Macedonia

Capital : Skopje

History

In ancient times, this was a much larger area than modern Macedonia, covering a land area of about 26 000 miles, stretching from the eastern Adriatic Coast to Epirus in the west. To the north, it was bordered by Moesia, to the south with Thessaly, to the east with Thrace with a narrow coastal strip reaching to the Hellespont. The original inhabitants were probably Germano-Celtic but after centuries of invasion they became mingled with people of Thracian, Illyrian Phrygian and Dorian Greek origin. The Greek migrants, including the family of Alexander the Great's tutor, Aristotle, were expelled by Philip II.

The area had been divided into several small nations which were rarely at peace with each other but was united under one king by the mid C4th BC. Macedon became the major power in the region after the battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC and went on to conquer Persia, much of Asia and Egypt under Philip II and his son Alexander III (the Great), spreading Hellenic culture throughout the Mediterranean and Asia. Alexander died leaving no adult son and without officially naming his heir and his empire was divided by power struggles between his generals. The last king of Macedonia itself, Perseus, was defeated by the Roman Aemilius Paullus in 167 BC.

Macedonia, like Greece, became part of the Roman Empire after the battle of Pydna in 168 BC. Rome tried to convert it into a self-governing republic but this was not successful and in 146 BC it became part of the Roman Empire. It was divided into two provinces: 'Macedonia Prima' (Aegean Macedonia) and 'Macedonia Salutaris' (Vardar and Pirin Macedonia). Latin was the official language and Christianity was established. After the fall of Rome in the C6th, an ethnic group which had once inhabited Macedonia, the Paeones, now called Slavs, captured most of the area from the East Romans. Macedonia remained independent from Byzantium (which was ruled by a Macedonian dynasty from 867) and the nomadic Bulgars of the steppes. In the mid C9th, Macedonian became the main spoken, literary and administrative language of Macedonia, being systematically recorded by the Slav saints Cyril and Methodius.

In 1014, the Byzantine Emperor Basil II defeated Tsar Samuilo of Macedonia and incorporated it into his territory but the language and culture were retained. After the fall of the East Roman Empire in the early C13th, Macedonia was subject to various foreign invasions and became part of the Ottoman Turkish Empire in the C15th when the Balkan peninsula was called 'Rumelia'. At the beginning of the C20th, Macedonia was still an Ottoman province, divided between the vilayets of Solun, Bitola and Kosovo. The 1905 census recorded over 3 million inhabitants, mostly Macedonian but with Turkish, Albanian, Romi, Vlach, Jewish and Greek minorities.

Turkey lost Macedonia after the First Balkan War and when the Second Balkan War ended in 1913, Macedonia was divided between Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria. Between 1923-6, most of the Turks and Bulgarians amongst the Aegean Macedonians had been resettled in Turkey and Bulgaria leaving about 1 million ethnic Macedonians in Greece. A policy of 'hellenization' was adopted by the Greek government with Macedonians being forced to take Greek first names and surnames and the banning of the Macedonians' language, schools, churches, media and culture.

In the 1920s, many Greeks were moved to the region from Turkey and the Macedonians found themselves in the minority. Many emigrated to Australia, Canada and America. Harsh treatment of the Macedonians continued throughout the 1930s and the repression increased after the Greek Civil War of 1946-9 because they had supported the Greek communists who had offered them autonomy and recognition of their human rights. There was further emigration, including the forced evacuation of many Macedonian children to the Eastern bloc.

In December 1982 an act was passed by the Papandreou government which allowed Greeks who had fled during the civil war to return but this did not include Macedonians, even those born in Greece. Estimates of the number of Macedonians still in Greece vary between 80,000 and one million as many are frightened to acknowledge their origins.

After WWII, the Yugoslav leader, Josip Broz Tito recognised the Republic of Macedonia as having a separate language and culture but it became part of Yugoslavia. When Yugoslavia began to break up in the late 1980s, the country voted to secede in the referendum of 1991 in which they adopted a new constitution and started trying to gain international recognition.

The modern Macedonian language belongs to the Slavic family and Ancient Macedonian, which was used for written records, was an Indo-European language with links to Thracian and Illyrian. The first written form of Macedonian was Old Church Slavic.

Macedonian Names

Male

Aco	Aleksandar	Alekso	Andon	Andrei	Andrej
Ane	Angel	Apostol	Argir	Arseni	Atanas
Bale	Be!ikola	Blagojce	Blasko	Bobi	Bojan
Borce	Borche	Boris	Borislav	Branimir	Branko
Christian	Cvetko	Dame	Damjan	Deivit	Deyan
Dicho	Dimche	Dime	Dimitar	Dobri	Dragan
Dragi	Dusan	Dusko	Dzhole	Edin	Efrem
Evtim	Filip	George	Georges	Georgi	Georgios
Gligor	Goce	Gono	Goran	Grigor	Hristo
Hristos	Igor	Ile	Ilija	Ilyo	Iosif
Ivan	Jamin	Jerzi	Jovan	Jovce	Jovica
Kirce	Kire	Kiril	Kirili	Kiro	Kolyo
Konstantin	Kosta	Kral	Kristijan	Krste	Krsto
Krunislav	Kuzman	Kuzo	Lazar	Lazo	Lecho
Lenka	Ljupco	Lubi	Lucio	Luka	Lupcho
Maksim	Marjan	Metodi	Michal	Mihail	Milan
Mile	Mirche	Mishe	Mito	Mitse	Mladen
Naum	Nenad	Nicolaos	Nikodemos	Nikola	Nikolce
Ognen	Pablo	Panayot	Pandil	Pando	Pavel
Pere	Pesho	Petar	Petse	Petvqar	Photios
Psaltir	Raiko	Risto	Sacha	Sando	Sasa
Sasha	Sasho	Saso	Sava	Serije	Simeon
Sinisa	Slaveiko	Slavko	Slobodan	Sofroni	Spiro
Stamat	Stefan	Stefo	Stephen	Stoile	Stojan
Stojce	Stoyan	Tane	Tase	Tasos	Tihomir
Tito	Todor	Toli	Toma	Tome	Traiko
Trendafil	Tushe	Vasil	Vasko	Vassil	Velyo
Veton	Vladimir	Vlado	Vlatko	Vojco	Yordan
Zlatko

Female

Ana	Anita	Anna	Annika	Christina	Edina
Ekaterina	Emilija	Epsa	Gona?	Hilda	Irena
Jasmina	Jasminka	Jordanka	Jovica?	Katerina	Lidija
Lisa	Metodija	Monika	Nevena	Oana	Olivia
Sandra	Snezana	Susanna	Svetlana	Tanja	Tanya
Tarpena	Vasja	Vaska	Vesna	Violeta

Surnames

In 1944, the Yugoslav Communist Party introduced a plan to give all Macedonian surnames the suffix -ski (feminine -ska), allegedly to weaken their sense of identity. If someone refused to change their name, they were not entitled to any benefits from Socialist Macedonia. Many accepted this in order to conform to the new ideology but others, in particular the communists, were willing to risk imprisonment and even execution in order to retain their own ethnic identity. Some Macedonian surnames did originally end in -ski (feminine -ska) but only those derived from an adjective, trade or place of origin. Most had the endings -ov/-ova or -ev/-eva. Surnames in the Serbian area were given the suffix -ich, first names and surnames in Aegean Macedonia were usually given the -is or -os suffixes.

Aleksandrov	Aleksovski	Aleksowski	Alexandrov	Anastasiadis	Anastasov
Andonov	Andov	Andreev	Angelevski	Antonov	Apostolovska
Arsov	Arzhentinski	Asenov	Atsev	Avramov	Becvinovski
Beleska	Belevski	Belicanec	Benkovski	Berkovski	Blazev
Bogdanov	Bogdanovski	Boseovski	Bosevski	Boskovksi	Boulis
Bozhinoski	Bozinov	Bozinovski	Budzakoski	Caracoti	Chakalarov
Cherepnalkoski	Chernopeev	Chuchkov	Churanov	Cilemanoff	Cinika
Cocos	Crvenkovski	Cvetkov	Cvetkovski	Daev	Dajo
Dalkalachev	Damevski	Damjanovski	Daskalov	Davidov	Delchev
Deliivanov	Denkov	Deskov	Diamandiev	Dimitris	Dimitroff
Dimitroski	Dimitrov	Dimitrova	Dimonvski	Dimov	Dimovski
Dimusheva	Dinkov	Dinov	Diskovski	Dobrudzhanski	Docevski
Dodos	Drangov	Dukov	Dulev	Duljanov	Dumbalakov
Dzherov	Dzhorlev	Endekov	Evgova	Fildishev	Firfov
Florovski	Frantsaliiski	Garvanov	Gecevski	Georgiev	Georgieva
Georgievski	Gergev	Gioshev	Gjorgjinski	Gjorgjioski	Gjuricik
Gligorov	Gogov	Gorceski	Gorgievski	Gramatnikowski	Groseva
Gruev	Grupchev	Gudzoski	Gulevski	Gushtanov	Haskay
Hristov	Hristovski	Ilieva	Ilievski	Iloski	Italiyanski
Ivanov	Jonceski	Jordanova	Jovanovska	Jovanovski	Jovevski
Kadrievski	Kalemanov	Karandzhulov	Karanov	Karshakov	Kazepov
Kiosev	Kitanchev	Kitanov	Kitevski	Kitinov	Klyashev
Knezevic	Kochanova	Kochevski	Kocpjan	Kokarev	Koncaliev
Konechni	Konecni	Konstantinov	Korubinov	Korunovski	Kosovich
Kostadinov	Kostencev	Kostojcinovski	Kostov	Kotev	Kotsios
Kovachev	Kozarovska	Kozovski	Krakowski	Kralevski	Kuslev
Kusmanoff	Kuzmanovski	Langov	Lazarevski	Lazarov	Lazov
Lekov	Levski	Lipowski	Lozanchev	Lozanovski	Lukic
Madzarov	Makedonija	Makedonska	Makedonski	Malchankov	Manasiev
Manasiev	Mandalov	Manevski	Mangovski	Markoska	Markov
Matliev	Matov	Mazneikov	Merakovski	Micallef	Michail
Michalis	Mihailov	Mihov	Miladinov	Milev	Milevski
Milosov	Mincova	Mintcheff	Miovski	Mircevski	Mitreski
Mitrevska	Mitrovski	Mladenov	Molerov	Monchev	Moskov
Muchitanov	Muvceska	Nachev	Nastevski	Naumov	Naumovski
Neskovska	Nikolov	Nikolovski	Nikov	Nitchov	Novachcoff
Nunkov	Obetkovski	Ognjanovski	Orta	Pacoski	Pankovski
Panov	Panovski	Papadakis	Parashkev	Parlichev	Partyka
Pasarikov	Pascua	Patchev	Persiiski	Peshkov	Petkoska
Petkov	Petkovski	Petrevski	Petrov	Pingova	Pogonchev
Poncho	Pop-Ordanov	Popa	Popev	Popov	Popovski
Psaltis	Radev	Radovski	Rajcevski	Rashaikov	Razvigorov
Ribusovski	Ristevski	Ristic	Ristov	Ristovski	Rovcanin
Ruski	Russia	Saev	Salevski	Samardzhiev	Sarafov
Sarakinov	Sarlo	Sekulovski	Sendov	Shapkarev	Shapkarov
Shishkov	Shopov	Sideropoulos	Silyanov	Simitchieva	Simonovski
Simovski	Sinadinovski	Sisovski	Slankov	Solakov	Soposki
Sotirovski	Spassov	Spiroff	Spiroski	Spirovski	Sprostranov
Stamboliiski	Stamenkovski	Stanoev	Stanojevski	Stavrik	Stefanov
Stefanova	Stefov	Steriovski	Stojanovski	Stojcevski	Stojkov
Stojkovski	Stoyanov	Stoychev	Sugarev	Suleski	Suwandi
Svrzikapa	Talevski	Taneva	Taskova	Tatarchev	Temelkoski
Temjanovska	Terziovski	Theophanous	Todevski	Todorovski	Tomulevski
Torov	Tosevska	Toshev	Traianopoulos	Traikov	Trajcev
Trajkovski	Triantafilou	Troske	Trpcevski	Trpenovski	Trpeski
Trpkoska	Trpkovski	Tsafaroff	Tsarknias	Tsitskov	Tsonchev
Tsvetanov	Tuntev	Turpin	Turundzhov	Tzelepis	Uzunov
Uzunovski	Vangelov	Varnaliev	Vasilevski	Vasiliadis	Vaskov
Velevski	Velyov	Vidimce	Vladev	Vodenicharski	Wasilew
Wlakantchovski	Yanev	Yaponski	Yurukov	Zajkovski	Zdraveski
Zhinzifov	Zibrecki	Zidarski	Zlatanovski	Zlatarev	Zmbov

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This collection of names compiled by Kate Monk. Copyright January 1997, Kate Monk. Last updated November, 97. Copies may be made for personal use only.