Modrić

Modrić is a Croatian surname primarily from Zadar-Benkovac area in North Dalmatia. In Zaton Obrovački in the Benkovac area, every third inhabitant had the family name Modrić. There is also a hamlet nearby named Modrići. Today, circa 1930 people carry it, making it the 212th most numerous surname in Croatia, almost doubling the 1948 census number, in almost all Croatian counties and many cities and villages, but mostly Zagreb, Glavice near Sinj, Rijeka, Zadar, Split, Obrovac among others, and less in Northern Croatia and Slavonia. According to some sources, the noble part of the family is from Podgorje area on the littoral slopes of Velebit, between Senj in the North and river Zrmanja in the South, where came at least in the 17th century from Dalmatia (Podzrmanje). Outside Croatia, due to migration the surname can be found in Algeria, United States, Germany, Austria, Argentina, Slovenia, France, Serbia, Italy, Australia and so on.

==Etymology== The surname is most probably of nickname origin, possibly of physical trait, and its root modr- derives from Slavic adjective mȍdar meaning "which is the color of a bright sky", "blue", while in regard to human body a shade of blue that is closer to purple. Another possibility is to be related to the traditional shirt for the whole body called "modra", "modrna", "modrina", which was of blue color and was mostly worn by young boys until school age when was replaced by trousers, while in Western Herzegovina traditional pants with "turom" were also called "modrine", probably because they were of blue color.