Serbian feminine names in the early 16th century (based on the 1516 census of the Smederevo Sanjak)

Abstract

A large number of feminine names can be found in Ottoman census books (defters). These anthroponymic materials provide important sociological, ethnographic, linguistic and historical evidence of the population of Serbian areas included in the census. As for the Serbian sources, feminine names start to appear largely in the commemoration books (pomenici) of a later date (16th-17th centuries), whereas the earlier monastery charters almost exclusively list masculine names. The 1516 Ottoman Census contains the names of 942 women - widows who were taxpayers, because, for one reason or another, there were no males in their households. Their names undeniably show that the population in the Smederevo Sanjak - and the same phenomenon may also be observed in other areas populated by the Serbs - relied on the ancient Slavic (Serbian) onomasticon, which significantly prevailed over Christian names.