Influence of World War II on given names in Belgrade

Author: Aleksandar Kostić (1988), 3rd grade XIII Belgrade high school, Belgrade

Abstract: Given name is the first token of identity one gets in one’s life and, in most cases, it remains unchanged throughout one’s lifetime (Marković and Mraković-Ćurčija 1999). In addition to direct mention of certain virtues in a name, naming someone after another person or event is also frequent. The third factor that can inspire one’s name are the circumstances in which the name has been given. Due to the latter two factors, given names may be perceived as a projection of social and political circumstances in a society.
Very few social history researches dwell on given names. Historiography works relevant to Serbian given names include: “The Influence of Social and Political Circumstances on Choice of Given Names (anthroponomical system) in Belgrade 1919-1996” by B. Aleksov and “Yugoslav and Serbian Identity of Belgrade Citizens as Reflected through Personal Given Names” by P. J. Marković and M. Mraković-Ćurčija.
Sample in this research was 14,496 given names from birth registries of the Savski Venac municipality for the January 1, 1935-June 28, 1948 period. Data was analyzed using the content analysis method with ‘name’ as the coding unit.
After World War II and subsequent socialist revolution, the legal system underwent a full overhaul. Among the other changes, new legislation transferred competences regarding birth registers from the Church to municipalities and allowed free choice of given names. As a result of these changes, many new names appeared in the researched population after the May 9, 1946.
Names that include morpheme “war” were significantly more frequent during the World War II, especially in the first months after it started in Yugoslavia on April 6, 1941, but thinned out once again after the war. The most frequent names connected with peace were Vladimir (male name) and Mirjana (female name). Name Mirjana became highly frequent after the beginning of World War II to become even more frequent during the war. After the war, its frequency declined, but remained higher than before the war. The situation with name Vladimir was slightly different. War bore no influence on this name while it lasted, but only after the liberation of Yugoslavia on May 15, 1945. After this increase, the frequency of this name continued higher than before and during the war. The trend of giving names derived from word “freedom” was almost the same as that for the name Mirjana. The only difference was a greater spread of names derived from word “freedom” after the liberation of Belgrade on October 20, 1944.
Names inspired by personages or historical events are very rare in Belgrade, but they continue to play a very important role owing to fact that they directly testify to the circumstances in the observed period. A great influence of culture and propaganda on the population may be noted by observing data relating to name Slavica. In the year after the first Yugoslav-produced post-World War II film - “Slavica” - became a hit, the name Slavica was given 34 times in Savski Venac, whereas only two girls were thus named in the preceding twelve years.
This research should be continued by examining the correlation of the influence of World War II on given names and different social surroundings. Data on the parents’ profession can be used for that purpose. Conducting this research in the municipality of Čukarica would increase the relevance of the results because of the dissimilar social structure compared to Savski Venac in the observed period.

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