Here follows a list of notable Ragusans and Rectors of the Republic of Ragusa (also known as the Republic of Dubrovnik), a maritime republic centered on the city of Dubrovnik on the eastern coast of the Adriatic.
Reflecting the dual Romance and Slavic influence on Ragusan culture, most Ragusan noble families, as well as members of the citizen class, used both Romance and Slavic versions of their first and last names, especially since the Late Middle Ages onward, while the lower classes mostly only used Slavic names. Some used only one version of their family name exclusively, e.g. the noble families Natali and Zlatarić. Since the official language of the Republic was always from the Romance language group, the official records record the last names almost exclusively in those versions, although in the older records the first names can be found in Slavic. Members of noble families, even those originally of Slavic descent, used the Slavic forms of their family names in an unofficial capacity in literary works written in Slavic, and in an official capacity only in treaties that the Ragusan State signed with its neighboring Slavic states in their language and script. In the noble class' everyday usage, most commonly the first name was in Slavic and the last name in Italian, a traditional practice which has continued until today, and transformed into official.When only the Romance version of a first or last name appears in the sources, modern Croatian and Serbian scientific literature very frequently translates it creating a new slavicized version, which often results in various errors due to insufficient knowledge of Ragusan traditions, e.g. erroneously using non-Ragusan Slavic form "Vinko" instead of Ragusan Slavic form "Vicko", or "Blaž" instead of "Vlaho", or incorrectly adapting a Romance version while ignoring actual Ragusan usage, e.g. "Natal" instead of "Božo", "Junije" instead of "Džono".[1]
When several persons had the same first and last name, it was Ragusan custom to append the father's name in the genitive case, also changing the declension of the last name (in Ragusan the genitive case for nouns ending in -o is -a), e.g. there were two persons named Đivo Gundulić, so one was called Đivo Frana Gundulića, and the other Đivo Nika Gundulića (in modern literature this is sometimes indicated with the possessive determiner -ov, thus Franov, Nikov, translated to English as Frano's, Niko's). When translating this into Latin, the genitive case was kept, e.g. Joannes Francisci Gundulae, however, when translating into languages in which names do not have grammatical cases (such as Italian) it was written as effectively a middle name (Giovanni Francesco Gondola). It is important to differentiate this from actual middle names, such as Roger Joseph Boscovich, an example where the names were also anglicized.[2] [3]
Some examples of Romance and Slavic versions of last names:
Bassegli, Basilio - Basiljević
Bobali, Babalio - Bobaljević
Bona - Bunić
Bonda - Bundić
Caboga - Kabužić
Cerva, Cervinus - Crijević
Ghetaldi - Getaldić
Giorgi - Đorđić, Đurđević
Gondola - Gundulić
Gozze - Gučetić
Gradi - Gradić
Luccari - Lukarević
Menze - Menčetić
Palmotta - Palmotić
Pozza - Pucić
Resti - Rastić, Restić
Sorgo - Sorkočević
Stay - Stojković
Zamagna - Zamanja, Zamanjić
See main article: Rector (Ragusa).