The name of the city

The name that the city bore for six centuries was used from the first written records of the settlement (the beginning of the 14th century) up to 1935, when it got the name of Petrovgrad, after King Petar I Karađorđević. It got its present name after the Second World War, after the revolutionary Žarko Zrenjanin. There are no credible explanations about the origin and the meaning of the name Becskerek, which used to be pronounced in different variants. Deviations can be interpreted partly as spelling errors, and partly as different dialectic pronunciations of one and the same word. The actual word "Becskerek" was the subject of numerous interpretations and explanations. Some historiographers derive the word from the name of the people called Pechenegs. 

 

      

 

Barany Agoston, in the book "Torontalvarmegye Hajdana", published in Buda in 1845, mentioned that Pechenegs named Becskerek, who inhabited the regions between Haemus and the Danube. The historian Sentklarai stated that the founders of this settlement were the tribes Beche and Gregor, in the beginning of the 14th century. The Turkish travel writer Evlia Chelebi described the settlement as "Beš Telek" ("five melons"- five peninsulas between the Begej River meanders, on which the settlement developed).

 

 

Felix Milleker in the work "Geschichte der Stadt Gross/Veliki Becskerek", printed in Vršac in 1933, divided this name into two separate words: Beče-Beche and Kereke, which would mean: "Beche’s forest". It is known that the Hungarian feudal lord Imre Bechey founded the nearby town of Bečej in 1311, and that he possessed hunting-grounds here and, therefore, this statement is not groundless. According to one author, the name Bečkerek/Becskerek is of Slavic origin and originates from the word Peč (rock) and Kereks, or Kirche (church), which would mean "Stone church".

 

On September 29, 1934, at the session of the town council of the town of Veliki-Big Becskerek, the people’s deputy Dr Toša Rajić submitted a proposal to change the name of the town. Related to this, inter alia, he said: "In 1918, our region was liberated and united in the national state, under the leadership of the national dynasty of Karađorđević. Our town, which through centuries and at a great sacrifice struggled to preserve the national trait of these areas, was always a true expression of our national aspirations and pursuits. It honorably struggled for national and state freedom, but under the name, which was imposed to our people and which was always strange and alien to it. That name could be understood and tolerated in a state in which we, under the compulsion of historical circumstances, had to live, and which was the most prominent opponent of our national and state ideals. In 1918, when we were liberated and when we created a joint national state, we were obliged to give our town the name of our Sovereign Liberator and the name of the hope of our people, the future Sovereign of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia: Petrovgrad, as a symbol of our great national future and our active national life in this region. I am convinced that this change of the name of our town will be yet another action for our active and constructive national life". 

 

         

 

The town council adopted the proposal with acclamation, unanimously. The decision of the Town Council was approved at a higher instance on February 18, 1935, since when the town bore the name of Petrovgrad.

 

In the course of the Second World War, the German occupational authorities, although unofficially, gave back the name Veliki-Big Becskerek (Gross Becskerek) to the town. The town retained its official name, Petrovgrad, all until October 2, 1946, when, on the second anniversary of its liberation, it got the name of Zrenjanin, after the revolutionary Žarko Zrenjanin.