Pavelić

Pavelić, alternatively spelled Pavelic or Pavelich, is a Croatian family name. It is a patronymic surname based on the male given name Pavel, which is the local variant of Paul. It is closely related to a number of other Slavic surnames with the same etymology such as Pavlović (Pavlovich), Pavletić (Pavletich) or Pavličić (Pavlichich). Historically they come from the area around the Croatian towns of Gospić and Senj. It ranks as the 251st most common family name in Croatia and there is around 2,000 people living in Croatia today with the surname Pavelić, some 450 of them in the capital Zagreb.