by Jim Young (guest)
3/8/2007, 3:37 AM
-vich is a patronymic ending, "son of xxx".
If the name is Jewish the ancestral name was probably Benjamin or Bentsion ("son of Zion"), in the diminutive in either case. If it's a Southern Slav name it could be for a descenadant of Benedict, in which case it would likely be Croatian, or maybe Slovenian, rather than Serbian. If it's Serbian or Ukrainian I give up.