Meanings of Names

KIM: I recently emailed a new friend in Slovenia, licensed tour guide Dragan Bekcic, and asked him about the family names and places I planned to visit. He supplied me with lots of details.

When I asked him the meaning of "cic" on the end of our name Brencic and his name Bekcic, he said it means "...member of Bren, or Bek and so on. But in Slovenia it is not so often ending of the name. It is very usual in Serbia, for instance. But Brencic is not Serbian name, this endings are often in that area. Fabjanic, Fabjancic, Geric, Urbancic, etc. Miklavec and Zalar are more tipical Sloven, I'd say."

About the Slovenian villages from which our family originates (Planina, Postojna, Liplje, Podlipa and Pivka), he says "The meening of a word Planina is MOUNTINE, it's because it is very steep there. Planina is on the way from Ljubljana to Postojna (old road). Postojna is very famous place because of its caves, one of the bigest around. You should see it! Its name probably coming from a word "postati", to stay or to stop. Liplje is from word "lipa" which means a linden tree, which is a simbol of Slavics. Centuries ago they were growing linden tree in the center of their villages, and then dancing when they were celebrating something... Podlipa means "under the linden tree". Pivka is a word from "piti", which means "to drink". Probably there is a place near where water is entering under the ground..."

I have heard Planina is more formally called "Planina Pri Rakeku". Apparently there are many towns in Slovenia called Planina, so they are each distinguished by a more formal name. Since Planina means "mountain", and I already know that Rakek is a larger town very near Planina, I looked up the word "pri" in the dictionary. As expected, it means "near", so the full meaning is "mountain near Rakek".

This week I booked lodging in a private home in Planina, hoping to be very near a major source of information on the Urbas, Milavec, Zalar and Brencic families still living in the area. The place I am staying is called Apartma Šefic. Check out the pictures on the website. I'll be there on May 14-15.