To: Chris Szymialowicz, gibsongibson@ziplink.net, who wrote:

… I was looking to find out more information about my polish surname: Szymialowicz. I did not see it listed in your past research and was hoping you might have more information.

This is a pretty rare name. As of 1990 there was no one in Poland named Szymialowicz; there were 8 people named Szymial, 7 of them living in Kalisz province and 1 in Kielce province. There were also 4 named Szymialis, all living in Suwalki province in northeastern Poland -- that is almost certainly a Lithuanian form of the name Szymial. There were also 6 named Szymialojc, living in Zielona Gora province in western Poland. In some dialects of Polish (in the northeast) the suffix –owicz, usually pronounced "-oh-vich," is pronounced more like –ojc ("oich"). So we have some reason to regard Szymialojc as a spelling variation of the name you’re asking about; it’s quite possible the family or families by that name in Zielona Gora province originally lived in northeastern Poland and relocated after World War II

It's not uncommon to find that a name died out in Poland after members of a family emigrated, that could have happened here. But as I say, Szymialojc may be regarded as an alternate, phonetic-based spelling of this name.

One thing is clear: the suffix -owicz means "son of," so this is what we call a patronymic, a name formed from the name of one's father. So at some point there was a fellow in the family named Szymial, people began calling his kin "son of Szymial," and the name stuck. So the question is, what does Szymial mean?

There are a couple of possibilities. The most likely, it seems to me, is that it is one of many names derived from Szymon, "Simon." Poles loved to form names by taking the first syllable of a popular first name, dropping the rest, and adding suffixes (sort of like "Teddy" from "Theodore," in English). If that's the origin of Szymialowicz, the probable meaning is something like "son of Simon." It could well be influenced by Lithuanian -- as Szymialis and Szymialojc clearly are -- and when I looked those up in a book of Lithuanian surnames it also said the names derived from "Simon." So that strikes me as the most likely origin.

There is also a word szymel in Polish, which means "white horse," and it's also the name of a dice game. Szymel has also used been used as a term to mean "20-year-old." From Szymel to Szymial is a bit of a stretch, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible.

So I'd say it's probably "son of Simon," but I can't rule out the possibility it refers to szymel in one of its meanings.

I have no sources that let me answer this question definitively, but if you'd really like to know more, you might try writing to the Anthroponymic Workshop of the Polish Language Institute in Krakow. They don't do genealogical research, only work on the origins of names; but they can handle correspondence in English, seldom charge more than $20, and they are the best experts, with the best collection of sources on name origins. If you'd like to contact them, read more about them in the introduction to my Web page.

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To: Jason Tarasek, tarasek@sprintmail.com, who wrote:

… Prossien (please?) provide what you know about the surname "Terasek." My name is Jason Tarasek, the family's last name was changed after they arrived to America in the 1920s. I'm hoping that my name will provide many clues.

Well, I hope you're not disappointed -- the truth is most Polish surnames don't really provide a whole lot in the way of helpful clues. But let's see what I can come up with, and you can judge whether it's any help. (By the way, the word for "please" is spelled Prosze, written with a little tail under the e, but we can't reproduce that on-line without a lot of fuss and bother.)

Actually, your name would be easier if you told me the original form was Tarasek. That's not that rare a name in Poland -- there were 738 Polish citizens named Tarasek as of 1990, living all over the country but with the largest numbers in the provinces of Warsaw (284), Katowice (59), Lublin (47), Skierniewice (53), Tarnobrzeg (165), and Zamosc (94). The pattern is kind of unclear, but there are at least good numbers of them in southeastern Poland, and that's where I'd expect to find them, because in most cases Tarasek is probably derived from the first name Taras, which is more Ukrainian than Polish. The suffix -ek means "little" or "son of," so the most likely meaning of the name is "son of Taras." There is also a word taras it may come from in some cases, meaning "prison, dike."

Terasek is much rarer. As of 1990 there were only 2 Poles by that name, one in Katowice province and one in Torun province. The derivation is tough, it could be a regional variant of Tarasek -- it's not unusual to see an a in names sometimes switch to e because of regional variations in pronunciation. It might also mean "son of Teresa," although Poles are less likely to form surnames from women's name -- most such names were patronymic, i. e., referring to the father. Still, metronymics do occur, and Terasek could possibly be from Teresa. I also can't rule out derivation from the word teraz, "now" -- I've seen names formed from such terms, probably originating as nicknames referring to some word or phrase a person was always saying. It would be a little like saying "Here comes old 'Do-it-now'!"

Still, in view of the numbers, I still can't help wondering if the link to the first name Taras is the right one -- that's my gut feeling, and I've learned to pay attention to those. This name, as I said, is associated more with Ukrainians than Poles -- I believe Gogol wrote a book or story Taras Bulba, which was made into a movie with Yul Brynner, and it was about a Cossack family. You must realize this wouldn't necessarily make you any less Polish; Ukraine was ruled by Poland for a long time, a great many Poles lived there, and a great many Ukrainians lived (and still live) in Poland. Poles thought of Ukrainians as their brothers to the east, and in fact many "Polish" heroes came from what is now Ukraine, including the great Tadeusz Kosciuszko... Linguistically speaking, it wouldn't be too big a stretch to explain that Terasek/Tarasek variation -- as I said, we often see E and A switch in Polish names. And as far as the numbers go, Tarasek seems the better bet. I'm not trying to sell you on it, it just strikes me as the most likely connection.

If you'd like to see whether Polish experts can come up with something better, you could try writing the Anthroponymic Workshop of the Polish Language Institute in Krakow. They can handle correspondence in English, and I've never heard of them charging more than $20 to research a single name. They only do name origins, not genealogy -- but for Polish names, they're the best I know. The address is:

Instytut Jezyka Pracownia
Pracownia Antroponimiczna
ul Straszewskiego 27
31-113 KRAKOW
POLSKA

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To: Doug Topolski, JoeFridayA@aol.com, who wrote:

… Can you tell me anything about the Topolski, Topolsky, or Sliwa names?

S~liwa comes from the noun s~liwa (the ~ stands for an accent over the s, giving it a slight "sh" sound, so that the name sounds like "shleev-uh"), which means "plum-tree, sloe." It is relatively common in Poland, as of 1990 there were 11,499 Poles by that name, living all over the country.

Topolski is an adjective from the noun topola, "poplar tree," so it would mean literally "of, from, relating to, connected with a poplar." As a surname it might refer to a person who lived near a particularly conspicuous poplar, or dealt in poplar woood, some sort of connection like that. This, too, is a fairly common name, as of 1990 there were 4,003 Poles named Topolski; and like S~liwa, it is common all over the country, not restricted to any one area.

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To: Christy Kallies, kallies@ez-net.com, who wrote:

… I was hoping, since you've been so kind with the information so far, if you would tell me what the name Turok could mean in Polish. It was the maiden name of my best friend's mother.

There are a couple of possibilities for that, and I'm not sure which is more likely. It could be a variant of turek, "Turk," a very common name in Poland (13,066 by that name as of 1990); consider another name that derived from turek, Turko, borne by 341 Poles as of 1990. In the Middle Ages and beyond the Turks were constantly making their way up into eastern Europe and wreaking havoc, and they left some descendants behind; also a person with a dark complexion might be called Turek or Turko because he looked kind of like a Turk, even if he wasn't. So turek is a definite possible source for Turok.

The other likely origin is from tur, a word for the animal we call "aurochs." It would be quite plausible that the diminutive suffix -ok could be added to that, to mean "little aurochs, son of the aurochs," or even "son of Tur" with Tur being a big, strong fellow who got that name because he reminded people of one of these large beasts. As I said, it's really difficult to say which of these two roots the name is more likely to come from.

Turok is a pretty rare name in Poland these days, as of 1990 there were only 38 of them, living in the provinces of Gorzow (2), Jelenia Gora (11), Slupsk (1), Szczecin (3), and Zielona Gora (21). The two provinces with most of them, Jelenia Gora and Zielona Gora, are in southwestern Poland, in areas formerly ruled by Germany. Unfortunately I don't have further data such as names and addresses, I'm afraid what I've given here is all I have.

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To: ajacobs@maximgroup.com, who wrote:

… Working on my family tree. Found one name on your list - Nowak. Surprised to see it is a common name. I imagine this will make my search harder. I have three other great grand parent names that were not on your list. Perhaps you can tell me a little about them:Anszczak, Lukasick, Pietrowitz/Pietrowicz.

Anszczak comes from the first name Jan or German Hans = English "John." The -czak suffix means "son of," so basically this name means the same as English "Johnson." This is not a very common name, as of 1990 only 149 Poles were named Anszczak; by far the most lived in the provinces of Bialystok (72) and Suwalki (24) in northeastern Poland, near the border with Lithuania and Belarus, but there were a few scattered here and there in other parts of Poland. (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).

Lukasick is probably Lukasik, which means "little Lucas, son of Lucas." Surnames derived from popular first names are usually very common in Poland, and this is no exception -- as of 1990 there were 15,213 Poles by this name, living all over the country.

Pietrowicz is much the same story. The suffix -owicz also means "son of," so Pietrowicz means "Peterson." It is moderately common, as of 1990 there were 527 Poles by that name.

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To: Martin S. Walicki, walicki@ibm.net, who wrote:

… I would greatly appreciate any information on the meaning/origin of my family surname - Walicki. I know that my great-grandfather, Martin, immigrated to USA about 1873-74 (cannot locate passage info yet) via Germany.

Surnames beginning with Wal- usually derive from the first name Walenty, the equivalent of "Valentine" in English, but Walenty is a more common first name in Poland than Valentine is in English. Poles often formed nicknames or affectionate names by taking the first syllable of a popular name, dropping the rest, and adding suffixes. So Walicki probably breaks down as Wal- + -ic- + -cki, where Wal- is short for "Walenty," -ic- is "son of," and -cki is an adjectival ending meaning "of, from, pertaining to." So Walicki means literally "of, from, pertaining to Wal's son." It could refer to a relative of Wal's son, or a place owned by Wal's son -- the Walicki's in some cases may have gotten their name because they came from a place named Walica or Walice or something similar, and the place in turn got its name from Wal's son... However, derivation from the root seen in the verb walic~, "to knock over, knock down," is also possible.

We also can't rule out the possibility that the name was originally Wolicki (most likely referring to the many places named Wola, Wolice, etc.) but the vowel was changed from o to a. That happens, but I wouldn't worry about this unless you start seeing evidence of a vowel change in the records. Tracing Walicki's will be tough enough, don't make things worse by looking for Wolicki's unless you have reason to believe the alternate spelling is relevant.

As of 1990 there were 3,333 Polish citizens named Walicki, so it's a fairly common name. It appears all over the country, with particularly large numbers in the provinces of Warsaw (566), Lodz (168), and Suwalki (311). But there's nothing in the frequency or distribution pattern that offers any useful clue as to which particular part of Poland a specific Walicki family came from; families by that name probably developed independently in many different areas. Unfortunately, most Polish surnames just aren't distinctive enough to let us say, "Aha, this village right here is where you came from." There are exceptions, but not many.

[Addendum: Later a Pole named Walicki wrote me to say my interpretation of the name was all wrong, because he had traced his name back to the 14th century and it referred to the family’s origin in a place na Waliskach. With all due respect, I stand by what I wrote above. In isolated instances this surname could come from such a place name, but I feel sure the majority of Walicki’s would find a link with Wal- either as a short form of Walenty or Walerian or from the root in walic~, which is the root that place name na Waliskach came from. All this proves is that the more information you’ve found on your family by genealogical research, the more facts you can bring to the issue of the name’s development, and the more detailed and correct a derivation you can formulate. If one fellow says "My name’s Walicki, what does it mean?" and another says "My name’s Walicki, my ancestors came from this settlement na Waliskach and appear in records in the 15th century, etc., etc." -- obviously the second one gives a scholar of names far more to work with. But if the name is all you have, chances are good it comes either from Walenty or the root in walic~. ]

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To: Gloria Fasholz, gloria.fasholz@CellNet.com, who wrote:

… Your busy schedule and time permitting, would you please be so kind as to give me any information on the following surnames. These are not too common, (belonging to gr-gr-grandparents) and I'd be very interested in knowing regions and meanings. My guess is the Poznan region for both: Wejta and Rosplock (or Rosbuck).

Wejta is a rare name, indeed -- as of 1990 there was no one registered as having that name in Poland. There were 29 folks named Wejt, living in the following provinces: Ciechanow 13, Olsztyn 4, Plock 1, Szczecin 3, Warsaw 1, and Zielona Gora 7. It's hard to discern any pattern to that distribution... None of my sources mention Wejta, so I have to dig around for roots it might come from. There is a Polish word wejta, a kind of exclamation meaning "Look!" or "Look at that!" or "Behold!" I could see it catching on as a nickname for someone who said that all the time -- there are other names of similar origin. The other possibilities are that it comes from a variant Weite of German Weiz, "wheat," probably for a farmer who grew wheat, or a dialect pronunciation of Wojta or Wojt, which can come either from the noun wójt, a district official or village mayor, or the first name Wojciech. If there's reason to think the family might have come from an area with a pretty strong German influence (western Poland or Poznan especially), the "wheat" connection strikes me as most likely. But I can't rule the others out.

Rosplock or Rosbuck is even harder. As of 1990 there was no one in Poland with a name beginning with Rosb-. There is a name Rospl~och borne by 43 Poles in 1990, but it's a variant of Rozpl~och, borne by 220 Poles (province breakdown: Bydgoszcz 65, Kalisz 4, Koszalin 23, Lublin 1, Pila 110, Poznan 1, Slupsk 5, Torun 3, Walbrzych 8). The hell of it is, I can't find anything that tells me what this name would mean! The prefix roz- has the meaning of "apart, separate, falling apart," and the root pl~och- means "shy, fickle, thoughtless," so the name might be a combination of those two ideas. But as I say, I can't find it anywhere, and that bothers me. But Poles aren't usually big on the combinations Rosb- or Rosp-, I suspect Rozpl~och might be the name you're looking for.

These might be good names to run by the Anthroponymic Workshop in Krakow -- if anybody could shed light on them, that's who it would be. You might give it a try; you can get more info and the address at http://www.polishroots.com/surnames_index.htm.

Sorry I couldn't help more, but these are not what you'd call high-frequency names, as you said yourself, and I just couldn't find much. I hope what little I did find proves to be some help to you, and I wish you the best of luck with your research!

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To: Adam Wesoloski, design@graphicmanagement.com, who wrote:

… My family surname is Wesoloski and I do know my great-grandparents are from Poland. I have always been interested to find out what the name means, and where they came from.

Wesoloski is a variant form of Wesol~owski (notice the second -w- drops out right before the -ski). This is not uncommon in Poland, we see many names that do this, e. g., Dombroski/Dombrowski, Janoski/Janowski, etc. In that position the w (normally pronounced like our v) softens to the sound of an f, and in some dialects it is pronounced so lightly as to be inaudible. Spelling tends to follow pronunciation, and that's how many Polish names dropped that w, from -owski to -oski. But in discussing the origin of the names we need to restore it, because the forms with the W are usually much more common.

So what does Wesol~owski mean? It comes from a root wesol~y that means "merry, cheerful"; the same root appears in many other Slavic languages (but by English phonetics would be spelled "vesol-"). So it's entirely possible this surname could have started out meaning nothing more than "kin of the cheerful one."

But it's also true that most -owski names began as references to a connection between a person or family and a place with a similar name, e. g., Wesol~ów, Wesol~ówka, Wesol~owo are all names that could easily generate the surname Wesolowski, meaning basically "one from Wesol~ów (-ówka/-owo)." Those place names, in turn, got their names because of some link with "merry, cheerful"; perhaps they originally meant "the cheerful place," or "the place of the cheerful one," something like that. There are quite a few villages in Poland with names that qualify, so unfortunately the surname doesn't provide any clues that allow us to point to any one of them and say "Ah, that's where your family came from." Without specific data on the family that pinpoints the exact region they came from, we have no way of knowing which Wesol~ów or Wesol~owo or Wesol~ówka a given family was connected with.

Wesol~owski is a very common surname in Poland, as of 1990 there were 23,653 Polish citizens by that name, living all over the country. There were, in contrast, only 7 who spelled their name Wesol~oski, so if that spelling actually persists in your family's name all the way back to Poland and your relatives still spell it that way -- well, some of those 7 might be relatives. Unfortunately I don't have access to details such as first names and addresses, but I can tell you those 7 lived in the provinces of Bydgoszcz (1), Gdansk (1), Lublin (1), Tarnow (2), Walbrzych (1), Wroclaw (1).

I don't want to throw you off the track here -- it is not at all certain those Wesol~oski's would be related to you. The spelling of names is variable in the records, and the same name sometimes shows up as -owski and sometimes as -oski without it really meaning much. With a name as common as Wesol~owski, it's pretty likely quite a few of them pronounced it Wesoloski, and thus sometimes had it spelled that way; then it might have been "corrected" to the standard form later. So it's hard to say under which spelling your relatives would show up in modern records.

I'm sorry I couldn't give you more to work with, but most Polish names are like this -- they don't usually provide specific clues as to exactly where they came from. Still, some of this info might prove useful to you.

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To: KenToner@aol.com, who wrote:

… My grandfather Michal~ Zagrodny He was baptised Roman Catholic in 1887 in Touste SE of Ternopil'. Michal~'s father was Dionezy Zagrodny and his mother was Franciszka Soroka which Walter said is Ukrainian for the bird magpie.

Well, I have no hard data or numbers for Ukraine, only for Poland in its current boundaries, so I don't know how much good I can do you. But here's what I have.

Zagrodny comes from the term zagroda, "farm, croft," from roots meaning literally "behind the enclosure." There is a saying, "Szlachcic na zagrodzie rowny wojewodzie," "The petty noble on his farm is the equal of the palatine," which mean in theory all nobles were equal in rights, whether they owned a small farm or huge estate; this gives a bit of an idea what a zagroda was, a small enclosed farm that a minor noble might own. Zagrodny is just an adjectival form, "of, from, pertaining to a zagroda." This may mean an ancestor was a minor noble, or that he worked on such a farm. As of 1990 there were 352 Polish citizens by this name, with no particular concentration in any one area.

Soroka is indeed the Ukrainian term for "magpie" -- in Polish it's Sroka. This is still a prety common name in Poland, as of 1990 there were 2,011 Polish citizens named Soroka, scattered all over the country, as opposed to 13,768 named Sroka (common all over Poland).

… Michal~'s mother is Maria Onyszków (with accent above O) and she is the daughter of Cyryli Onyszków and Franciszka Dziuda.

The surname Onyszków derives from the Ukr. first name Onysym, from Greek Onesimos, "useful, advantageous." In 1990 there were 473 Poles named Onyszko, 442 named Onyszkiewicz ("son of Onyszko"), but only 18 named Onyszków, most of them, 11, living in Jelenia Gora province in western Poland, no doubt due to post-World War II forced relocations.

I could find no info on the origin or meaning of Dziuda. I can only tell you there were 765 Poles by that name in 1990, with the largest numbers in the provinces of Lodz (161), Skierniewice (306) in central Poland.

… I'm fairly sure that Michal~ and his future wife, my grandmother, Anna Wierzbicki lived in Borki Male right before they came to the US in 1905 but I need to find out if family would still be there or if they may have been relocated during the war years when the borders changed.

The ultimate root of Wierzbicki is the term wierzba, "willow," but the surname probably started in most cases as a reference to a village of origin with a name such as Wierzbica (there are 20 or 30 of these) or something similar. Since there are many places with names that would yield the adjectival form Wierzbicki, it's not surprising there a great many Poles by this name -- as of 1990 there were 19,231, living all over the country.

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To: Jane F. Shish, JShish@aol.com, who wrote:

… I was wondering if you have any information on the surname of my grandfather's family, Wincek. My great grandfather came to this country sometime between 1886 and 1892, possibly from Tarnow Parish.

This is almost certainly a diminutive or nickname from Wincenty, the Polish form of the name "Vincent." Poles often took the first syllable of a popular first name, dropped the rest, and then added suffixes such as -ek. The basic meaning would be kind of like "Vince" in English, or it could also have meant "little Vincent" or "son of Vincent." Names of this kind are extremely common in Poland. Wincek appears in records as far back as 1213, but it's not all that common these days -- as of 1990 there were only 298 Poles named Wincek. They were scattered in small clumps in many different provinces, with no real pattern apparent. That's not too strange, a name like this could get started anywhere they spoke Polish and had guys named Wincenty (i. e., anywhere in Poland). The odd thing is that no one by this name showed up in Tarnow province. However, that isn't necessarily a major problem -- a lot of names died out in Poland after people bearing them came to America; and the population has been shuffled around enough by war and dictators, to such a degree that finding no Wincek's near Tarnow in 1990 hardly proves there weren't Wincek's there 100 years ago.

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To: Cea8887@aol.com, who wrote:

… Would you be able to tell me if Winkelman is listed in your Polish Surname Directory. Supposedly this person came from Brzeno, poland but nothin has been found in 30 years of searching.

Winkelman is a German name, coming from a term used to mean "grocer, guy with a Mom-and-Pop grocery store." But you must realize that over the centuries there have been large numbers of ethnic Germans living in what is now Poland, so it's not at all unusual to find German names there. For instance, Hoffman is a German name, and there are literally thousands of Hoffman's in Poland -- and before World War II, there were more. Millions of Germans left territory that is now in Poland for East Germany after World War II, figuring Poles might bear a grudge over a little thing like the Nazis' attempt to subjugate and murder them.

As of 1990 there were 8 Polish citizens named Winkelman, and 77 named Winkelmann (for all intents and purposes, the single and double n have no great significance). The Winkelmann's were most common in the province of Gdansk (44), which used to be Danzig back when the Germans ruled that area, but there are a few scattered in various areas here and there. As I say, 50 years ago there were probably a lot more.

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To: PAB1184@aol.com, who wrote:

… Any information on the surname Wolicki would also be appreciated when and if you have the time.

That name probably originated, in most cases, as a reference to a place with a similar name that the family was associated with -- lived there, worked there, or if noble owned it, something like that. The problem is, there are many, many places called Wolica or Wolice in Poland, and those are the place names I'd expect to generate the surname Wolicki, which means basically "one from Wolica or Wolice"; there might be other place names it could come from, too, but definitely Wolica and Wolice would qualify. Without more info, there's really no way to say which one your particular family would have been connected with. As of 1990 there were 1,132 Polish citizens named Wolicki, living all over Poland; there were particularly large numbers in the provinces of Kalisz (103), Konin (117), and Tarnobrzeg (101), with only 12 in the modern-day province of Lomza. I'm afraid I don't have access to any further data such as first names or addresses.

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To: Christine (Wolniewicz) Quibell [E-mail address inadvertently deleted]

… My father's surname is Wolniewicz. Any information you can briefly provide me with would be very much appreciated. There are too many places to go on the web and I am lost right now at where to start.

The suffix -ewicz or -owicz means "son of," and the root wolny means "free," so this name literally means "son of the free one." In the context of names, wolny often means "one freed from the requirement of doing labor for his liege lord" -- most peasants had to work so many days on week in their lord's fields in return for the right to work their own bit of land. A wolny man had somehow earned his freedom from that requirement, and believe me, that could be a big deal! If you spent half the week working on your lord's land, that left little time to give your own crops the attention they needed. A freedman didn't have to worry about that. In some ways it may have been an uncomfortable position -- the vast majority of Polish society was either peasant or noble, the relatively small number of free men stood somewhere in between -- but such men had a little more control over their own destiny.

Unfortunately, very few Polish surnames provide any kind of really helpful lead or clue when it comes to research, and Wolniewicz is no exception. As you can imagine, this name could arise anywhere they spoke Polish and had free men, i. e., anywhere. As of 1990 there were 2,039 Polish citizens named Wolniewicz; the largest numbers lived in the provinces of Warsaw (153), Pila (108), Poznan (557), and Skierniewice (207), with smaller numbers in virtually every other province. So I'm afraid the name in itself isn't going to help much.

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To: Nancy Wozniak, albdnew@jidmail.nmcourts.com, who wrote:

… What does Wozniak mean and if possible its Polish origin?

This is an extremely common Polish name -- as of 1990 there were 81,390 Polish citizens named Woz~niak, spelled with an accent over the z (which is what the ~ stands for).

There are a couple of ways it could have derived. In many cases it probably comes from the term wo~zny, "court crier, beadle, caretaker." The suffix -iak is often used to mean "son of," so a Woz~niak might have been the son of this official. This is the connection Polish name expert Kazimierz Rymut mentions in his book on Polish surnames. But it is also worth mentioning that there is a term woz~niak in Polish that means "saddle horse." Here the derivation is clearly from wóz, "cart, carriage." So it seems likely this name could have originated as meaning "son of the court crier," but might also have arisen as a reference to a carter or as a nickname for someone who owned or rode a saddle horse.

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To: Renee Budden, rbudden@bsc.net, who wrote:

… My great grandmother tells me our family came from Hamburg, Germany but many people have said that it is a Polish name. Can you tell me if this is of Polish origin and what particular area if so? I would appreciate any suggestions. The name is Wyrosdick and they came into the Carolinas in the mid 1700's.

That name is pretty well disguised, but I feel 99% certain it is indeed Polish. The fact that your family came from Hamburg doesn't necessarily mean a thing -- many Poles emigrated from the port of Hamburg, and some had to live there for a while before they could get passage. Besides, for centuries there have been Poles living in Germany and Germans living in Poland.

To figure out what the name is, I had to pronounce it out loud and ask "What Polish name, if any, does that sound like?" As soon as I did, I realized it almost has to be Wyrostek (pronounced "vi-ROSE-tek", where "vi" has the short i sound in "sit"). This name comes from the Polish word wyrostek, "teenager, youth, young man." It is not a rare name, as of 1990 there were 879 Polish citizens named Wyrostek. They lived all over the country, with the largest numbers in the provinces of Chelm (81), Ciechanow (35), Jelenia Gora (41), Katowice (59), Krakow (62), Lublin (78), Nowy Sacz (142), Torun (47), and Zamosc (68). That means they're really scattered throughout southern Poland, with no real concentration in any one area.

So there's good news and bad news. The good news is, Wyrostek is almost certainly the original Polish form of the name. The bad news is, there's no one area of Poland you can concentrate on. That, by the way, is normal; comparatively few surnames give you a useful lead as to exactly where they came from.

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To: Andrea Zacharczyk, Zacharczyk@concentric.net, who wrote:

… I was interested in finding out more about my surname, Zacharczyk. If you could help it would be greatly appreciated.

The suffix -czyk in Polish (and some other Slavic languages, although -czyk is a Polish spelling) usually means "son of" when used in surnames, so Zacharczyk means "son of Zachar." Zachar is a form of the first name we know as "Zachary"; it is especially common among Ukrainians, who for a long time were ruled by Poland, so there was considerable mixing of Poles and Ukrainians. But I don't think we could say it's used only by Ukrainians, it can be considered a perfectly good Polish name as well; but this just might be a clue that your ancestors came from what is now eastern Poland or western Ukraine.

As of 1990 there were only 142 Poles named Zacharczyk -- fewer than I would have expected, but there were 861 Poles named Zacharczuk, which means exactly the same thing. The 142 Zacharczyk's were scattered all over the country; the only provinces with more than 10 were Warsaw (11), Gorzow (11), Lomza (29), ad Przemysl (19). Warsaw's in central Poland, Gorzow in western Poland, Lomza in north central Poland, and Przemysl in southeastern Poland, so that tells you just how scattered the name is. That may well be due to post-World War II mass relocations, which took Ukrainians and scattered them all over Poland. Besides, you usually can't pin these patronymic names (ones meaning "son of X" down to just one area, they could get started anywhere people spoke Polish or Ukrainian and there were guys with that first name, in this case Zachar.

So while this isn't a great deal of information, perhaps it helps a little: the name means "son of Zachary," is not very common, and is not limited to any one part of the country (although before World War II, who knows? I don't have data from that period).

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To: Szalipski, who wrote:

… I would like to know any information you could find about the surname Zalipski or Zalypski. Thank you.

The name Zalipski probably comes from the roots za, "beyond, past" + lipa, "linden tree." It might have started out as a literal reference to a person who lived just past a linden tree, or it could have referred to a place called Zalipa, Zalipie, something like that, which in turn got that name because of its location near a linden or grove of lindens. I notice there is a Zalipie, northwest of Dabrowa Tarnowska, in Tarnow province; this is one place the name might refer to, although there may be others too small to show up on my maps.

As of 1990 there were 79 Polish citizens named Zalipski, living in the provinces of: Warsaw (3), Bielsko-Biala (4), Bydgoszcz (8), Jelenia Gora (24), Koszalin (7), Krakow (1), Legnica (3), Opole (4), Pila (5), Skierniewice (1), Walbrzych (1), Wroclaw (18). I'm afraid I have no access to further details such as first names and adddresses, what I've given here is all I have. From this data it appears southwestern Poland is the area where this name is most common.

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To: Michael J Herrera, MICHAELH20@prodigy.net, who wrote:

… I am interested and would appreciate any information that you have on the surnames Konczyk, Zaremba, or Slimko.

Polish surname expert Kazimierz Rymut includes Kon~czyk (where n~ stands for the n with an accent over it) under the list of names derived from koniec, so that the name probably means something like "the person who lived at the end" (of a street or whatever); there is also a term kon~czyk meaning "the end of a rod or bar." This is not an extremely common name, as of 1990 there were only 690 Poles named Kon~czyk.

S~limko appears to come from the word s~limak, "snail, slug"; the root s~lim- appears to be like "slime" in English, associated either with a thick, gooey liquid or creatures that secreted such a liquid. As a name for a person, it probably suggested only that he moved slowly. This is a rare name, as of 1990 there were only 56 Poles named S~limko, most of them (43) living in Suwalki province in northeastern Poland.

Zaremba is a common name, borne by 10,907 Poles as of 1990; it can also be spelled Zare~ba (e~ stands for the Polish nasal vowel written as an e with a tail under it and pronounced, before b or p, like "em"), and as of 1990 there were also 9,840 Poles who spelled the name Zare~ba. It comes from a root meaning "to cut, chop, hack," probably referring either to someone who was ferocious in battle, or to someone who helped clear woods for settlement. There are a number of villages in Poland named Zaremba, and there was also a Zaremba coat of arms.

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To: Deana Nealon, wolph@htc.net, who wrote:

… My maiden name was Zdroj... I am told that my Great Grandfather was Roman Zdrojewski, and took the last portion of our name off. I know oour family is origionally from Prussia.

Sometimes people tell me they think their name has been shortened, and it turns out there's no good reason to think so -- but in your case, you're almost certainly right. The name Zdroj or Zdrój is virtually unheard of as a surname, or at least as of 1990 there was apparently no one in Poland with this name. Zdrojewski, however, is quite common; as of 1990 there 3,825 Polish citizens by that name. They lived all over the country, with the largest numbers in the provinces of Warsaw (331), Bydgoszcz (361), Gdansk (655), and Torun (477), and much smaller numbers in many other provinces. Of the four just mentioned, all but Warsaw province were in either East or West Prussia, so it seems likely the majority of Zdrojewski's came originally from those regions.

The name itself comes ultimately from the root zdrój, "spring, spa," but by way of places names derived from that root. In other words, Zdrojewski started out meaning "one connected with Zdroje or Zdrojewo," and there are quite a few villages by those names -- most, but not all, in East or West Prussia. Places would get the name Zdroje or Zdrojewo in Polish much as German places got names like Baden and the English town of Bath got its name: there were natural springs of warm water or mineral water nearby where people came to bathe. So Zdrojewski really means nothing more than "person from the place with the springs."

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To: dennis.zelmanski@USINY.mail.abb.com, who wrote:

… Any information on the surnames Zelmanski or Ziemniak. And if ppossible theregions in Poland where located.

Ziemniak comes from a basic root meaning "earth, soil," and the surname could derive from that root. But the most likely specific link is with the noun ziemniak, "potato." Presumably a Ziemniak originally got that name because he grew potatoes, sold them, was shaped like one, some sort of connection like that. As of 1990 there were 1,357 Polish citizens named Ziemniak; they lived all over Poland, with no real concentration in any one part. This just makes sense: the name could get started anywhere they spoke Polish and had potatoes, so you wouldn't expect to see it limited to any one region.

None of my sources mention Zelman~ski (where n~ represents the n with an accent over it). It seems to me there are two likely derivations of the name, and in fact both may have produced it. One is a variant of the first name Solomon, which appears in Polish and German in many forms, including Zelman; if that's the link, the name would just mean "kin of Solomon." Or it could be from a German word such as Sellman (which Poles would write Zelman); that, too, could be a variant of Solomon, but it can also refer to where a person lived, "one who lived near Sella or Seller" -- according to German surname expert Hans Bahlow there were places by this name in the areas of Liegnitz and Gorlitz, both of which are now in Poland. There just isn't enough information available to decide which variation would prove relevant in your family's case.

As of 1990 there were 229 Poles named Zelman~ski, with the largest numbers in the provinces of Elblag (27), Olsztyn (47), Plock (36), and Torun (62), all areas in north central Poland that the Germans used to rule. So a German connection with the surname makes good sense.

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To: Kathy Zima, katzi@tcis.net, who wrote:

… Would you have any information on the ZIMA name? I seem to run into walls on my research of this family. In the meantime I plan to order a few books and info packets to figure what I am doing wrong.

I'm afraid Zima is one of those names that's too general to offer much help with research -- it comes from the Polish word zima, "winter," and the basic root zim- means "cold." As of 1990 there were 1,237 Polish citizens named Zima; they were scattered all over the country, but there were particularly large numbers living in the provinces of Krosno (191) and Tarnow (278), which are both in southeastern Poland. So that's where the area is most common, although, as I said, you can find Zima's living just about anywhere in Poland.

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To: David Zyskowski, DZYS@aol.com, who wrote:

… I am looking for information on Leon Zyskowski, son of Alexsander. He was born in Szczuczyn, Poland, February 2,1893. Any information on the Zyskowski family name would be very helpful.

Well, I should explain that the information regards how names originated and what they meant, and is usually not too helpful with individual families or persons. However, when one has the kind of specific data you have, the information I provide can sometimes offer leads that prove useful. Let's hope that's true in this case.

Zyskowski is a moderately common name in Poland; as of 1990 there were 1,967 Polish citizens with that name. The distribution pattern may be significant -- while you can find Zyskowski's in virtually every part of Poland, the provinces with the highest numbers are Lomza (494) and Suwalki (640), in the northeastern corner of the country. Presumably the Szczuczyn your family came from was the one now in Lomza province (there is at least one other, in Poznan province, in western Poland), so that suggests your family came from the region where this name is most concentrated. Unfortunately I don't have access to more detailed info such as first names and addresses -- what I've given here is all I have -- but it does provide a little insight.

Names ending in -owski often originated as references to a connection between a person or family and the name of a specific place, generally ending in -ów, -owo, -owa, etc. Thus we'd expect Zyskowski to have meant originally "one from Zysków or Zyskowo or Zyskowa or Zyski," something like that. However, none of my sources show any such place. It could well be that there was a place by that name to which the surname referred when it originated centuries ago, but it was too small to show up in gazetteers, or has since disappeared, changed its name, been absorbed by some other community, etc. In your research, if you ever find any reference to a place named Zysków, etc., that may well turn out to be the place the surname refers to.

Names in -owski can also be simply adjectival references to a person's name, so that Zyskowski could conceivably have meant "one related to Zysek or Zysko." From my experience, that proves true less often than the link with a place, but we can't rule it out.

Either way, the question arises, what was the ultimate root? There are two possibilities. The root zysk in Polish means "profit, gain, earnings," and either personal or place names could refer to that: a man might have a nickname Zysek or Zysko because he was shrewd in business dealings, or a place might be called Zyskow/o/a because it was a rather profitable place to do business, or because it was founded or owned by a fellow named Zysek/Zysko. The other possibility is derivation from zys, "golden eagle"; Zysek or Zysko could be the name of a fellow who somehow reminded people of this eagle, or Zyskow/o/a could be the name of a place where such eagles were common. So we can interpret the surname either in terms of personal names, "kin of Zysek/Zysko," or place names, "one from the profitable place" or "one from the place of the golden eagle." If we could find a nearby place named Zyskow/o/a, that would clarify the situation considerably; if there is not and never has been such place, it would suggest the name means "kin of Zysek/Zysko," but it would still be unclear whether his name referred to profit or eagles.

Without more information it's impossible to pick one of these and say "This is the one applicable in your family's case," but at least this gives you something to work with. I hope it's some help to you, and I wish you the best of luck with your research.

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To: Graham J Murray, g.murray@barrie.co.uk, who wrote:

… I read your article on Polish surnames on the Net. I wonder if could you please help me ? I was born with the surname "Komornicki." I was adopted at birth and have had no contact with my natural family so I have not had the luxury of a family and family connections to find out information on my birth name.

Komornicki is an adjectival form (like all surnames ending in -ski or -cki), referring to the noun komornik and meaning "of, from, pertaining to a komornik," or else deriving from place names such as Komornik or Komorniki, which in turn began as meaning something like "place of the komornik." So the key here is, what does komornik mean?

It's rather frustrating that there are two different meanings for this word. One kind of komornik is usually translated "bailiff," and referred to an official of local courts, a kind of sheriff's officer; when applied to a nobleman, it was a functionary at the king's court. This kind of komornik was obviously a person of some status.

The other kind of komornik -- and by far the more common usage of the word -- is often translated "tenant," and referred to a person who did not own a house of his/her own, but rather lived as a boarder with someone else. This might be a poor person, but very often it was an older, retired person who had raised a family, passed the management of the family farm on to the kids, and gone to live with someone else so as not to be in the way.

The surname Komornicki probably started as a name for children or kin of a komornik -- sometimes the official, sometimes the boarder -- or else as name for someone who came from a village called Komornik or Komorniki. Since the boarder variety of komornik was probably much more numerous than the official variety of komornik, we have to suppose the surname refers more often to the boarders than the officials. But without detailed research into a particular Komornicki family's past, there'd be no way to know.

As of 1990 there were 569 Polish citizens named Komornicki; as Polish names go, that means it's not all that common, but obviously not rare either. The 10-volume work that gives that data also shows the distribution by province (but no further details such as first names and addresses), and I'm afraid this name is not concentrated in any one part of the country, at least not to any extent that would provide a useful lead. The largest numbers were in the provinces of Warsaw (96), Katowice (65), Legnica (65), and Wroclaw; the latter three are in southwest and southcentral Poland, so it appears that's the area in which the name is somewhat more common. But you find Komornicki's in all parts of the country, so without details on your specific family, I'm afraid that data isn't much help.

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From: (Bruce Stelmar)

To: WFHoffman@prodigy.net

Hi Fred,

As promised, I am passing along the information I received from "Instytut Jezyka Polskiego Pracownia Antroponimiczna." Below I have transcibed their letter. Thanks for all your help.

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Kraków, March 12, 1998

Dear Mr. Stelmar,

I answer your letter of February 14, 1998, in which you asked us about the of the Stelmaszewski family name.

The explanation of the Stelmaszewski surname, made by Mr. Fred Hoffman is absolutely correct. To this explanation I can add only some details.

This village, mentioned by Mr. Hoffman, which could be the base of the surname was called Stelmachowo. It lies at present in the Tykocin county, Bialystok province. It is to note that the first record of this place name was made in 1558. The locality was called a grange of Stelmachowo. It means that the base of the grange was connected with a craftman was stelmach i.e. a cart-wright.

There was also another village called Stelmachowo. Such a locality lies to-day on the territory of the former eastern region of Polish State, now belonging to Ukraine.

In the region of Malopolska (Little Poland) existed also, in the 19-th century, a grange called Mlyn Stelmachow (Engl. Stelmach's mill) belonging in that time to a large estate called Chelwiska, Konskie county.

All these localities are very far from Poznan, but it is quite possible that the bearers of the family names coming from the names of localities moved far from the original place of their residence. This could happen by various reasons, especially political.

In the region of Wielkopolska (Great Poland), the capital of which is just the town of Poznan, there was also a village called Stelmach or Stelmachy. This locality list at present in the Kopach county, Sieradz province. The problem was that according to the linguistic rules, the surname Stelmaszewski could not be derived from the name of this locality. Everything points to the younger origin of the Stelmaszewski family name, in time when the rules that were obligatory in the Middle Ages underwent laxity.

The surname Stelmaszewski was not recorded in medieval documents. Such a surname lacks also in Polish Armorials. As, at present, there are a lot of bearers of the Stelmaszewski family name in Poland, I suppose that this family name originated not so long ago. Therefore, it is not excluded that the family name came directly from a name of a profession. It is possible that one of your ancestors was in fact a cart-wright and the profession he accomplished, thus stelmach, became the base of his further family name. The family name, itself, originated by adding to the base Stelmach a suffix - ewski. In Polish the consonant ch (pronounced h as wh in English who ) before the vowels i and e changes in sz ( Engl. sh).

To-day there are in Poland 516 bearers of the Stelmaszewski family name. Most of them (124 people) reside in the historical province Mazowe (Masovia) in the administrative province Plock. 89 people live in Warsawa ( Warsaw) province. In the Wielkopolska region, Poznan province live nowadays 95 people. The rest are spread all over Poland.

This was all I could tell you about your family name. The conclusive settlement concerning the origin of your surname could be done only on the base of family documents or at least family tradition.

I acknowledge receipt of $20 sent to me together with the letter.

Sincerely,

/Janina Szymowa M.A./

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To: Ray Kalinowski, rskny123@aol.com, who wrote:

… I've been following Gen-pol question and answers and am really impressed by the professionalism of folks in geneaological research. The knowledge of history has certainly been interesting and pertinent. Since I am just getting started on our family tree I would ask that you allow me to impose on you for information as to the origin and meaning of the Kalinowski name.

Genpol is a very impressive group -- we have a lot of knowledgeable folks who share information, and we've been spared most of the "flame wars" so common on other Internet groups. I think anyone interested in Polish genealogy who doesn't keep up with Genpol is missing a bet.

As for Kalinowski, it is a very common name; as of 1990 there were some 30,012 Polish citizens by this name, living all over the country. The basic root of the name is kalina, "guelder rose, cranberry tree," according to Polish name expert Kazimierz Rymut. But names ending in -owski are adjectival in form and usually (not always, but usually) began as references to a connection between a particular person or family and a place with a similar name, typically ending in -ow, -owo, -owa, or some other possibilities. Thus Kalinowski means literally "of, from, pertaining to Kalinow, Kalinowo, Kalinowa, etc." If a family was noble, that would typically be the name of the estate they owned; if peasant, they probably lived or worked there, or traveled there often on business, something like that.

The problem is that this surname -- like many -owski names -- can refer to any of numerous towns and villages. There are quite a few Kalinow's, Kalinowa's, Kalinowo's, etc. in Poland, and the name could have begun in connection with any or all of them; that's probably why the name is so common. Those places, in turn, got their names because they were places where guelder roses or cranberry trees were plentiful. So functionally we'd interpret Kalinowski as "person from Kalinow/a/o, etc.," but a literal translation would be "place of the guelder roses."

These surnames derived from place names seem to promise us help with tracking down our ancestors, but usually disappoint us precisely because so few place names are unique; if you find one Kalinow/o/a you may easily find 3 or 4 or even 20! For what it's worth, that's the way it works with most names; not many provide really helpful clues.

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To: Barbara Piczak bpiczak@ci.rockville.md.us, who wrote:

… I was wondering what you could make of my last name, Piczak. I traveled to Poland in 1997 w/ my father to tour and visit newfound relatives on my maternal grandparents side, Sliwa (I gather it means "plum"), which is apparently very common... Amazingly, the Polish people we spoke to over there, did not think "Piczak" was a real Polish name. Hmmm.... I did find one Piczak in a Warsaw phone book.

Well, native-speakers are not always right about names. They usually have a good feel for whether or not a particular name is a common one, but names are a rather specialized field of study, and without experience you can easily go wrong. In fact Piczak is a perfectly legitimate Polish name, one seen in legal records as far back as 1490. It is not a very common one, however; as of 1990 there were only 205 Polish citizens named Piczak. They were scattered all over the country, with the largest single block (55) in the province of Rzeszow in southeastern Poland -- no other province had more than 12. (I'm afraid I don't have access to more data such as first names or addresses).

Probably the reason the Poles you met weren't familiar with the name is because it derives from an archaic root, one not used in the living language for centuries. That root is pica (pronounced almost exactly the way we pronounce "pizza"). This word had several meanings: 1) fodder for animals; 2) a lifelong pension for ex-soldiers; 3) a soldier's daily ration; and 4) the vulva. I don't mean to be indelicate here, but many Polish name origins turn out to be unmistakeably from rather vulgar words, and pica is one of many, many slang words for the female genitals -- what's more, in the case of at least some names beginning with Pic-, Polish experts think that meaning was the original one behind the name, sort of like calling a person a "son of a slut" (although if I wanted to be absolutely accurate, I'd use a different 4-letter word).

I don't think we have to assume this was the meaning behind Piczak, however (and it's highly unlikely any of the Poles you talked to have ever heard this word). It could easily have started as a name for someone who fed animals or provided fodder, or an ex-soldier on a pension. But I'd be lying to you if I didn't mention the other possibility as well. For what it's worth, there are many, many other names with similar meanings, to the point that I sometimes ask people "Are you sure you want to know what your name means?"

S~liwa is indeed the word for "plum," and is a very common name, borne by 11,499 Polish citizens as of 1990.