Jelčić families are almost entirely Croats and they are mostly from Opuzen area and according to some sources from Pocitelj near Capljina (Herzegovina), rarely Serbs. In the past century, relatively most of Croatian residents bearing this family name were born in Herzegovina (Capljina area) and in Metkovic. In Stubica in Middle Bosnia every third inhabitant had the family name Jelčić.
Prevalence
About 950 people with faimily name Jelčić live in Croatia today, in 380 households. There were 690 of them in the middle of the past century, and their number increased by 40 percent. They are located in almost all Croatian counties, in 48 cities and 67 other places, mostly in Zagreb (190), Metkovic (145), Split (50), Ploce (40), and in Pozega (30).
In the sources analysed in the project Acta Croatica so far, the name is mentioned over twenty times, the first time 1906 in source Yearbook and Directory of Literary Society of St. Jerome 1906.
