 Jovan Stojković was born in the village of Martolci in central Macedonia along the Babuna Mountains near Veles on 25 December 1878. Some sources state that he was born in 1875. In his youth he earned the nickname "Babunski", derived from the name of Mount Babuna near which his birthplace was located. He began his education at age ten, attending what was the only Bulgarian-language elementary school in Veles at the time. It was here that his teacher Bulgarianized his name into "Ivan Stojkov". Displeased, Babunski's father responded by taking his son to the Serbian consulate in Skopje, from where he was taken to continue his education in Belgrade. After studying in Belgrade, Valjevo and Niš, Babunski worked as a Serbian-language teacher in the towns of Tetovo and Veles in the Azot region.
