Hi Kristina,

VRANA is a common name from several Slavic speaking countries.

For instance in Ellis Island records there are 130 VRANA arrivals from 1892-1924. This is how they listed their Race (what we now call ethnicity0

6- Croatian
30 - Slovak
44 - Bohemian (now called Czech)
1- Romanian
0-Servian

Many of the remaining were recorded on ship manifests that had no Race category.

http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/EIDB/ellis.html

There are 7 categories of surnames:

Occupational - such as KOVAC = smith, like a blacksmith or KLOBUCAR = hat maker, etc.

Patronymic from a male given name such as IVANIC son of Ivan (John)

Matronymic from a female given name such as KATIC, son of Kata (Kate)

Geographic such as BOSANAC = from Bosna

Nature such as VRANA = crow, MEDVED = bear, PUZ = snail

From foreign words such as HAJDUK from a Turkish word for a bandit, AMIDZIC, from a turkish word for uncle, DIZDAR from a Turkish military official, POTURICA literally means one who converted to the Turkish way of life

From a nickname such as MALETIC from male meaning small, etc..

What is interesting is that NAILEN is found in Ellis Is records coming from Scotland.

Interesting stuff this family history!

Robert Jerin
Croatian Heritage Museum
Cleveland Ohio
http://www.croatia-in-english.com/rj/index.html