Albanians in the Middle Ages had "two names"

"Perhaps the Albanians in the early Middle Ages may have lost a lot of land to the Serbs. They were by no means a dying people. From the end of the 13th century they launched an attack towards the north in Thessaloniki, Epirus and Greece, from the end of the 17th century a second attack towards the northeast to Novi Pazar, Nis and Vranje. In the Middle Ages, they emerged as an ancient Christian population with a more civil culture, which was much closer to the Greeks and Dalmatian Romans than the newly converted Serbs", said Kostandin Jirecek, the well-known Czech historian in the book "The History of the Serbs".

According to Jirecek, "Christianity is evidenced by the remains of old Latin terminology in their language and many place names derived from holy names. In the document of the monastery of Deçan (1330) and in the cadastre of Shkodra (1416), every Albanian bears two names: the first was a Christian name, rarely a Roman (such as Calens from Calenda or Tanusius) or national (Barda "white ”, Progon, Bitri etc.), the second is usually the name of a tribe or a village, less often the name of a personal characteristic, such as "beautiful" (Mira), "small" (Vogali ) and others like these. Most of these tribal names today are still known as tribal or village names: Tuzi (now in 1330), Prekali, Shkreli, Kastrati, etc.

In the cadastre in 1416, e.g. in "villa i Tusi" (Tuzi in Podgorica) all 16 house owners are called Tusi, which originated from the mayor Jurco Tusi, while in Grouemira grande (Albanian: "beautiful woman") out of 20 houses only 11 were inhabited. mountains to the east of Lake Shkodra, large tribes were settled, such as the Hotajt (Hoti) who are still very important today, often mentioned since 1330.

But, in the Middle Ages, tribes were not decisive, but chiefs and nobles...