Albanian Names

First names

Albanian given names draw on four traditions at once, which is unusual: indigenous names (Agron, Teuta, Genti — Illyrian rulers), Muslim names (Ardit, Besnik, Fatmir, Arben), Christian names (Gjergj, Pjetër, Marie), and names revived during the national awakening.

Skënder and Gjergj are both after Skanderbeg. Many modern names are transparently Albanian words: Besnik means 'faithful', Fatmir 'lucky', Drita 'light', Lule 'flower'.

Surnames

Family names often derive from a place (Shkodrani, Korçari, Dibra), from an ancestor, or from an occupation. The suffix -aj is common in the north and typically indicates descent from a named ancestor. The great medieval families — Kastrioti, Dukagjini, Thopia, Arianiti, Balsha, Muzaka — survive as surnames.

Under the communist government some names were changed to remove religious associations, and a 1975 decree required citizens with names deemed unsuitable to change them.

Names and history

For most of the Ottoman period a name announced a religion: a Muslim family chose Arabic and Turkish names, a Catholic one saints' names in their Albanian forms, an Orthodox one Greek-derived names. The national awakening of the late 19th century pushed back against that division by promoting names that were simply Albanian — Illyrian rulers such as Teuta, Agron and Genti, heroes such as Skënder, and words of the language itself.

The communist state took the idea much further. Official lists of approved 'Illyrian' and 'revolutionary' names were published, religious names were discouraged after the 1967 ban on religion and then targeted by the 1975 decree, and a generation was named Shpresa ('hope'), Liri ('freedom') or after partisans and the party.

After 1991 the fashion swung outward. Parents picked names from Italian television, Hollywood and football, and later from the countries where relatives had emigrated — so a single Albanian family can hold an Illyrian grandparent, a revolutionary parent and a child named after an Italian singer.

How names are written

Albanian uses ë and ç, and names are frequently written without them abroad — Berisha for Berisha, Hoxha for Hoxha, but Çela becomes Cela and Përparim becomes Perparim. Both forms refer to the same person.