Dropull

 ( Municipalities In Gjirokastër County ) 

In the core region, the anthroponymy attested overwhelmingly belonged to the Albanian onomastic sphere, characterized by personal names such as Bardh, Deda, Gjin, Gjon, Kola, Leka, and Progor (a form of the Albanian anthroponym Progon which underwent Tosk Albanian rhotacism) among others. A small presence of Slavic anthroponymy (e.g., Andrica, Petko, Stojko) is also recorded. Albanian personal names also appear in the Iflaklar (Vlach or Aromanians) settlements (e.g., Koshovicë, Lovinë, Vodhinë), indicating that there was an intense process of assimilation and symbiosis between the two ethno-linguistic groups of the wider region. There are a number of surnames that are clearly distinguishable as Greek, such as Papdhopullo, Dhespoti, Konturaki, Makrinudhi, Kovrallari, Nikopullo, Papapetro etc.'. Besides the significant Albanian anthroponymic element, there are also settlements with mixed Greek, Slavic, Albanian, and Aromanian anthroponyms, as well as settlements where the predominance of Greek anthroponyms is evident; such as in Derviçan. The register also provides insights into movements from neighboring territories and villages into Dropull. Namely, the surnames Zagoriti, Llaboviti, Filati and Miguli were recorded; of these the first two have the Greek suffix -iti(s). For example, four household heads from Lovinë bore the surname of Zagoriti indicating their origins from the ethnographic region of Zagoria to the north of Dropull.

Christian Orthodox names in the Ottoman register of 1520 that don't have a clear ethnic affiliation have been a subject of debate. Duka (1990) considers the lack of the Greek suffix as strong indication that in that part of the anthroponymy of the region there are "no traces of the presence of the influence of Greek". According to Demiraj (2008) a number of the anthroponyms such as Gjon, Gjin, Gjergj, Lekë and Pal are also attested in forms influenced by the Greek Orthodox Church: Jani, Jorgo, Aleks and Pavllo albeit lacking the characteristic Greek suffix (as seen in Janis, Jorgos etc.). He attributes the presence of these forms to the significant role of Greek Orthodox Church in southern Albania in general, particularly the area of Dropull. Demiraj hesitates to favour the possibility of an early Greek presence in the area based on historical indications and onomatological features and points out that further research is needed in this field. According to Kyriazis and Spyrou (2011), Demiraj's main weakness in his approach is that he is ignoring the corresponding Greek literary evidence.

Schmitt (2015) argues that Christian Orthodox names such as – using Duka's Albanian transliteration – Miho Papapetro, Jani Makrinudhi, Andria Makrinudhi, Miho Spathar in the village Bodrishtë, suggest the presence of a Greek-speaking population in the region. According to Schmitt, Greek name influence among Aromanian names was also strong as in the village Sotirë. Schmitt concluded that the onomatological evidence in most villages is mixed and as such an ethnic-national division can not clearly be drawn, as Duka's categorization does not provide clear divisions. According to him, the only conclusion that can be drawn from such data is that the settlements of Dropull were populated by Orthodox communities, while only Aromanian villages were noticeably separated under the context of Ottoman administration. Schmitt argues that only the ethno-national opposition since the late 19th century divided this community into national communities. Kyriazis (2022) argues that the absence of the suffix does not show a lack of the Greek element, as this was quite typical in Ottoman records from areas that were undoubtedly Greek-speaking. A view also corroborated by the Ottomanist scholar Kostas Kamburidis (2013).: "Το τελικό –ς ή και η κατάληξη –is στα ελληνικά ονόματα και επώνυμα παραλείπεται, πράγμα σύνηθες στα οθωμανικά έγγραφα."

Liço also disagrees, and says that Greek names in the genitive, accusative, and vocative cases don't have the suffix ; this suffix is only observed in the nominative case. Giakoumis says that in Greek the surnames are often given in the genitive case without the suffix ; especially in Epirus and in the provinces of Dropull and Pogon. Both Giakoumis and Liço add, that in Ottoman , such as this one, the names were given in response to the question 'whose household...' or 'how do you call him', and the interpreter answered in the genitive or accusative cases without the suffix . According to Liço, the eliding of the suffix in Greek names, is further corroborated when we consider undoubtedly Greek surnames in the defter, that also lack it.

Kyriazis (2018), after assessing the presence of the Greek language in the region, pointed to Duka's failure to take into account the etymology of the local toponymy and the presence of archaic Greek place-names, which the Slavs had translated into their own language. Liço, having studied the names of settlements and microtoponyms in the region, concluded that out of the 2,778 in total, 2,324 were Greek, 57 Slavic, 184 Albanian, 90 Turkish, and 123 unidentified. Kyriazis (2022), having reviewed another publication from 2005 which presented the toponyms of the region, reached more or less the same conclusion; though he had reservations about a possible higher frequency of Slavic toponyms; as observed in the names of the villages of Dropull. The same author also pointed to the frequency of anthroponyms that are characteristic of northern Albania (such as the name Martin or the surname Martini), and suggested that the population that bore them could have descended to Dropull from northern Albania during the first centuries of the second millennium, and could have eventually continued further south to form parts of the population of Arvanites; especially when we consider that Dropull has always been a passage from north to south.. He believes that such an approach could explain the contradiction between the anthroponyms and toponyms in the region, and added that such temporary settlement of Albanians in medieval and late-medieval Dropull, partially disturbed its demography, but this wasn't significant in order to alter the toponymy of the region. Furthermore, he stated that the preservation of Greek though the centuries, as well as local surnames of Albanian origin, indicates that the Albanian-speaking population who settled there, found a Greek-speaking population and was eventually assimilated by it; just like it previously happened with the Slavs, the traces of which are evident in local surnames and toponyms. He claims that this approach is further supported when we compare the anthroponyms and toponyms of the adjacent region of Pogon, which was both then and now geographically isolated, and therefore more conservative linguistically; the defter of 1520 shows that this region didn't have any Albanian anthroponyms, or it had very few traces of them, while the linguistic character of its toponymy is similar to that of Dropull.