Serbian naming customs
This article features the naming culture and names of ethnic Serbs. Serbian names are rendered in the Western name order with the surname placed after the given name. Eastern name order may be used when multiple names appear in a sorted list, particularly in official notes and legal documents when the last name is capitalized (e.g. MILOVANOVIĆ Janko).
Given names
As with most European cultures, a child is given a first name chosen by their parents or is chosen by godparents. The given name comes first, the surname last, e.g. "Željko Popović", where "Željko" is a first name and "Popović" is a family name.
Serbian first names largely originate from Slavic roots: e.g. Slobodan, Miroslav, Vladimir, Zoran, Ljubomir, Vesna, Radmila, Dragan, Milan, Goran, Radomir, Miomir, Branimir, Budimir; see also Slavic names, or the list of Slavic names in the Serbian Wikipedia)
Some may be non-Slavic but chosen to reflect Christian faith. Names of this nature may often originate from Hebrew for Biblical reasons. Christian names include: e.g. Nikola, Ivan, Jovan, Marija, Ana, Mihailo. Along similar lines of non-Slavic names among Christians, the origins for many such names are Greek: e.g. Aleksandar, Filip, Jelena, Katarina, Nikola, Đorđe, Stefan, Petar, Vasilije, Todor. Names of Latin origin include: e.g. Marko, Antonije, Pavle, Srđan, Marina, Natalija, Kornelije. Names of Germanic origin, entering through Russian, include: e.g. Igor, Oliver, Olga.
