Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia - Name

Name

The name "Yugoslavia", an Anglicised transcription of "Jugoslavija", is a composite word made-up of "jug" (with the "J" pronounced like an English "y") and "slavija". The translation of the Macedonian, Serbo-Croatian and Slovene word "jug" is "south", while "slavija" ("slavia") keeps its meaning ("land of the Slavs"). Thus a translation of "Jugoslavija" would be "South Slavia" or "Land of the South Slavs". The term unifies the six South Slavic nations of Yugoslavia, Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Bosniaks, Montenegrins and Macedonians. The full official name of the country varied significantly between 1943 and 1992.

Yugoslavia was formed in 1918 under the name Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. In January 1929, King Alexander I assumed dictatorship of the country and renamed it into Kingdom of Yugoslavia, for the first time making the term "Yugoslavia", which was used colloquially for decades (even before the country was formed), the official name of the state. After the Kingdom was occupied during World War II, AVNOJ announced in 1943 their intention to rebuild the country as Democratic Federal Yugoslavia (DF Yugoslavia, DFY), leaving the question of republic or kingdom open.

In 1945, it became the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia (FPR Yugoslavia, FPRY), with the constitution coming into force in 1946 and in 1963 the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFR Yugoslavia, SFRY). The state is most commonly referred to by this last full name (Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia), which it held for the longest period of all. Of the three Yugoslav languages, the Serbo-Croatian and Macedonian language name for the state was identical, while Slovene slightly differed in capitalization and the spelling of the adjective "Socialist". The names are as follows:

• Serbo-Croatian and Macedonian languages
  • Latin alphabet: Socijalistička Federativna Republika Jugoslavija.
  • Cyrillic script: Социјалистичка Федеративна Република Југославија.
• Slovene language
  • Socialistična federativna republika Jugoslavija.

Due to the length of the name, abbreviations were often used to refer to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, though the state was most commonly known simply as "Yugoslavia". The most common abbreviation is "SFRY" ("SFRJ"), though "SFR Yugoslavia" was also used in official capacity, particularly by the media.