nicknames, as an additional aspect of identification that developed due to the fact that numerous individuals carried the same family name, are a characteristic of Croatian islands and have not been sufficiently studied so far. The earliest recorded nicknames in Pučišća are from the end of the 16th century, and based on their motivation a fund of personal names can be partially reconstructed (the relationship of Croatian national names with Croatian and Romance forms of Christian names), as can the physical appearance of their first carriers (especially physical defects) and their characteristics (mostly unconventional, origin and occupation of the inhabitants of Pučišća). The fund of family nicknames is much more open to foreign language systems (especially Romance) than are family names and is a reflection of a Croatian-Romance symbiosis on the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea.

Keywords

• family nicknames
• personal nicknames
• family names
• personal names