Najstariji "popis" Hrvata
The Earliest Census of the Croats

Summary/Abstract: The first inscription from port Tanais at Don esturary on Azov Sea (Latyschev, nr. 445; C/RB 1277) indicates two persons with names very similar to the Croatian ethnonyme. A man formerly indicated as the leader of religious assembly (synodos), in 5th row is named (CoroUaqŠojĆ). The person in 20th row is indicated as the son of Corofqoj, but on this damaged tablet his personal name persisted unknown. Quite identical name CorOaqoj is registered also in the second minor inscription (Latyschev, nr. 430; C/RB 1245) and it is the name of the last among four men indicated as prior of Tanais. After the judgement of reputed Croatian philologist Radoslav Katičić these ones were personal names, and not ethnonymes. The same scholar concluded that "this personal name is so similar to Croatian ethnonyme that it is rather probable to be so". Then Katičić also concluded "if it was so, then this ethnoname was transformed to a personal name, whisch is not a rare phenomenon. The men bearing it came to Tanais, and became reputed citizens there. Specialists agree that it was probably an Iranian name. This also means that some people with that ethnonyme existed somewhere in the backland of Tanais, where in ancient times lived some steppic nomads who had spoken Iranian language. Perhaps (only: perhaps?) Croats have their ethnonyme from that people, if it existed at all. Nothing more, nor less that that".

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