Petrović means son or descendant of Petar, the Serbian and Croatian form of Peter. It is a patronymic: a family name formed from a personal name. Petrovic is its spelling without the accent, but that same plain spelling can conceal other Slavic forms. The Oxford dictionary entry for Petrovic distinguishes these language traditions.
From Petar to Petrović
The Dictionary of American Family Names identifies Serbian and Croatian Petrović as a patronymic from Petar. The formation uses the name's Petr- stem with the patronymic ending -ović; “son of Petar” is a convenient English gloss. Once inherited, the surname can continue through generations whose fathers have entirely different given names. See the Petrovic entry, second edition, 2022.
The personal name Peter ultimately belongs to the Greek Petros name tradition, which the dictionary connects with petra, “rock.” Its spread through Christian Europe is associated with the apostle Peter. That is the deeper history of the given name: Petrović itself identifies descent from someone called Petar, rather than an occupation involving stone or a rocky birthplace. See the dictionary's Peter entry.
One Plain Spelling, Several Language Traditions
The 2022 dictionary also records Slovak and Slovenian Petrovič, from Peter, and Czech forms from Petr. These share the Peter name root, but the final č differs from the ć in Serbian and Croatian Petrović. Removing the marks makes both look like Petrovic. Compare the languages and original forms in the dictionary.
For family research, this means that a plain spelling in an overseas index cannot select a language or homeland. Recover the earlier written form and locality before choosing between these interpretations. Our Serbian surname guide and Croatian surname guide provide the regional context for the Petrović form.
Nor does the patronymic identify one original Petar. Its formation could be repeated for different households, so there is no linguistic basis for treating everyone named Petrović as one founding family. A modern spelling alone cannot establish ethnicity, religion, or a particular ancestral village.
When a Patronymic Became a Family Name
A name describing someone's father and a surname inherited unchanged are different kinds of evidence. An early Petrović in a record would not, by itself, show that the next generation used the same name.
In her study of naming among the Vlachs of eastern Serbia, Annemarie Sorescu-Marinković describes the 1851 directive in the Principality of Serbia requiring permanent hereditary family names in connection with land registration. Officials could use a household head's baptismal name or a patronymic already in the line of descent. Implementation was gradual. This supplies a historical mechanism by which a patronymic could become fixed; it does not date the beginning of every Petrović family. Read the discussion on p. 188.
The study also documents the adaptation of Vlach family names with Serbian suffixes and the coexistence of official Serbian names with local customary names. This is regional evidence that a Serbian-looking surname can have a more complicated family history, not proof that a particular Petrović line underwent that process. See pp. 188–190.
For your own line, compare linked parents and children in dated registers. Establish whether Petrović remained stable, whether another household name was used alongside it, and which administration kept the records. The Principality's directive should not be applied automatically to families living outside its jurisdiction.
How Common Is Petrović in Serbia?
The Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia ranked Petrović second, after Jovanović, in its surname results based on the 2022 census. Its release of 8 March 2024 reports nearly 100,000 people with the name. This is the office's approximate figure for people in the census population, not an exact count of families or a current worldwide total. See the official release, table 2 and accompanying text.
The publication gives the reference moment as midnight at the end of 30 September 2022 and states that the census was not conducted in Kosovo. Those boundaries matter when interpreting the national ranking. See the publication's preface, p. 3.
For a researcher, the practical consequence is a high risk of confusing people who share a full name. The ranking does not reveal where an earlier family originated or whether two bearers are related.
Cyrillic, Petrovich, and Related Names
In Serbian Cyrillic, Petrović is Петровић. The Library of Congress romanization table maps the letters to Petrović, including ћ → ć. Search both scripts where the catalogue permits, and retain the spelling visible in the original document. Consult the Serbian romanization table.
Several distinctions help keep a spelling search under control:
- Petrovic omits the diacritic from Petrović or Petrovič. An index match needs the original image and family context to resolve which form it represents.
- Petrovich is an attested Americanized form of Croatian and Serbian Petrović and Slovak and Slovenian Petrovič. The dictionary also records independent Ukrainian and Belarusian patronymic explanations, so it is a useful search candidate rather than a guaranteed earlier or later spelling of your family. See the Petrovich entry.
- @@0@@ belongs to the wider Peter-derived surname group, with a different ending. A shared root is not documentation of a change between Petrov and Petrović.
- @@0@@ illustrates a comparable patronymic formation from a different given name. It is a naming-pattern comparison, not a variant of Petrović.
To connect two spellings, look for the same spouse or parents, compatible dates, a shared address or village, and a sequence of records bridging the change. The guide to testing related surname spellings explains how to weigh those matches.
Researching a Petrović Family
Start with a documented person and work backward, keeping competing candidates separate. For this surname, recovering the locality and original spelling usually helps more than collecting additional name-only matches.
- Find a town or village, not just a country label. Compare marriage, migration, and naturalization records for birthplace, parents, and relatives. Use that locality to identify the relevant parish or civil registry and historical jurisdiction.
- Make a spelling log. Record Петровић, Petrović, and Petrovic as distinct search strings. Test Petrovič or Petrovich when the language or migration evidence warrants it. Note whether each form came from the document, an index, or your own normalization; the spelling variant tracker can help.
- Compare households. For each candidate, record spouse, parents, children, occupation, address, and witnesses. Conflicting spouses or overlapping lives in different places may expose a mistaken identification even when the name and approximate age agree.
- Follow the surname across generations. In earlier records, copy the full wording of the person's name and relationships. A father's personal name, a household label, and an inherited surname need not serve the same purpose.
For an ancestor documented in Belgrade or Zemun, the Historical Archives of Belgrade offers a concrete starting point. Its digital repository includes residents' cards, church registers of births, marriages, and deaths, and Zemun family registers. The archive's description identifies the geographic scope; this is not a nationwide Petrović register. Check the relevant collection's dates and coverage before interpreting a failed search. Read the archive's repository description.
Keep a citation to the register, year, entry, and image for each proposed connection. The surname evidence checklist helps separate what a record explicitly says from a relationship you are still testing.
References
- Patrick Hanks and Simon Lenarčič, with Peter McClure. Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd ed. Oxford University Press, 2022, entry Petrovic, reproduced by Ancestry.
- Patrick Hanks, ed. Dictionary of American Family Names. Oxford University Press, 2003; online excerpts credited 2003, 2006, entries Peter and Petrovich, reproduced by FamilySearch.
- Annemarie Sorescu-Marinković. “What's in a Vlach Name? Patronyms, Double Naming and Ethnic Identity of the Vlachs of Eastern Serbia”. Onomastica 67 (2023), pp. 183–203, especially pp. 188–190. DOI: 10.17651/ONOMAST.67.11.
- Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia. “Najčešća imena i prezimena”, 8 March 2024, table 2 and surname-count paragraph; *Najčešća imena i prezimena*, Belgrade, 2024, 2022 census publication, preface p. 3.
- Library of Congress. *Serbian Romanization Table*, 2013 version, alphabet correspondences.
- Historical Archives of Belgrade. “New Documentation Available on the Digital Repository of the Historical Archives of Belgrade”, undated web page describing the repository and its December 2021 update; accessed 7 September 2026.