Ћуро и/или Ћура
Đuro and / or Đura

Summary/Abstract: A well-known Serbian philologist, in 1847, changed his Christian and family names Đorđe Popović to the pseudonym Đ. Daničić and kept the latter until the end of his life. Even 160 years after his first use of the new names, there is no consensus in opinions about the real background of the initial letter Đ. There are reasons to decipher the initial in question as − Đuro. The arguments: a) Daničić has written all his scholarly papers − including his {Rat za srpski jezik i pravopis} (The War for Serbian Language and Orthography); the first was signed with Đ. Daničić − in Ijekavian, and in Serbian Ijekavian dialects the nominative case form is Đuro. b) His contemporaries identified him under the name Đuro. c) During the 20th century, most scholars originating from the Ijekavian area name him as Đuro, while the Ekavian scholars are divided (besides Đura, which is expected, naturally, Đuro is used too). d) Daničić himself, rarely − one must say, signed as Đuro. In that way, he signed his last will in 1882. e) At the Novo groblje (New Cemetery) in Belgrade, on the big tombstone − the name Đuro Daničić is engraved.

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