Subotica - Name

Name

There have been many different forms of the name of this city in history. This is because the city has welcomed so many different peoples since the Middle Ages. They all wrote about it, naming it in their own languages, which, for some, did not fix their spelling until modern times.

The earliest known written name of the city was Zabadka or Zabatka, which dates from 1391. This is a variant of the current Hungarian name for the city: Szabadka. The Hungarian name for the city may derive from the adjective szabad meaning "free", and the suffix -ka, an affectionate diminutive. Subotica's earliest designation would mean, therefore, something like a "small" or "dear" "free place". Another theory holds that the medieval name Zabatka could have derived from the South Slavic word "zabat", which described parts of Pannonian Slavic houses.

The name Subotica, which first appeared in 1653, may derive from Subota, the Serbian / Bunjevac word for "Saturday", and would mean "a little Saturday". Another theory claims that city was named after Subota Vrlić, who was a palatine and treasurer of a Emperor Jovan Nenad, which ruled from this city in the 16th century. An older Serbian name used for the city in the 16th century was Sabatka, while Ottoman Turkish name was Sobotka.

The town was renamed in the 1740s for Maria Theresa of Austria, Archduchess of Austria and Queen of Bohemia and Hungary. The town was officially called Sent-Maria in 1743, but was renamed in 1779 as Maria-Theresiapolis. These two official names were also spelled in several different ways (most commonly the German Maria-Theresiopel or Theresiopel), and were used in different languages.

The city's name in the other three official languages of Vojvodina are the same as the official name - Slovak: Subotica, Rusyn: Суботица, Romanian: Subotica or Subotiţa.