What is "latas"

Latas is a surname, found in many countries in Europe, mainly in Serbia, Poland, Croatia, but also Spain and Portugal from Middle Ages. However their mutual geographical and lexical origin is undetermined. This surname in the countries of ex- Yugoslavia is not tied to any ethnicity or confession, yet territory ( Dinara). Croatian linguist, Petar Šimunović, derived Lat from personal name Láto ( Latif), meaning gentle. The second part as is ending suffix, mostly found in personal names among Vlachian pastoralist communities from Dinara.