Family name origins & meanings
- Czech and Slovak (Kocián) and Hungarian (Kócián) : from a personal name, from Latin Cassianus, a derivative of the old Roman family name Cassius.
- Altered form of Slovenian and Croatian Kocjan or Kocijan, vernacular forms of the personal name Kancijan, Latin Cantianus. Saint Cantianus was a martyr under the Roman emperor Diocletian. He died together with his brother and sister in S. Canzian d’Isonzo (Slovenian Škocjan) in Friuli, in northeastern Italy. He was one of the most popular Catholic saints in Slovenia and Croatia in the Middle Ages and many places bear his name (Škocjan ‘Saint Kocjan’). The American surname Kocian may also be a reduced form of the Slovenian patronymics Kocjančič or Kocijančič.