South Slavic Surname "Rikalo"

[Red Skull]

I didn't know where to post this, so if it's in the wrong place then someone please feel free to move it.

This is a question for the South Slavs (or any other person that might know):

What does the surname "Rikalo" mean and whence does it originate?

Thanks in advance.

[Hrvoje]

I think it means "shouter".

Doesn't seem to be common in Croatia.

[Levin]

Originally Posted by Red Skull

What does the surname "Rikalo" mean and whence does it originate?

A wild guess: I'd say it could originate in Herzegovina or Lika, like many of the other pejorative and offensive surnames like Kenjalo, Bodiroga, Bubanj, Dupalo, Krnjeta, Zvijer etc.

Rikalo literally means the one who roars loudly (if only one could roar not-loudly).

[Red Skull]

I have been told that these names were forced upon Serbs by the Ottomans. It is very rare that a Serb or Bosnian with such a surname has any Turkish blood, because the individuals bearing these surnames have ancestors which the Turks shunned.

I have no source for this, though.

[Hrvoje]

Yes, roar is better word for translation.

[Levin]

Originally Posted by Red Skull

I have been told that these names were forced upon Serbs by the Ottomans. It is very rare that a Serb or Bosnian with such a surname has any Turkish blood, because the individuals bearing these surnames have ancestors which the Turks shunned.

I have no source for this, though.

This is a very popular, but rather naive explanation. Why in the name of God would someone proudly accept the insulting nickname, given by Turks, with the explanation that he is proud that a Turk called him 'swine' or 'bull', or gave him an animal's name because he didn't want to convert to Islam? I think that this explanation came from people that had a very poor understanding about the Turkish times, and even poorer about the mentality of those areas.

The truth is that in those areas people tend to mock each other somewhat brutally, and invent embarrassing and insulting nicknames for each others and that eventually everyone yields to his environment and accepts the nickname which he passes down to his descendants.

Other thing common in these areas is the belief that the infants could be protected from death (which was believed to be caused by "witches", "lazy eye" or evil in general) if they were named with appalling names, or fearful ones (Wolf-Vuk and its derivates are very popular), or even after the things the parents feared they would lost their child to, like Kuga (plague) or Vještica (witch). The parents would keep the baptismal, Christian name of the ir child a secret, and call him only by his false name - thus the evil forces couldn't know his name and harm him (a common connection of the name and the power over something which name is known).

To let my imagination go freely, I rather imagine your great-great-great-great-grandfather as a young shepherd with a very loud voice that was given the nickname Roarer by older children that mocked him. I also imagine him protesting and fighting against it, and everyone calling him that even more. As time passed and he grew up, he became accustomed to it, even more as people started to use the name not only to mock him, but also to speak fondly of him and to him. No matter what surname he might have had, he continued to pass his unique and well known nickname to the next generations, until finally it was accepted as a family name.

There.

[Red Skull]

I take it you have no source as well?

But it does seem like a plausible explanation I'll tell you that. =)