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Where spelled with the international phonetic alphabet 'ž', surname od of a Slavic speaking person, likely from Croatian ancestry whether in Croatia, Slovenia or Bosnia and Herzegovina, though initially the holder of this surname would have identified as a Dalmatian, or Raguž, meaning od 'Dubrovnik', once called Republic od Ragusa, on the Adriatic Coast. Where the surname variant is Ragus, Ragusa, Ragusin, or any other version that lacks Slavic spelling, it is of someone who likely left the area for Italy, or moved abroad before Latin and Italian fell out of use in the region. Some Slavic varieties do exist that have Romantic spelling, but are not as common as Raguš or Raguž. A separate branch of the surname is Sicilian, from Ragusa, Sicily, but keeping with Italian language grammar, holders of that surname are generally 'Ragusani' or 'Ragusan' and the added 'an' easily separates the two groups together with the Sicilian pronunciation of the name as Rausa or Raus, which drops the 'g' and is easily distinguished.

Today the ancient city started in the Roman period and once independent of the Venetian territories all around it carries the Slavic name of Dubrovnik, Croatia, meaning 'the Goodly City' but was once known as the Republic of Ragusa. It is a walled city on the Adriatic surrounded by the Dalmatian possessions of the Venetian Empire and the frequently invading Ottoman Turks to the south against whom the heavily fortified city stood in resistance for centuries. Descendants of this name would have been the citizens of Ragusa or its surrounding, today in Croatia or Bosnia & Herzegovina.