The Serbian family named Vidakovic is classified as being of personal name origin. According to scholars the "oldest and most persuasive type of surname is that derived from a given name." Such family names may be derived from a parental first name or from the first name of the grandfather or indeed a more remote ancestor of the original bearer of the surname. With regard to the family name Vidakovic, we have a derivation of the Latin name "Vitus" (Life), through the Slavic cognate form "Vida..", together with one of the characteristic Yugoslavian patronymic suffix elements "..ic", here referring to "the son of descendant of Vida of Vita." The name was popular during the Middle Ages as a result of the early Christian martyr St. Vitus, patron saint against epilepsy and nervous tremors, and about whom little else was recorded. Variants of the surname Vidakovic include Vidakofich, Vitacek and Vitoslav among many others and can also be found in altered form in other European countries.

One of the earliest references to this name or in a variant is a record of one called Michael Vidakovich, Commandant of Novi and Zrin, who was ennobled in Agram by Kind Leopold in the year 1694, however research is of course ongoing and this name may have been documented even earlier than the date indicated above. The great European emigrations of the early nineteenth century introduced many names into North America, including this one, albeit perhaps in a variant form although the name could of course have been first introduced in that country at an earlier date."

A discription of the coat of arms in heraldic terms (the stuff in parentheses are my comments):

The Latin motto on the crest (Coelitus Mihi Vires) is roughly translated: "My strength comes from Heaven."

 Blazon of Arms (that’s the main part of the coat of arms, in the middle): "Azure, on a terrace vert, a griffon or, holding in the upraised dexter claw a scymitar proper, hilted of the third, the blade piercing the severed neck of a Turk’s head, with another Turk’s head by its feet both proper."

(Explanation, as best I can: Azure means blue in heraldry. Vert means green. "Or" means gold. Dexter means right. "Proper" means the object is represented in its natural form or colors. I have no idea what "hilted of the third" means, except that the sword in the griffon’s claw has a hilt)

Crest: (that’s the part above the Blazon of Arms): "demi-griffon of the shield between two buffalo horns couped argent, gules, and or, azure.

(Explanation, as much as I know: "demi-griffon" means it’s a griffon smaller than the one on the Blazon of Arms. Couped means the horns are separated from the main body of the buffalo. In this case I think it means horns only .. no buffalo. And argent means they are silver. Gules means red and, as before, "or" is gold and "azure" is blue.

Also, several other descriptions of the Vidacovich genealogy give Croatia as the origin of the name, with one saying that the family actually came from Russia to Croatia in the twelfth century. One English account says the name is Anglo-Saxon, coming from the Teutonic god "Widekind". Go figure !

The information in the Zagreb Military archives says Michael Vidakovic ( the original spelling, but pronounced like "Vidacovich") was awarded the crest and Knighthood as a reward for his combat leadership in several battles in 1691 against the Turks "before Vienna").