To: jimkarbowski@email.msn.com (James Karbowski), who wrote:

... I am researching my family name Karbowski. I noted in your Home Page that you might be able to provide a short analysis of Polish Surnames. If it is possible, I would appreciate it if you could send me a brief analysis of my family name.

There are a couple of possible derivations for Karbowski. Polish name expert Prof. Kazimierz Rymut notes that names beginning with Karb- generally come from the root karb, "notch, nick"; but he also notes that names with Karbow- can come from the term karbowy, "overseer," i. e., the man on a noble's estate who supervised the peasants as they worked. It is quite possible that Karbowski could be interpreted as "kin of the karbowy," since the -ski ending is adjectival and usually means "of, from, pertaining to."

The other interpretation is that Karbowski could mean "one from Karbów, Karbowo, Karbowa, Karby," in other words Karbowski is an adjective that fits several different place names. Of those, the only name for which I could find a place that actually exists was Karbowo -- there's a village by that name in Elblag province (the nearest parish and civil registrar's office is either Orneta or Lubomino), and another in Torun province (just a few km. north of Brodnica, which is probably where they went to register births, deaths, etc.). There may be more too small to show up on my maps, but it is thoroughly plausible that this surname started out meaning "person or family from Karbowo." Of course, the interpretation "kin of the overseer" is also perfectly plausible. In fact, we often see that a given surname can end up having derived two or three different ways, and that seems to be true here.

... I might mention that my goal is to find my ancestral village in Poland. I have been able to track my ancestors back to the year 1852 in a Polish settlement in Parrisville, Michigan. So far, I haven't been able to find out how these Polish settlers came to Parrisville, or where, in Poland, they came from.

Well, either of the Karbowo villages I mentioned above, in Elblag and Torun provinces, might be the place your ancestors were named for. I should caution you that surnames developed centuries ago, and over those centuries villages have disappeared, or been renamed, or been absorbed by others, so there may once have been other places named Karbów or Karbowo or Karbowa or Karby that this name could have come from. But these two might suggest areas to start looking in.

I'm afraid I have no other info that will help you pinpoint where your ancestors came from. As of 1990 there were 3,999 Polish citizens named Karbowski, living all over the country, with the largest numbers in the provinces of Suwalki (385) and Torun (413), and only 93 in Elblag province. So the frequency and distribution pattern offers no useful clues.

You say your ancestors settled in Michigan -- have you checked out the Polish Genealogical Society of Michigan, c/o Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library, 5201 Woodward Ave. Detroit, MI 48202-4007, Website http://www.pgsm.org/. If anybody can help you uncover some leads, I'd think they're the ones.

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To: IBEHOME@aol.com, who wrote:

... Can you give me any input on Kazanowski?

Usually Polish surnames ending in -owski refer to a place name with similar form; we would expect Kazanowski to mean basically "person or family coming from, living in, connected with Kazanów, Kazanowo, Kazany," something like that -- there are several different forms of place names that could all end up generating Kazanowski. In this case I notice there are at least two places that qualify -- perhaps more too small to show up on my maps -- a Kazanów in Radom province and one in Wroclaw province. People who came from (or, if they were noble, owned) either of these villages could easily end up being called Kazanowski. So it's unlikely there's only one Kazanowski family; there are probably multiple families with this name, with the name developing independently in reference to different places.

As of 1990 there were 1,152 Polish citizens with this name, scattered all over the country. The largest numbers appeared in the provinces of Warsaw (158), Chelm (87), and Lublin (245), but smaller numbers lived in practically every province. I see no real pattern to the distribution and frequency of the name -- which, again, suggests it probably started independently in different places.

I hope this doesn't disappoint you. Many people contact me in the hope that their surname will offer some really good clue as to exactly where their ancestors came from, so they won't have to do the tough work of tracking them down. I wish it worked that way, and once in a while it does. But the vast majority of Polish surnames just don't tell you anything really helpful; the most you can find out is their basic meaning and whether they're common or rare.

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To: Ed Kaznocha, Bifton@aol.com, who wrote:

.. I am interested in any information you have on the origin of my paternal grandparents names Kaznocha from Rola Cicha, Rzeszów and Madej, Rudna Mala Rzeszow.

Madej is a name seen in records as early as 1415; it comes from the Latin first name Amadeus ("love-God"), famous mainly as the middle name of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, but it was a moderately popular first name in Poland and other European countries. Names beginning with Mad- can also come from the name Magdalena, but in this case I think it's pretty likely Amadeus is the source. A great many Polish surnames come from first names, often referring to children by their father's names -- "There goes Madej's son" could eventually generate the surname Madej, or it could simply be a first name that came to stick as a surname. As of 1990 there were 16,799 Polish citizens named Madej, living all over the country (413 in Rzeszów province alone), so it's a pretty common name.

Kaznocha is tougher -- none of my sources mention it -- and also rarer; as of 1990 there were only 90 Poles by this name. They lived in the following provinces: Bielsko-Biala 3, Gdansk 5, Gorzów 7, Katowice 21, Kielce 2, Kraków 2, Krosno 1, Lublin 12, Rzeszów 9, Szczecin 17, Tarnobrzeg 5, Wroclaw 6. (I'm afraid I don't have access to further details such as first names and addresses; what I've given here is all I have). A look at a map will tell you that the name is scattered in small clumps all over Poland, but it is possible this was not so before World War II -- the dislocations caused by that war, and especially by post-war forced relocation of massive numbers of people from eastern Poland and western Ukrainian to western Poland, may have muddied the waters considerably. Looking at this distribution, it strikes me as entirely possible that before 1939 this name might have been concentrated mainly in southeastern Poland (including Rzeszów province and those surrounding it). I can't be sure, I have no source of pre-war data, but it is at least possible.

It seems clear that this name comes from a root seen in Polish and Ukrainian, kazn-, which means "to scold, chastise, punish"; kazna is also a term used in Ukrainian to mean "public funds, treasury," and also in terms such as kaznokrad, "embezzler," and that may be relevant, but I suspect the other meaning is the one behind the surname. We see such terms as kaznodzieja in Polish, literally "chastise-doer" but used in the meaning "preacher," especially in the sense of one who chastises the sinful and brings the wrath of God down on his listeners. We see a number of names in Polish that come from a root plus the suffix -och or -ocha, which don't have a clear-cut meaning but are just suffixes added to form names. Such names were popular in Poland, especially before the country was Christianized and Christian names such as Jan, Piotr, Stefan, etc. supplanted the old native Slavic names; thus the name of the city of Czestochowa means "Czestoch's place" (the root means "many, much, frequent"), and I know a man named Zimnoch, from the root meaning "cold," etc. My best guess is that Kaznocha meant originally "the scolder, the chastiser." It would make a pretty good name back in the old days, meaning perhaps an intimidating fellow who punished anyone who got out of line.

I am just speculating here -- as I said, none of my sources mention this name -- but going by analogous names, I think it's pretty likely that's how this name started.

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To: Joseph Yager, jgyage09@marinemwr.or.jp, who wrote:

... I was hoping you might be able to give me some insight to my wife's surname Kendziora. I have read that it means a lock of hair or lock of red hair.

Yes, Kendziora comes from the Polish term ke~dzior, "lock of hair" (the e~ stands for the Polish nasal vowel written as an e with a tail under it and pronounced in most cases somewhat like en, so that names with this sound are often spelled either e~ or en). This is a very common name in Poland, as of 1990 there were 8,165 Polish citizens named Ke~dziora and another 121 who spelled it Kendziora. Unfortunately, with names this common there is no way to deduce just from the name exactly where it originated in the case of a particularly family. Only someone who possesses considerable knowledge about a given family's background can trace them to their origins; the name itself just doesn't offer enough in the way of clues.

... I do have couple questions, are there coat of arms or family crest in Poland? If so do you think that the surname Kendziora may have received one?

I don't know of anyone researching this name, but there surely are people who are doing so. As for a coat of arms, I have very little information on the subject of nobility and heraldry. Your best bet would be to contact the following organization: Polish Nobility Association Foundation, Villa Anneslie, 529 Dunkirk Rd., Anneslie, MD 21212-2014

I believe they will, for a moderate fee, search armorials and heraldic literature to see whether a given family was recognized as noble. However, the more information you have about your family, the better. I tend to doubt it would be enough to say "Were the Kendziora's noble?" You would probably need to be able to say "Were the Kendziora's living in the area of __ noble." However, I'm not sure about this -- it can't hurt to write and ask.

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To: CMonjeVt@aol.com, who wrote:

... My grandfather was a Klimkiewicz, born in Radzwie, Plock Poland. My second grandfather was a Kensicki from Dobrzejewicz, Torun, Poland. The third name I am interested in is Stroj, again from the Radzwie area. If you can shed any light on them I would appreciate hearing from you.

I doubt the info I can give you is a lot of help -- few Polish surnames do offer any really useful leads as far as tracking down a family's origins. But then you never know what might prove useful, so here's what I have.

Names ending in -owicz or -ewicz mean "son of," so Klimkiewicz means "son of Klimek or Klimko." Those, in turn, are short forms of the name Klemens (= English "Clement"). So Klimkiewicz means more or less "son of Clem" in English. Surnames formed from first names are very common and widespread in Poland, and this is no exception: as of 1990, according to the best data available (the Slownik nazwisk wspolczesnie w Polsce uzywanych, "Directory of Surnames in Current Use in Poland," which covers about 94% of the population of Poland), there were 3,439 Polish citizens named Klimkiewicz, living all over the country -- of whom 147 lived in the modern-day province of Plock.

Kensicki is another way of spelling Ke~sicki (e~ is how we represent on-line the nasal vowel written as an e with a tail under it and pronounced roughly en). The ultimate root of this name is the noun ke~s, "piece, morsel." But it would generally refer to the name of a place with which the family was connected at some point, places named Ke~sica or Ke~sice. There was mention in old records of a Ke~sicki family with an estate at Ke~sice in Sierpc district; I can't find any such place on modern maps, but that's not odd; surnames developed centuries ago, and often the places they referred to have since disappeared, changed names, etc.

As of 1990 there were 1,448 Ke~sicki's, of whom 118 lived in the province of Torun (only the province of Pila, with 167, had more). There were 21 Poles who spelled the name Kensicki, 3 in Elblag province, 11 in Gdansk province, 3 in Walbrzych province, and 4 in Wroclaw province -- unfortunately I don't have access to further details such as first names or addresses.

Strój is one of numerous names from the root stroi-, stroj, meaning "to deck, trim, adorn." Strój itself probably comes from the noun stroj, "dress, attire." This name is surprisingly rare, as of 1990 there were only 75 Poles named Strój, living in the following provinces: Warsaw 15, Gdansk 2, Katowice 17, Kielce 26, Kraków 7, Poznan 6, Szczecin 1, Zielona Gora 1.

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To: Ed Klejnowski, KSKI1225@aol.com, who wrote:

... I hope you can help me. I can't seem to find out any information on my name Klejnowski.

Names ending in -owski usually referred to some connection between a person or family and a place with a name ending in -ów, or -owo or -y or something similar; in this case, we'd expect the name to mean "person from Klejnów or Klejnowo or Klejny," something like that. I have a book that lists German and Polish names of places in some of the regions ruled by Germany up until 1918 and 1945, and it mentions at three villages called Kleinau, which is how Germans would write what the Poles would call Kleinów or Klejnów. One Kleinau was in Trzebnica county in Silesia, and the Polish name for it is Mal~czów. Another was in Goldap district in East Prussia. The third is called Malkowice by the Poles, in Prudnik county in Upper Silesia, now Opole province. These are places that might be connected with the name Klejnowski. I would imagine the original root of the name was German klein, "little, small." A great many "Polish" surnames actually started out German, and this could be one, especially since there is no root klejn or anything like it in Polish. (Note that the Polish equivalent of German klein, "little, small," is mal~y, and we see that root in the names Malczów and Malkowice).

As of 1990 there were 631 Polish citizens named Klejnowski, living all over the country, with larger numbers in the following provinces: Warsaw 98, Bydgoszcz 55, Ciechanów 65, Elblag 59, Katowice 40, and Torun 116. This suggests a concentration in northcentral Poland (Bydgoszcz, Elblag, Torun, Ciechanów and Warsaw provinces), and a smaller concentration in southcentral Poland (Katowice province). That is consistent with origin in several different places -- there were villages called Klejnów or Kleinau in several different areas of Poland, so the surname developed in reference to them, and thus is not unique to any one region.

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To: sueandjim@digitalexp.com (Sue and Jim Kochanski), who wrote:

... I apologize for misleading you and wasting your time... My family name was not Kochanski, rather it was Kochanowski and, if my father can be believed, Kochanowska. The question I should have asked is... I was wondering if you had any information readily available for the last name Kochanowski and/or Kochanowska?

Actually, no harm done, because the answer is almost the same. First of all, names ending in -ska are the same as names ending in -ski, except that the -ska is the ending used for females. So the husband would be Kochanowski, but the wife would be Kochanowska. To Poles this is the most obvious thing in the world, but when they came to this country they eventually stopped doing it when they found themselves among English-speakers because they realized Brits and Yanks didn't understand and thought those were two different names.

As for Kochanowski, the key is in my previous note: "I don't see any place by that name, but some might have existed centuries ago, when surnames were being formed -- there are several villages named Kochanów, but that name would tend to generate a surname in the form Kochanowski, not Kochan~ski." The surname Kochanowski began in most cases as a way of referring to a person or family who lived in or came from a place called Kochanów, Kochanowo, Kochanówka, or something similar. There are several villages named Kochanów and Kochanówka, so a Kochanowski family could have come from any of them, and thus there's no way to pin down which one a specific family came from without detailed data on the family. In other words, the most I can do is tell you what kind of place name to look for, and then with any luck you can use what you learn about your family and where they came from to see if there's any place nearby that qualifies.

As of 1990 there were 4,728 Polish citizens named Kochanowski, and they lived all over the country, so I'm afraid the surname itself doesn't offer much in the way of clues. About all we can know of it is that it originally referred to some connection between a family and a place called Kochanów or Kochanówka or something like that, and there are several places that qualify.

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To: Wally Allsit, wally@USAC.net, who wrote:

... Would like any information concerning the surname Kolaczkowski which was my maiden name. My research has just began and the only information I have is that my great-grandparents immigrated from Poland/ Czechoslovakia in the 1800's to U.S. Then on to Dallas, Texas in the late 1800's. Certain also the name remains in its original spelling.

As for Kol~aczkowski, the standard Polish spelling of this name (l~ stands for the Polish l with a slash through it, which sounds like our w), names ending in -owski usually started as a reference to a connection between a person or family and a place, most often the village they lived in or came from. The name of that place is usually very similar but ends in -i, -ów, -owice, -owo, etc. Thus there is in Poland at least one village called Kol~aczków, 3 named Kol~aczkowice, and 3 named Kol~aczkowo -- and the name Kol~aczkowski could have started as a reference to any of them, or to more too small to show up on my maps.

As of 1990 there were 816 Polish citizens named Kol~aczkowski. They were scattered all over the country, with no significant concentration in any one area. So unfortunately the surname doesn't offer much in the way of leads. If it's any consolation, that's the way it usually turns out -- even surnames that refer to place names, and thus seem to promise a specific lead, turn out to be disappointing because there are several places with the same name.

By the way, the spelling Kol~aczkowski is distinctively Polish rather than Czech or Russian or whatever. However, that can be misleading. The same name, pronounced virtually the same way, surely exists in Czech: they would spell it Kolac^kovsky (I'm using c^ to stand for the Czech letter which is a c with a little "hacek" over it). And there is at least one place named Kolac^kov in Slovakia. The point is that if a Czech or Slovak named Kolac^kovsky emigrated and came through Poland to a Polish or German port, his name might possibly end up being spelled by Polish phonetic values, simply because the officials involved were more familiar with Polish than Czech. If so, the Polish form of the name might fool us into excluding the Czech/Slovak region as his original home.

With the spelling Kol~aczkowski, odds are they were Poles. But I thought I'd better mention the possible Czech or Slovak connection, just in case it comes up at some point.

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To: Catherine Havemeier, Heffy38@aol.com, who wrote:

... I am having difficulty locating information on my Grandfather, Ignatz Kolbert, born in Biskupin, Prussian Poland in 1857. Is Kolbert actually a Polish name? Do you know if there are Kolberts in the area of his birth today? Do you know if there is a parish church for that town?

Kolbert is a German name, but millions of ethnic Germans lived in Poland until after World War II, when the majority of them relocated in East Germany. So it's not at all unusual to see German names show up in Poland. The name Kolbert is pretty rare in Poland today -- there are only 29 by that name, living in the provinces of Gdansk (1), Katowice (8), Kraków (1), Poznan (2), Sieradz (13), and Wroclaw (4). None of those provinces were in the part of Poland ruled by Prussia, so apparently there are no Kolberts left in the region you're talking about. Before World War II -- who knows? I have no data on that.

There are at least two towns or villages named Biskupin in the general area you're looking at, but the one in Bydgoszcz province, just a few km. south of Znin, is probably the one you want -- the other is in Wloclawek province, and if memory serves that's too far south to have been in West Prussia. The Biskupin in Bydgoszcz province does not have its own parish church; I'm not sure what village served it, but judging from the map I'd guess it would be Gasawa, just a few km. away.

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To: Mitchell Kosiorek, Kamakozie@aol.com, who wrote:

... Hello..My name is Mitchell Kosiorek and there has been some problems finding out what my last name means and well all about it. My grandfather had told me that long ago the name was just Kosior (blackbird or something?). And I was wondering if you could be of any help.

Going by information in Kazimierz Rymut's book on Polish surname, Kosiorek comes from the term kosior, which means "undertaker" and may in turn derive from the basic root kos- which means "blackbird" (presumably the black an undertaker wears is the connection with the bird). The suffix -ek is a diminutive, meaning "little," so Kosiorek literally means "little undertaker," but as a surname probably meant more "son of the undertaker." As of 1990 there were 3,942 Kosiorek's in Poland, as opposed to 3,703 Kosior's, so both names are reasonably common. The name Kosiorek appears in Polish records as early as 1414; the name Kosior appears even earlier, in 1204.

So while the word for "blackbird" may figure into it, the direct derivation would appear to be "undertaker's son." It's possible your surname originally was just Kosior and the diminutive suffix was added later, or your grandfather may have just meant that kosior was the word the name derived from, and kosior in turn derived from the word for "blackbird."

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To: Patty Ritter, PRitter587@aol.com, who wrote:

... A couple of months ago you helped me with the surname Hechlinski. I am now wondering if you could also help me with the origin of the name Kosmatka. I appreciate any information you can provide.

Many names with the root Kosma- come from the first name Kosma (cmp. the rather rare name in English Cosmo), but this one probably comes from the root kosmaty meaning "mophead, shaggy-haired." The suffix -ka is a diminutive, so the literal meaning of the name is "little mophead," but the word kosmatka is also used as a term for a kind of bird, the wood-rush (Latin name Luzula). So it's difficult to say in a given case whether a person got this name because he was the son of a hairy guy, or if it referred to the bird; sometimes people got bird names because they liked that kind of bird, or wore clothes the same color as a kind of bird, or reminded people of that bird in some other way.

As of 1990 there were 555 Polish citizens named Kosmatka. The largest numbers were in the provinces of Bydgoszcz (107), Pila (59), and Skierniewice (222) -- the first two are north and west of central Poland, and Skierniewice province is just west of Warsaw, almost smack-dab in the middle of Poland. I'm not sure why the name is clumped this way, with two big concentrations separated by a fair amount of distance, but that's the pattern that shows up. Then there are small numbers of Kosmatka's scattered in many other provinces.

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To: Mary King, ZULADY@aol.com, who wrote:

... I am interested in learning more about the Kostka Surname I know that my great grandmother was born in Austria-Poland and would love to know about the origins of this name.

Kostka appears as a name in Polish documents as far back as 1318, and is particularly famous among Poles as the name of St. Stanislaw Kostka, a Polish saint who has been venerated for centuries as one of the most illustrious figures in Polish history; he died in 1568, and is the Polish patron saint of the young.

The name can derive either from kostka, "little bone," which can mean "dice" or "ankle" or any small bone, or --probably more often -- from a diminutive of the name Konstanty, "Constantine." Poles and Ukrainians both liked to take first names, drop all but the first part, and add suffixes, so that Kostka would be "little Constantine" or "son of Constantine." The the same basic derivation applies for the name Kosciuszko, as in Tadeusz Kosciuszko, hero of Poland's fight for independence and also of the American Revolution. So in some cases the name might refer to "little bone," but in most cases it probably started as a nickname for a fellow whose "proper" name was Constantine. This is especially likely if there is a Ukrainian connection, but that derivation also applies for many ethnic Poles.

As of 1990 there were 4,554 Polish citizens named Kostka, so it's a pretty common name. It is seen all over Poland, with particularly large numbers living in the provinces of Katowice (1,392), Bielsko-Biala (319), Opole (325) -- all in southcentral to southwestern Poland. But as I say, you run into Kostka's in virtually every province, so the name's too common to point to one area and say "That's probably where your family came from."

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To: Donna Kaz, calamity.kaz@worldnet.att.net, who wrote:

... I have just begun to seek out my roots. I am a second generation American and three of my 4 grandparents came from Poland (or so I'm told). On my mothers side were the Kotkiewicz's from Warsaw. On my fathers - Kaczorowski, also from Warsaw - although there is some talk that my paternal grandmother (nee Franzik) came from Austria.

I should mention that Poland was partitioned and taken over by Germany, Russia, and Austria, beginning in 1772, and so often Poles who lived in the area ruled by Austria (called Galicia) are said to come from that country. But "Austrian Poland" was historically still Poland, and much of it was returned to Poland when that country regained its independence. So your grandmother may have lived in Austria proper, but it's also quite possible she lived in southeastern Poland or western Ukraine and never moved -- but the political boundaries moved around her, and that's how she ended up being "Austrian."

... I have registered all of these loving folks at the Ellis Island wall of immigrants. I was amazed to see a bunch of other Kaczorowski's but not one single Kotkiewicz. I would love to know if you have any idea of the origin of either of these two names.

The -ewicz suffix in Kotkiewicz means "son of," and the root kot means "cat"; the diminutive suffix -ek means "little," and the -e- drops off when further suffixes are added, so this name breaks down as Kot- + -k- + -iewicz, and is literally "son of the little cat or pussy." Surnames from the root kot are popular in Poland, which leaves us wondering exactly how people got such a name -- perhaps it was a nickname, given because an individual loved cats, or moved like a cat, or somehow otherwise reminded people of a cat. Now, centuries after these names developed, it can be hard to figure out exactly what the connection was, the best we can do is explain how the name breaks down and say there was a connection with the word for "cat, pussy."

Kotkiewicz is not an extremely common name, but it's not rare, either -- as of 1990 there were 567 Poles by this name, living all over Poland. The largest numbers by far lived in the provinces of Warsaw (98) and Torun (137), but smaller numbers show up virtually everywhere in Poland. By the way, in this country we often see this name "in disguise," so to speak, spelled phonetically as Catcavage. The Polish pronunciation sounds roughly like "cot-KYE-vich," and it's not hard to hear how that could become Catcavage. I'm a bit surprised you found no Kotkiewicz's at Ellis Island, but that's how it is with names -- there are always twists and turns to the plot!

Kaczorowski is a common name, as of 1990 there were 10,159 Poles named Kaczorowski, living in large numbers all over the country. The name breaks down as Kaczor- + -ow- + -ski. The root kaczor means "drake," the -ow- implies possession or an "of" relationship, and -ski is an adjectival ending meaning "of, from, pertaining to, connected with." So the name means literally "of or from the [something] of the drake." Sometimes such a name might refer to a fellow named Kaczor, perhaps as a nickname, and the surname could mean no more than "[kin] of Kaczor."

But practically speaking, most names ending in -owski and -ewski began as references to a connection between a person or family and a specific town or village with a similar name, such as Kaczorów or Kaczorowo (literally, "the [place] of the drakes" (or possibly also "Kaczor's place"). There are several villages in Poland with names that qualify, including a Kaczorki, two Kaczory's, 2 Kaczorowy's, 1 Kaczorów -- and those are just the villages large enough to show up on maps. In some cases the surname may have referred to a little subdivision of a village, but that place was too small to appear on maps, or has since been renamed, or absorbed by another community. Remember, surnames developed some 300-500 years ago, and a lot can change in that much time. So what I'm saying is that the surname itself doesn't provide enough info for us to point to any one place and say "Here's where you came from." Your best bet is to research, learn as much as you can about where the family lived in Poland before emigrating, and then see if there is a place with a name Kaczor- somewhere nearby. If so, odds are that's the place the surname originally referred to.

By the way, Franzik probably means something like "son of Francis," but that spelling is almost unheard of in Poland. It's possible that it is a Czech name -- I'm not sure whether Franzik is a good Czech spelling, but I suspect it is, and the Czechs and Slovaks were also long ruled by Austria. It's also possible the name was Polish and was spelled a little differently, but under German influence (since German was the official language of Austria) the spelling changed a little.

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To: David Ruffino, wolfeman@jps.net, who wrote:

... Thanks for your wonderful and insightful work on the internet. I have been looking for some time into my mother's maiden name Kotlowski. Any family members who could give me this information have long since passed away. If you could, please tell me about this name, it will be greatly appreciated.

Names ending in -owski usually began as references to a connection between a person or family and a place with a similar name, generally ending in -ów, -owo-, -owa, -y, etc. Thus we'd expect Kotl~owski to mean "person from Kotl~owo" or something like that; those place names in turn would derive from the noun kociol~, meaning "boiler, kettle." Without more info it's hard to say for sure, but those places probably got that name either because they were known for making or selling kettles, or because of some local geographical feature shaped like a kettle. Unfortunately, there are quite a few villages in Poland named Kotl~ów, Kotl~owo, Kotl~ówka, etc., and Kotl~owski could have come from any or all of them. Your Kotl~owski's might have come from this village, another Kotl~owski's family might have come from that one, and so on.

As is generally true when a surname can come from several different place names, this is a fairly common surname: as of 1990 there were 2,269 Polish citizens named Kotl~owski. They lived all over Poland, with the largest concentration by far in the province of Gdansk (1,059); however, you find Kotl~owski's in virtually every province, so we can't assume any one Kotl~owski family comes from the Gdansk region. But that is where quite a few of them would come from.

I know this doesn't offer you much in the way of specific leads, but that's the way it usually is with Polish surnames. Names that give a really useful clue as to their place of origin are the exception, not the rule.

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To: Elizabeth Krakowiecki Augustine, EAugust713@aol.com, who wrote:

... Only one name please -- Krakowiecki. It was my grandfather's legacy...from Czartnorzew near Ostroleka I believe.

The name Krakowiecki is not rare, but not extremely common. As of 1990 there were 376 Krakowiecki's in Poland, of whom the largest single block by far, 122, lived in Ostroleka province; there are smaller numbers scattered in many other provinces. It's pretty certain we're dealing here with a surname derived from a place name, and the major city of Kraków might be involved, but there are other villages in Poland with names such as Krakowice and Krakowiec that could be relevant.

By modern Polish rules those are the most likely names Krakowiecki could come from, but some centuries ago the rules for forming names from place names were a bit looser than they are in modern Polish, and places named Krakówka or Krakówki might also generate the surname Krakowiecki. These names ending in -ski and -cki are adjectives, originally just meaning "of, from, related to, pertaining to X," with X being the name of a place, person, occupation, whatever. I mention Krakówka this because I notice there's a Krakówka served by the parish of Plock-Radziwie, not far from Czarnotrzew in Ostroleka province (Czarnotrzew, by the way, is served by the parish in Baranowo, which is where you'd logically expect people from Czarnotrzew to go to register births, deaths, marriages). I don't have enough info to point to any one spot and say "That's the one your name refers to," but when I find a place with a name that would work, not too far from where a family came from, I figure it's worth mentioning. It's not a sure thing, but it could well be the place their name referred to originally. For instance, if a person or family moved from Krakówka to Czarnotrzew about the time surnames were being established, it would be quite plausible that folks would refer to him as "Krakowiecki," the guy from Krakówka... Notice, all this is plausible, and might be right, but it would take very meticulous research to prove that that is, in fact, exactly how the surname originated, in your family's case; another Krakowiecki family might have gotten the name some other way.

The ultimate origin of all these Krakow- names is generally from the old first name Krak, from a root meaning "raven" (thus Kraków just means "[place] of Krak," Krakowiec means "son of Krak" or "[place] of the son of Krak." I should mention that in some cases there was a vowel change and Krak- can also derive from krok, "step, march." So Krakowiecki probably meant something like "one from the place of the son of Krak/Krok," or "one from the place of the march." But for our purposes it boils down to "person from X," where X is a town or village with a name like Krakówka, Krakowiec, Krakowice, etc.

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To: Rick Kruciak, RKruc0624@aol.com, who wrote:

... My family name is Kruciak. My Granddad, Anton Kruciak came over from Poland when he was 6. Family settled in Panna Maria, Texas. He died in 1951 or 52 and is buried in the Catholic cemetary at Panna Maria. Apparently the spelling of Kruciak may have been changed upon entry at Galveston. Aside from relatives here in USA I can't find the name on search engines in Poland.

I'm afraid I can't help you too much with this name. I looked in the 10-volume set that lists every surname borne by Poles as of 1990, and it showed a frequency of 0 for Kruciak. What that means is that there was at least one person by that name, but they had incomplete data -- so the name is not completely unknown, but it must be very rare.

I tried looking at names of which that Kruciak could be a variant spelling, but didn't have too much luck there either. There was one person named Króciak, and that would be pronounced exactly the same as Kruciak; it most likely comes from a root meaning "short." Also possible is Kruczak, because the cz is pronounced a lot like ci -- there were 76 Poles names Kruczak, scattered all over the country; this name would come from the root kruczac~, "to rumble," or from kruk, "raven." The odd thing is that Kruczak is pretty rare, but Kruczek was the name of 5,088 Poles as of 1990 -- it means "small raven, mole cricket."

So Kruciak is possible, but very rare. The alternate spelling Króciak is the same, possible but rare. If the spelling of the name was changed, it might have been Kruczak or Kruczek originally, those are more common names (especially Kruczek). But the cz to ci change is one I'd expect to happen in Poland -- if it happened in an English-speaking country, the natural change would be to "Kruchak," because that's what the name would sound like.

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To: brian-k@primenet.com (Brian W. Krygowski), who wrote:

... Could you please forward any information you might have on the surname Krygowski

Names ending in -owski usually started as a reference to a connection between a family and a place with a similar name, usually ending in -ów, -owo, -i, or something like that. In this case we'd expect the name to mean "person or family from Krygów, Krygowo, Krygi," or something along those lines. Offhand the only place in Poland I can find that might qualify is a village Kryg in Krosno province, in southeastern Poland; but the reference could be to places too small to show up on the maps. Also things may have changed in the centuries since the surname was established, the place or places in question may have changed their names, or disappeared, or been absorbed by other communities -- hard to say. But that's basically what the name means, "one from Krygów" or some other place with a similar name.

As of 1990 there were 614 Polish citizens named Krygowski. They lived all over Poland, with the larger numbers in the provinces of Bydgoszcz (50), Krosno (151), and Pila (80). The ones in Krosno may well refer to that village of Kryg, but Bydgoszcz and Pila provinces are in northwestern Poland, so that makes me think there probably was a Krygi or Krygowo in that region -- it seems a bit unlikely people living there would have names referring to a village near Krosno, although with all the relocation of people after World War II you can't count on that too much.

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To: Shelley Merrill, MERRILL.SHELLEY@juno.com, who wrote:

... My sister and I are trying to locate information on the Kucejko name. It may or may not be part of a longer or shorter name. The area of Poland that it comes from is very close to Russia and her father-in-law said that if you crossed the railroad tracks near the family farm that you were in Russia. The area is Sukolka (and pardon me if I have spelled it incorrectly).

First of all, the matter of Sukolka -- you don't need to apologize for spelling it incorrectly, the right spelling of names in that part of the world can be hard to find. But you need the right spelling desperately, you're not likely to get anywhere till you have it right. And the problem is, few names are unique -- if there's one place by a particular name, there are usually at least two or three more. In this case, the name of the place you're looking for is probably Sokól~ka (we use ~ on-line to stand for the diacriticals in Polish letters we can't reproduce without tinkering with our computers' configuration; l~ stands for the l with a slash through it). There are several places by that name, but I suspect the one you want may be Sokól~ka in Bial~ystok province in northeast Poland; it's maybe 8 km. from the border with Belarus, which has been associated with Russia for so long that people often regard it, inaccurately, as part of Russia. Historically this area was also part of the Kingdom of Poland even after the Russians and Germans and Austrians partitioned Poland (beginning in 1772). So people from this area may well be referred to as Poles, Belorussians, Russians -- borders have moved so much, and ethnic groups have mixed so much, that it can be sticky trying to figure out exactly who was what. But this is the only Sokól~ka I can find that sounds like it fits the description you give. I think chances are reasonably good this is the place you're looking for.

Kucjeko is a bit tougher, because I can't say it comes from one and only one root; but at least I can say there's no reason to assume it was part of a longer name -- this name does exist in that form. Polish surname expert Kazimierz Rymut lists this under names beginning with kuc-, but there are three different roots such names can come from. There's kuc, "pony"; there's the verb kucac~, "to squat"; and there's kuca, "shelter, tent." That's if the spelling is reliable -- in that part of Poland the combination cz is often simplified to c, and kucz- is a whole different set of roots. So the name may derive from roots meaning "pony," "squat," or "shelter." The -ko suffix is a diminutive, meaning "little," so the surname means "little Kucej" or "son of Kucej," but I have no way of knowing which of these three roots this name came from in your family's case.

There is some good news. I have a 10-volume set that gives every surname borne by Poles as of 1990, how many there were, and where they lived by province (I don't have access to further details such as first names or addresses, unfortunately). It says Kucejko was the name of 117 Poles, and they lived in the following provinces: Bialystok (49), Chelm (1), Gdansk (7), Leszno (1), Lomza (1), Lodz (15), Olsztyn (8), Radom (7), Suwalki (2), and Warsaw (26). It's dangerous jumping to conclusions, but the facts that the largest number of Kucejko's live in Bialystok province, and that's the province Sokól~ka is in, suggest you may have some relatives still living in that general area.

You might want to consider joining the Polish Genealogical Society of the Northeast (PGS-NE), because they have a lot of members from that part of Poland, and might be able to offer some really useful leads. If you'd like to know a little more, they have a Website at http://members.aol.com/pgsne2/.

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To: Kristine Kujawa, Kristine_Kujawa@qm.salk.edu, who wrote:

... I am of Polish backround. My father's grandparents immigrated to the United States from Poland. His surname was Kujawa. Both my parents and grandparents are deceased. If you can provide information on researching the surname Kujawa and/or Mentis I would appreciate it. My father was born in Chicago. I have been told by someone from Poland that Kujawa was the name of a region in Poland and that it was a very old name. I know nothing about the surname Mentis, I am not sure it is even spelled correctly.

Kujawa is a Polish term meaning "bare, open spot in a field, clearing, an area where nothing grows." There is indeed a region in Poland named Kujawy, which is just the plural of kujawa -- presumably the region got the name because such clearings were common there. Kujawy is defined as the area between the Wisla and Notec rivers and lake Goplo -- which puts it roughly south and east of Torun in northcentral Poland. (I know all this because the Spring 1998 issue of Rodziny, the Journal of the Polish Genealogical Society of America, which I just finished work on, has a lead article on the fate of elderly people in the Kujawy region toward the end of the 17th century, so the subject is fresh in my mind). The surname Kujawa appears in legal records as far back as 1422 and would probably designate a person who lived in a clearing, not necessarily restricted to people who came from the Kujawy region. As such, we would expect it to be rather common, and it is: as of 1990 there were 13,456 Polish citizens by this name, living all over the country.

I can't really help much with Mentis, because that's almost certainly not the Polish form of the name (if it is Polish rather than, say, Lithuanian, which it could well be); Polish avoids using the combination ti, we would expect Mentys or Mencis, but Mentis is unlikely (though hardly impossible). Sometimes I can recognize the original, "correct" forms of such names, but in this case there is no one name that seems a perfect fit, but there are several possibilities. So anything I say now would probably be misleading -- it would be sheer accident if I were right. It would be better to wait till you've managed to uncover a bit more info, maybe some other spellings, or info on where the family came from (e. g., if they had a link with Lithuania, that would change things completely). If you come up with that, write again and I'll see if it helps me tell you anything useful. But for now, there's just nothing I can come up with that would be any help.

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To: bkukowski@email.msn.com (Bill Kukowski), who wrote:

... I’ve seen information on your work on the PGS web site. I was hoping you could help provide me with some info on the Kukowski surname. I have seen references to this surname in Poland and Germany.

Names ending in -owski usually began as references to a connection between a person or family and a particular place with a similar name, such as Kuków, Kukowo, etc.; so you'd expect this to mean "person from Kuków or Kukowo." I see at least 6 places on the map that would qualify, including Kuków in Bielsko-Biala province, Kuków-Folwark in Suwalki province, Kukowo in Suwalki province, Kukowo in Slupsk province, Kukowo in Wloclawek province, and Kukówko in Suwalki province. Any of these places could generate the surname Kukowski (and there could be more too small to show up on the maps, or places that have changed names or disappeared in the centuries since the surname developed), so one needs more info to connect the name with a specific place for a specific family. The root of the place name is kuk-, a verbal root meaning "to cuckoo, make a sound like a cuckoo," so these villages would all be "place of the cuckoos," and you could translated Kukowski as "person from the place of the cuckoos."

As of 1990 there were 1,121 Polish citizens named Kukowski, living all over the country, but with larger numbers in the provinces of Gdansk (148), Plock (90), Suwalki (159), and Torun (108) -- which corresponds roughly to the locations of the villages I mentioned.

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To: Edmund F. Pawlowicz, polish_cowboy@vnet.ibm.com, who wrote:

... In your "free time" :-) would you graciously provide whatever information you might have about the following two surnames: 1. Pawlowicz (really Pawl~owicz), my paternal surname; and 2. Kurdziel, my maternal surname.

Pawl~owicz just means "son of Paul" -- the suffix -owicz means "son of," and Pawel~ is the Polish form of the name we call "Paul." So this surname is an exact equivalent of the English name "Paulson" or "Paulsen." Surnames formed as patronymics from popular first names are usually quite common, and as of 1990 there were 3,816 Polish citizens named Pawl~owicz (in fact, I'm a little surprised there weren't more). As is obvious from the nature of the name, it could develop independently anywhere they spoke Polish and had guys named Pawel~, so there's no one part of Poland this name is especially common -- it shows up all over the country.

Kurdziel is an odd one, because it's also rather common -- as of 1990 there were 2,234 Poles named Kurdziel -- but you would never expect that from its meaning. According to Polish surname expert Kazimierz Rymut in his book Nazwiska Polaków, this name comes from the term kurdziel, which means "ulcer on a horse's tongue"! A massive 8-volume Polish-language dictionary that Rymut recommended to me as being particularly helpful with old words and their meanings adds that it is a popular term for a growth under any animal's tongue due to infection or irritation from a foreign body -- and that's the only meaning it gives for it. How this got to be anybody's name, let along a name borne by 2,234 Poles, is beyond me! But that clearly seems to be the derivation -- and I have to suppose it was not originally meant as a compliment. However, as Polish names go, this one is a lot better than many others I have seen!

This name appears all over Poland, but it is particularly common in the provinces of Bielsko-Biala (110), Katowice (289), Kraków (790), Rzeszów (111), and Tarnów (147). So these days, at least, it is found most often in Mal~opolska or "Little Poland," the western half of Galicia, from the southcentral part of Poland eastward.

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To: Lawerence Kusznierewicz, LJKUSZ@aol.com, who wrote:

... My grandfathers last name was Kusznierewicz and my grandmothers was Maciejewski. They were both from the Kraków area of Poland.

Kusznierewicz would mean "son of the furrier"; the suffix -ewicz means "son of," and kusznierz is one of several ways for spelling a term meaning "furrier" -- the standard spelling is kus~nierz, with an accent over the s, giving it an "sh" sound, but Polish sz is pronounced similarly, so it's not unusual to see names spelled Kus~nier- or Kusznier-, as well as Kus~mierz, Kuc~mierz, etc. As of 1990 there were only 92 Polish citizens with the name Kusznierewicz, so it's not all that common. They were scattered all over the country, with the largest numbers in the provinces of Bielsko-Biala (24) in southcentral Poland and Zielona Gora (13) in western Poland; I'm afraid I don't have access to further details such as first names or addresses.

Maciejewski means "one from, of the [X] of Matthias," where the X is a person or place not named explicitly (because everyone knew who or what the connection was). So it could mean simply "kin of Matthias," or it could mean "one from Maciejew or Maciejewo," in other words, villages with names meaning "Matthias's place." There are many such villages in Poland with names that could generate the surname Maciejewski, so there's no way to pin down which one a given family came from. This is a very common name in Poland, as of 1990 there were 31,224 Polish citizens named Maciejewski.

I have no information on nobility, but if you would like to contact an organization that might be able to help you learn whether any of your family was noble, you could try the Polish Nobility Association Foundation at this address: PNAF, Villa Anneslie, 529 Dunkirk Rd., Anneslie, MD 21212-2014.

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To: Jackie T. Merryman, jackie@mail.myriad.net, who wrote:

... Do you have any info or knowledge on Kwasnica, or what would be Polish spelling of this name?

Kwasnica is a perfectly plausible spelling of the name, except that in Polish there would be an accent over the s, giving it a slight "sh" sound; we indicate it on-line as s~, for lack of a better way. I find this name mentioned in one of my sources, and it says the name can derive from the word kwas~nica, which has three meanings: 1) "mineral water with a sour taste," 2) "the barberry bush, Berberis vulgaris," and 3), in Cieszyn region dialect, "juice from fermented cabbage." The basic root kwas- means "sourness, fermentation," as is clear from two of those meanings. This source, a book on surnames found in the Cieszyn region, which is in Bielsko-Biala province, in far southern Poland, almost on the Czech border. It mentions that a Marina Kwasniczowa (the -owa just means "Mrs.) was listed in the 1726 register of deaths for Cierlicko, which is apparently now Terlicko in the Czech Republic.

As of 1990 there were only 7 Polish citizens named Kwasnica, of whom 6 lived in the province of Katowice, 1 in Nowy Sacz (both also in southcentral Poland -- unfortunately I don't have access to further details such as first names or addresses). There may be more living in the Czech Republic, since the area mentioned in that Cieszyn book is now on the other side of the border. A similar word, kvasnice, means "yeast" in Czech, so it is possible you may need to divide your research between Poland and the Czech Republic, looking for Kwasnica's in Poland and Kvasnica's among the Czechs.

In some ways it is rather bad news that the name is so rare, but the good side of that is, if you find someone with this name in that region, the chances seem very good they are related to you. I'm sorry I cannot pin the area down more exactly, but it seems likely southcentral Poland, especially near the Czech border, is the general area in which you should look for Kwasnica's. I cannot guarantee the Kwasnica's you're interested in are related to those people, or come from that area, but as I say, chances are they will prove to be.

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To: Barbara Morris, HALLA1001@aol.com, who wrote:

... I just read your information on "Notes for Selected Polish Names" regarding an analysis or translation of Polish names. My Polish ancestor came to America in the early 1800's. Any information to could give me on the name Labenski would be appreciated.

Labenski is a tough one, because there are a couple of possible derivations. In either case, the first letter was almost certainly L~, which is how we represent on-line the Polish L with a slash through it, pronounced like our w by Poles but usually rendered as simply L by non-Poles. The n is probably the accented n (rendered as n~ on-line), so the name would be pronounced roughly "wah-BEN-skee."

Alexander Beider mentions the name L~aben~ski in his book A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from the Kingdom of Poland; he says it would come from the name of a village L~abno near Augustów in Suwalki province in northeastern Poland, and that explanation is very plausible -- it would just mean "person from L~abno." Such a name would not be restricted to Jews, Polish Christians could easily come to bear it also, since the name could apply to any family of any religion that came from the L~abno area. As of 1990 there were only 38 Poles with this name, scattered all over the country; the name is also seen spelled L~abenski (no accent over the n), and there were 31 by that name, with the majority (20) living in the province of Leszno in southwestern Poland. Many people living in what used to be eastern Poland were forced to move to the western part of the country after World War II, so it's possible those 20 L~abenski's had lived earlier near L~abno in northeastern Poland before they were forced to relocate. (I'm afraid I don't have access to more detailed info, such as first names or addresses of those L~abenski's and L~aben~ski's.)

The other possibility is derivation from the noun l~abe~dz~ (e~ stands for the Polish nasal vowel written as an e with a tail under it and pronounced like en; z~ is a z with an accent over it). This word means "swan," and L~abe~dz was also the name of a Polish coat of arms. It is seen in adjectival form (which is often the form used for surnames) as L~abe~dzki, pronounced like "wah-BENT-skee," and that same name is sometimes spelled L~abe~cki -- meaning literally just "of, from, relating to the swan." Phonetically speaking, it's not ridiculous to suggest that since it sounds close to L~aben~ski, this name might sometimes be spelled that way, especially after Poles named L~abe~dzki or L~abe~cki left Poland and had to spell their name in a way non-Poles could pronounce. L~abe~dzki was the name of 2,459 Poles as of 1990, and L~abe~cki was borne by 1,410, so those forms are pretty common. As we saw above, L~aben~ski is much rarer, as you'd expect of a variant spelling.

So what I'd say is this: if you keep seeing the spelling L~aben~ski even in Polish documents, the name probably started out meaning "one from L~abno." But if you start running into spellings like L~abe~dzki or L~abe~cki -- which is entirely possible -- you'll not be surprised by it, and you'll know the name originally derived from the root meaning "swan." The surname might derive from the noun for "swan," from the coat of arms L~abe~dz~, or from a place with a name like L~abe~dz~, L~abe~dy, etc. -- there are several such places, and they probably all got their name as meaning "place of the swans."

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To: James Labus, moenjiml@classic.msn.com, who wrote:

... Labus is my last name. I found it listed as a Polish surname in 1790. There is a town called Labus, just north of Koszalin in what is now Poland, but in the past had been Pommerania, Germany. Labas is also a Lithuanian word meaning "good" and is used as a greeting. Any ideas?

This is a tough one, because there are several plausible derivations, and I have no basis on which to single out one and say "This is the relevant one in your case."

Labus certainly could come from the Lithuanian term -- I have often seen names of Lithuanian descent show up in the general area of Pomerania (which is not exactly what you'd expect from looking at the map). But I have a copy of a 2-volume work on Lithuanian surnames, and it seems to say this isn't a name used all that often. The names Labys, Labus^aitis and Labus^evic^ius appear, but not Labus or Labus^. Of course some names have died out since our ancestors emigrated -- I know that for a fact from Polish data -- and both Labus^aitis and Labus^evic^ius mean "son of Labus^," so clearly that name has been used and may have been more common a century or two ago.

Polish surname expert Kazimierz Rymut mentions L~abus, L~abusz, and L~abus~ among names deriving from the Polish root l~aba, "paw"; I'm using L~ to stand for the Polish L with a slash through it, pronounced like our w, and s~ to stand for the s with an accent over it, pronounced somewhat like our "sh." I suppose such names originated as nicknames for a person with big hands or feet. In any case, among ethnic Poles, that would seem the most likely derivation... I can't help but wonder if in some cases the name might be connected with L~aba, which is also the Polish name for the river Elbe? I would think Rymut would have mentioned it if it was probable, and he didn't -- but then no one is right all time. I think it's worth keeping in mind.

But I also should mention that the term l~abuz exists in Polish, from labuz in Ukrainian, "weed"; there is also a Ukrainian verb labuzytys', "to wheedle, coax, fawn, flatter," and under some circumstances a name Labus could conceivably come from that. I wouldn't expect it to be relevant unless research shows your family had a strong link with Ukraine, but if any such link does show up...

All three of these origins are possible, but choosing one as most probable depends on the family background. If you find a strong Lithuanian connection of any sort, origin from labas, "good," becomes much credible. Likewise, a Ukrainian connection would boost the chances of the "weed" or "wheedle" link. But if your people seem to have been ethnic Poles as far back as you can discover, then the link with l~aba, "paw," seems strongest. As I say, I can't make that judgment -- but maybe you can!

As of 1990 there were 101 Poles named L~abus, 580 named L~abus~, and 1,685 named L~abuz (I think that has to be mentioned, because it would not be at all strange to see L~abus as a variant of L~abuz -- they are pronounced almost identically). If I had to bet, my money would be on L~abus~ because your people were probably Poles and because the s~ is often modified to simple s in many dialects. On the other hand, in 1990 none of the Poles named L~abus or L~abus~ lived in Koszalin province, and only 7 of those named L~abuz lived there. (Unfortunately, I don't have access to more detailed info such as first names and addresses). L~abus~ was most common in the provinces of Czestochowa (117) and Katowice (207) in southcentral Poland; L~abus was most common in Katowice province; and L~abuz was also most common in southcentral and southeastern Poland, e. g., provinces of Katowice (143), Kraków (205), Nowy Sacz (256), and Tarnów (380). It is highly likely those L~abuz'es had some Ukrainian roots.

I know I haven't handed you a nice, easy answer to the question of your name's derivation; but sometimes there isn't any one clear-cut answer, and I'd be a liar if I pretended there was. I hope this information may help you, especially as you combine it with what your research uncovers about your family's roots. I do think it's pretty clear-cut that with Poles the "paw" root is the best bet, with Lithuanians it's "good" root, and with Ukrainians it's the "weed" or "wheedle" root.