Kosovo or Kosova, Kosovan or Kosovar

“Kosovan” is the single most searched word about Kosovo’s name in the UK, and it’s a fair question, because you’ll see Kosovan, Kosovar, Kosova and Kosovo used almost interchangeably online. Here’s what the official sources say, what the territory is called in its two official languages, and which names actually matter when you’re on the road.

Kosovan, Kosovar and Kosovar Albanian

Gov.uk uses Kosovan. Its travel advice points readers with entry questions to the Kosovan Embassy in the UK, so that’s the word I use in English. You will also see Kosovar, which is the dictionary form in Spanish.

“Kosovar Albanian” is narrower. It means someone from Kosovo who belongs to the Albanian community, which is the large majority, 1,454,963 people in the 2024 census. But Kosovo isn’t only Albanian. The same census counted 36,652 Serbs, 26,841 Bosniaks, 19,419 Turks and smaller Ashkali, Egyptian, Gorani and Roma groups, all broken down in Kosovo population. A Serb from Gračanica is Kosovan, but not a Kosovar Albanian.

Kosovo, Kosova and Republika e Kosovës

In Albanian the territory is Kosova, or Kosovë depending on the grammar, and that’s how the Kosovo Agency of Statistics heads its tables. In Serbian it’s Kosovo, as in English, and the Spanish foreign ministry’s Serbia profile also records “Kosovo and Metohija”, the form Serbia uses.

The name its institutions use appears in three languages at the top of every law and of the official holiday calendar, as “Republika e Kosovës”, “Republika Kosova” and “Republic of Kosovo”. The symbols that go with the name, such as the Kosovo flag, are set out separately in Law No. 03/L-038. What each government and international body says about its status is a separate question, covered in is Kosovo a country.

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Writing it and saying it

In English, Kosovo is the form used by gov.uk and the EU. For the capital I use Pristina, without diacritics, as gov.uk does, rather than the Albanian Prishtinë or the Serbian Priština. For comparison, the Spanish Royal Academy’s dictionary lists kosovar as the demonym and albanokosovar for a Kosovar of Albanian origin, a distinction I think is worth keeping in English too.

Two names for almost every town

The practical point is place names. Because Albanian and Serbian are both official under the Constitution, most towns have two forms. Pristina is Prishtinë and Priština; Peja is Pejë and Peć; Gjakova is Đakovica; Mitrovica is Kosovska Mitrovica. If you’re driving, learn to recognise both, because your hire car’s sat nav and your hotel booking may each use a different one. The languages you’ll actually hear, and which to try a greeting in, are covered in Kosovo language.

On this site, each place gets its Albanian and Serbian names on first mention, then the form people search for most. For the Orthodox monasteries I follow UNESCO, with names such as Visoki Dečani and Gračanica, which is what you’ll see on the UNESCO sites in Kosovo page.

If you are short on time, see the best tours in Pristina and pick one that fits your day.

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