Papec families are Croats and they are mostly from Varazdin area. In the past century, relatively most of Croatian residents bearing this family name were born in Zagreb and Varazdin. In Vidovec in Varazdin area every twentieth inhabitant had the family name Papec.
Prevalence
About 180 people with faimily name Papec live in Croatia today, in 70 households. There were 140 of them in the middle of the past century, and their number increased by 30 percent. They are located in 7 Croatian counties, in 9 cities and 19 other places, mostly in Zagreb (70), Varazdin (35), and in Vidovec (25), Papinec (10) and Petrijanec (<10) in Varazdin area.
In the sources analysed in the project Acta Croatica so far, the name is mentioned over five times, the first time 2007 in source Encyclopaedia of Croatian Surnames.