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FAMILY NAMES

Here is a list of family names which at one point lived in Gorno Poroj (although it is NEVER complete).

In the first column is the original Macedonian version of the name. In many cases individuals and families that have emigrated to other countries have had their names 'localized' to the local language (in Australia/Canada/USA they have been shorted - Ivanov to Evans, Branov to Brown). In the European countries they have adjusted to include "-ski" or "-sky" (examples are Popovski from Popov, Mangovsky from Mangos).

In the second column is how it would be written in Macedonian (NOTE: you will need to have the "MAC C Times" Truetype font installed on your system to properly read it. For more information on how to get this done please visit Biser Balkanski - How To Install Macedonian fonts on your computer .

The third column is the Hellenized (ie. "Greek") version assigned by the Greek government in the years which followed the Treaty of Bucharest in 1913. In a majority of the cases the changes did not appear until after 1920. In many cases as with the village names, an attempt was made to spell the last names in the Greek alphabet sound-for-sound but it was later decided to make them sound more "Greek" (examples were "Dimov" to "Dimopoulos", "Iliev" to "Iliadis").

For those unaware, the Treaty of Bucharest "divided the spoils" of Macedonia amongst the three neighbouring countries - Bulgaria, Greece, and Serbia. Amongst the worst of what was to follow happened in Greece - family names were given "Greek" versions, village names were renamed, churches were re-Christened under Greek saints, tombstones and epitaphs along with any visible signs of the Macedonian language were erased and re-written in Greek.

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HISTORY

One of the more interesting cases refers to the two large Macedonian villages Gorno and Dolno Poroi on the southern slopes of Mt. Belasitsa. They have retained their original names up to the present time since some “scholarly” person, not knowing the real origin and meaning of the name, associated it with Heraclitus’ panta rei (everything flows) and drew the conclusion that the name Poroi was of classical Greek origin, forgetting, or not knowing, that while it was from the same Indo-European root, it had a different meaning. In Greek, for example, the noun rema (meaning stream or small river) is derived from the verb reo-rei, while the Slavs have derived the noun reka (river) from the same root. In Greek a river is called potami or potamos, while the Slavs have used the same root with a slightly different meaning as in pot (sweat), potop (flood), etc. Thanks to this “knowledge” on the part of the Greek experts, i.e. their misunderstanding, these two villages have retained their old names with only the Gorno (Upper) and Dolno (Lower) parts were replaced by Ano and Kato. Interesting is also the case of the village Dislap in the Naselits area. It, most probably at the proposal of the villagers, was renamed Dragasia on account of its proximity to Mt. Dragos and in thus “avoiding” its first Slavonic name, it acquired a new, again Slavonic name, only with a Greek suffix.

Not only were the names of towns and villages affected, but also all the geographical concepts, such as mountains, rivers, lakes, etc.

In the administrative division of Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia into districts and areas, a great number of places acquired ancient classical names. Thus Katerini district and area were renamed Pieria, Ber district and area became Imatia, Voden (Edessa) district and area became Pella, Naselich area became Voion, the Kailari area was renamed Eordea, the Gumendži area became Peonia, the Valoviš area was renamed Sindiki, Zihnen area became Philida, Nigrid area became Visaltia, Larigovo area became Arnea, Praviš area became Pangeron, while Sarisaban area became Nestos.

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