Declension of proper names

In English a name never changes: I met Ana, a present for Ana, with Ana. In Serbian a name is a noun like any other, so it takes case endings: Upoznao sam Anu, poklon za Anu, sa Anom. The most common mistake learners make at this level is to leave names in the nominative. A Serbian listener hears sa Ana the way you would hear with she.

The good news: you already know every ending. A name simply declines like an ordinary noun with the same ending, so the only question is which ending the name has — and, for surnames, whether it belongs to a man or a woman.

The whole pattern in one table

Other names follow the same rows: Stefan → sa Stefanom, Ilija → vidim Iliju, Marija → poklon za Mariju, Ines → poruka od Ines, gospodin Ilić → sa gospodinom Ilićem, Niš → živim u Nišu.

Men's names

• A man's name ending in a consonant (Milan, Stefan, Dejan, Jovan) declines like brat: it is a person, so its accusative is the same as its genitive — Vidim Milana, Kupio sam poklon od Milana.
• A man's name ending in -a (Nikola, Ilija) takes the endings of žena — Nikole, Nikoli, Nikolu, Nikolom — but it is still a man: Nikola je bio ovde, moj dobar prijatelj Ilija. You met this with kolega and sudija in the lesson on masculine nouns in -a.
• A man's name ending in -o (Marko) drops the -o and takes the consonant endings: Marko → Marka, Marku, Markom.

Women's names

• A woman's name ending in -a (Ana, Jovana, Milica, Marija) declines exactly like žena: za Anu, sa Milicom, o Jovani.
• A woman's name ending in a consonant (Karmen, Ines) never changes: sa Karmen, za Ines, od Karmen. It does not follow stvar or noć. The case is still there — you just cannot see it on the name, so the preposition and the words around it carry it.

Surnames: the man's declines, the woman's does not

The same surname behaves in two ways. On a man it is an ordinary masculine noun and declines: sa gospodinom Petrovićem, knjiga Dejana Stojanovića. On a woman the same word stays frozen in the nominative: sa gospođom Petrović, pismo za profesorku Marković. Her first name still declines: sa Anom Petrović.

Before you write a surname, ask whose it is. A man: give it the ending (Petrovića, Petroviću, Petrovićem). A woman: leave it exactly as it is, and put the ending only on her first name or title (sa gospođom Petrović, sa Anom Petrović). Note also the instrumental: surnames in -ić end in -em, not -om — Petrovićem, Jovanovićem.

Place names

• Cities and countries decline like ordinary nouns with the same ending: Beograd → u Beogradu, iz Beograda; Srbija → u Srbiji, iz Srbije; Pariz → u Pariz (direction), u Parizu (location).
• The fleeting a you learned earlier applies to place names too: Kragujevac → iz Kragujevca.
• A name made of an adjective and a noun declines both parts: Crna Gora → u Crnoj Gori, iz Crne Gore, u Crnu Goru.
• Country names that look like adjectives (Nemačka, Mađarska, Švajcarska, Hrvatska) decline like adjectives: u Nemačkoj, iz Mađarske, u Hrvatsku. Countries in -ija decline like žena: u Italiju, u Srbiji.

Foreign names follow the same logic: whatever pattern their ending fits, they take its endings (London → u Londonu, Pablo → sa Pablom, Amsterdam → u Amsterdamu). Serbian declines foreign names far more readily than English speakers expect, so leaving a man's name or a place name in the nominative is the mistake to avoid. The one group that never changes is the one you already know: women's names ending in a consonant.