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ArchivesI can't find either one of my Last names
I have tried to see if the options given show if it's a varient but no luck. My paternal surname is Diminick and maternal is Oliveras. I've been told Diminick is Croatian and Oliveras is Spanish but I want to look more into both of them.
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Assuming Diminick was anglisized from Croatian: I went through the Croatian Wikipedia and found Diminići, the name of a city, so maybe it is a toponymic surname. Potentially, if it was founded during the Communist-era, the name of the city could have come from the name of a hypothetical high-ranking party member, Diminić. I can tell you that Dim most likely comes from smoke. I suspected that, as the Polish cognate is dym. Maybe "Dimin" (smokey) was either a nickname or given name of your Croatian paternal ancestor. As opposed to Western and Eastern Slavs, Southern Slavs are keen on single-lexeme names. Mladen (Young) and Dushan (Soul) come to mind.
https://hr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diminići
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavic_names
https://hr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diminići
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavic_names
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Oliveras is related to the given name Oliver. Diminick is almost definitely an Anglicized spelling. Most Croatian names end with -ic, which is a patronymic. The first part I'm not sure, it could possibly be related to given names Dmitar or Dominik.
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The original form of the surname was probably Diminić. It's very rare in Croatia today, according to this website:
https://actacroatica.com/en/surname/Diminic/ (in English)
https://actacroatica.com/en/surname/Diminic/ (in English)
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Oliveras is a Catalan surname, meaning 'olive trees'. So denoting an ancestor who lived near an olive grove. Or perhaps there is a village called Oliveras.
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