Starčević was born in the village of Žitnik near Gospić, a small town in the Military Frontier within Austria-Hungary, to a family of a Croat Catholic father and a Serb Orthodox mother.
Starčević was born in Žitnik near Gospić, a small town in Lika, not far from the Adriatic Sea, in what was then part of Austria-Hungary. He was the son of a Croat Catholic father and a Serb Orthodox mother.