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Priest pays parents to give babies unfashionable names

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-02-05 09:15

ZAGREB -- A priest worried about the erosion of Croatia's national identity has offered to pay parents who flout trends and give their babies traditional names, a report said Wednesday.

Croatian babies wearing the national soccer team colors at a maternity in 2006. A priest worried about the erosion of Croatia's national identity has offered to pay parents who flout trends and give their babies traditional names, a report said Wednesday. [Agencies]

"Those who name their child after a grandfather, a grandmother, a saint... on the day of baptising will be given 1,000 kunas (135 euros, 175 dollars)," reads a notice on his church's doors in the southern coastal town of Ploce.

The message is accompanied by a list suggesting some 80 Croatian male and female names considered "traditional" -- such as Ante, Petar, Ana or Marija.

"Anything suspicious is out of the question," the Catholic priest, Petar Mikic, was quoted as telling the daily Jutarnji List.

"We have to prevent Croatia from becoming diluted and disappearing since it is through names that one can know to which nation he belongs," he stressed.

"Our ancestors are being honoured by giving children national names."

In 2008, the most popular names in Croatia, notably for girls, were of foreign origin such as Lana, Petra, Sara, Lucija and Nika, official figures show. The most popular boys' names were Luka, Karlo, Filip, Ivano and Ivan.