Slovenian researchers of family names distinguish family names by origin into those that originated from first names, from the names of settlements and regions, from ethnic names, from aliases, while a large group of family names originated from occupations and activities of individuals (Torkar, 2002).
Slovenski raziskovalci priimkov delijo priimke po nastanku na priimke, nastale iz rojstnih imen, iz imen krajev, ledinskih, pokrajinskih, etničnih imen, iz vzdevkov, velika skupina priimkov pa je nastala tudi iz nazivov za poklice in dejavnosti, s katero so se ukvarjali posamezniki (Torkar, 2002).