Petar

Meaning of Petar

Petar is a masculine given name of Slavic origin, representing the Bulgarian, Serbian, and Croatian variant of the Greek appellation Petros, signifying “rock,” and thereby inheriting the ecclesiastical gravitas associated with Saint Peter, the primatial apostle of early Christendom. Phonetically rendered as PEH-tahr (/pɛˈtar/), it occupies a measured position within United States naming registers, having first appeared in the Social Security Administration’s data in 1963 with six recorded instances (rank 653) and subsequently oscillating between single and low double-digit annual occurrences. The name achieved a twentieth-century prevalence peak of twenty-one births (rank 862) in 2006 and, in the most recent 2024 data, registers fourteen occurrences (rank 910), a pattern that underscores its modest yet sustained adoption among Anglophone communities inclined toward Slavic etymological heritage or the enduring symbolism of apostolic tradition. Such continuity, despite its niche demographic profile, attests to Petar’s capacity to confer both historical depth and cultural specificity within contemporary onomastic practice.