To: M.G., Madelg@swbell.net, who wrote:

… I would like to know meaning of the name Chrzan. Also if you know of any in Poland.

This name comes from the Polish word chrzan, which means "horse radish." Since these names are hundreds of years old, it can be tough to figure out now why a particular name seemed relevant to people who lived centuries ago on a different continent; but it might have started as a nickname referring to someone's favorite food, or the fact that they grew horse radish, or even because their smell or coloring someone reminded people of horse radish. This is a moderately common surname in Poland today; as of 1990 there were 2,805 Polish citizens named Chrzan, plus another 773 who used a variant form, Krzan. Chrzan is pretty common all over Poland; it seems to be a bit more common in southcentral and southeastern Poland (the region Poles call "Malopolska," "Little Poland") than elsewhere, but not to an extent that would offer any practical help with tracing a particular Chrzan family.

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To: MZoltek@aol.com, who wrote:

… If you could provide any information on the meaning of this surname [Zoltek}, I could greatly appreciate it.

This is one of those names whose basic origin is pretty easy to determine, but it's tough saying exactly how or why it ended up as a surname. The basic root is clear, from Polish z*ól~ty, "yellow" -- I'm using z* to stand for the Polish z with a dot over it, pronounced much like "s" in English "pleasure"; ó is the o with an accent over it, pronounced like "oo" in "book"; and l~ is for the Polish l with a slash through it, pronounced like our w. It's hard to reproduce these letters on-line unless a computer is configured for Eastern European languages, which most of ours aren't, so we use these symbols to stand for those letters. The name would be pronounced something like "zhoow'-tek."

Anyway, the name means something like "yellow guy," and there is a Polish word z*ól~tek, a kind of contemptuous term for "colored fellow." Most likely a name like this started as a nickname for a person who looked yellowish -- perhaps he had jaundice, or some other characteristic that people associated with the color yellow, or with bile. (I don't think it would be used like English "yellow" in the slang meaning of "cowardly," I don't think Polish makes that particular association). It's conceivable a person might get this name, also, because he had an Asiatic look to him. It's hard to say exactly why this name would "stick," all we can say for sure is that there was some sort of connection with "yellow" that was so obvious to people around him that they started calling him this, and the name stuck.

This is a moderately common name in Poland, as of 1990 there were 755 Poles named Z*ól~tek. They lived all over the country, with the largest numbers in the provinces of Gdansk (41), Krakow (54), Nowy Sacz (187), and Warsaw (80). This tells us there's no one part of the country a Z*ól~tek must have come from, although the name is a bit more common in the southcentral part of Poland (the provinces of Nowy Sacz and Krakow). I realize this may not be a lot of practical help in finding where your ancestors came from, but I'm afraid that's the rule with Polish surnames -- I'd estimate fewer than 10% offer any useful clue in that regard.

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To: Heidi Trafidlo, htrafidl@po.michsb.trw.com, who wrote:

… I've looked everywhere....can you possibly help? Looking for the meaning of the Polish surname: Trafidlo

There are two possibilities here. The basic root of this name could be the verb trafic~, "to hit the mark, be on target." But I can find no term trafidl~o (the l~ stands for the Polish slashed l pronounced like our w). This might be a variant of the term trawidl~o, which is the name of an animal, "maw, abomasum, rennet (abomasum vitulinum)." Many Poles bear names derived from those of animals, sometimes because they raised them, hunted them, or something about a person reminded people of an animal (his movements, the color of his skin or clothes), or else he lived in an area where these animals was common. Such a name might start as a nickname and end up "sticking" as a surname. I suspect strongly that this surname Trafidl~o began as a variant of trawidl~o, since they are pronounced very similarly, "trah-FEED-woe" vs. "trah-VEED-woe."

Trafidl~o is a fairly rare name, as of 1990 there were only 156 Poles by that name; they were scattered all over the country, with the largest numbers in the provinces of Ciechanow (22), Rzeszow (35), Tarnobrzeg (34), and Wroclaw (23). Unfortunately there is no one area of the country we can say this name came from, although there is a bit of a concentration in the southeastern provinces of Rzeszow and Tarnobrzeg. Interestingly enough, as of 1990 there no Trawidl~o's, so if Trafidl~o is a variant of that name, it appears it's the form that's survived. That happens sometimes, but it is a bit odd.

Those are my best guesses as to the origin of the name. I hope this information is some help to you, and wish you the best of luck with your research.

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To: Henry G. Wloka, wlokahg@spectranet.ca, who wrote:

… I appreciate your offer to give me whatever you might know about my surname which is "Wloka". I am told it is indeed Polish and supposedly is the name of an ancient land measure in Polish.

There was indeed an old land measure (still used till the metric system took over), the wl~óka -- I'm using l~ to stand for the Polish l with a slash through it, pronounced like our w, and ó to stand for the Polish accented o, pronounced like "oo" in "book," so that the name is pronounced something like "V’WOOK-uh." The amount of land this unit designated varied from place to place and time to time, but as a rule it was more or less equivalent to 30 acres. A wl~óka was basically a full-sized farm, so the name might apply to a peasant who was fortunate enough to own a farm big enough to live on, as opposed to those who owned small pieces of land that wouldn't support them, so they had to hire out as laborers for others to make ends meet. Granted, there might be other ways a name like this got started, perhaps in reference to a fellow's size -- if he was a big man, he might be called this, sort of a nickname meaning "Big as a wl~óka." The verb from the same root means "to trail, drag along, shuffle feet," so the name might have some connection with those meanings. But I tend to think this particular name would most likely be a reference of some sort to the land measure and specifically to an ancestor’s owning that land.

As of 1990 there were 433 Wl~óka's in Poland, with the largest numbers in the provinces of Czestochowa (104), Piotrkow (119), and Poznan (45). Unfortunately the name appears in too many parts of the country to let us point at one specific place and say "Here's where a family by that name came from"; the most we can say is that a large chunk of the Wl~óka's live in southcentral Poland, in the provinces of Czestochowa and Piotrkow. But that's still a pretty big area to search. I'm afraid this is true of at least 90% of Polish surnames -- relatively few offer a really helpful clue in terms of tracing a family's origin.

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To: Rick Kochans, rkochans@direct.ca, who wrote:

… I just came across your web page on Polish Surnames. Thought I would toss my father's name your way to see what you might know or have it in your notes. The closest surname on your list was Kochowski; was wondering if ours had a different origin. Seems to me that I once heard that the original spelling had a "mark" (needless to say I don't know any Polish to speak of) under the "n" but I'm not really sure. I do know that my father never knew where his father came from (Russia he thought), nor whether he had any aunts or uncles.

The Polish form of the name would be Kochan~ski, where I'm using n~ to stand for the Polish n with an accent over it; the name is pronounced something like "ko-HINE-skee." It comes from a Polish word kochany, meaning "beloved." I believe the name Kochan was used in ancient times, kind of a way of saying a child was especially dear to this parents and others, and the surname would derive from that name or some similar usage. For instance, it might refer to a person who came from a place with a similar name, although offhand I can't find any place with a name likely to produce Kochan~ski (there are a number of places that could produce the similar name Kochanowski, but less likely to produce Kochan~ski). About the most we can say is that it means "of, from, pertaining to the beloved one," perhaps with Kochan used as a first name, thus "kin of Kochan," or even "one from the place of Kochan."

It's a pretty common name in Poland; as of 1990 there were 5,266 Poles by this name, living all over the country, so we can't really pin one area down and say "That's where they came from." I'm afraid that's true of most Polish surnames, I'd estimate only 5% or so offer any kind of helpful lead as to where a family by that name originated. Since Russia at one time ruled most of central and eastern Poland, the "Russia" clue isn't a whole lot of help either. About the most I can say is that this probably is a Polish name rather than Russian, because Russian doesn't use the root koch- to mean "love, dear," that's more a Polish usage.

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To: Heidi Trafidlo, htrafidl@po.michsb.trw.com, who wrote:

… My sister and I have been trying for some time to glean more information about my paternal grandmother's ancestry. She died when my dad was quite young (somewhere between 1925 and 1935). The spelling of her maiden name on my dad's birth certificate is: Woiewodsky. Her given name is Lydia. Perhaps I have been barking under the wrong tree? Perhaps I need to begin with ascertaining the origin of this name. I thought it was Polish, but perhaps she was of some other descent....Polish-Russian-Jewish.....?

This name probably is Polish -- you might see it among other Slavs, but it is most likely to be associated with Poles. It is an adjectival form, and in modern Polish the standard spelling is Wojewódzki, pronounced roughly "vo-yeh-VOOT-skee." It comes from the word wojewoda, literally "war-leader, leader of warriors"; the word has even come into English as "voivode." This was a term used for officials in charge of large sections of Poland, and these subsequently became known as województwa, usually translated "provinces." The surname Wojewódzki would typically be applied to kin of a voivode or someone who worked for him, worked on land belonging to him, etc. -- the name really doesn't imply more specific than some sort of connection, close or distant, with a voivode. As of 1990 there were 1,775 Poles by this name; they lived all over the country, there is no one part of Poland with which this name is particularly identified. That makes sense, really, by its nature this name could get started almost anywhere under Polish rule, including lands east of Poland (Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine).

There are a lot of alternate spellings one might have to check in English, including: Voyevodski, Voyevodzky, Vojevodsky, Vojevodzki, Voievodski, Wojewodzki, Wojevotski, etc. So I'm not surprised you're having trouble pinning down any one. But Wojewódzki is the correct Polish form, if that helps.

By the way, Lydia is not an overly common first name among Poles. It is possible her name might originally have been Leokadia -- this name is unfamiliar to most Americans, so often Polish women named Leokadia decided to go by Lydia in English-speaking countries. This isn't a sure thing, by any means, but that link shows up often enough I thought it was worth mentioning.

============

To: Ginka2@aol.com, who wrote:

… I am working on a family tree searching for any information about my grandparents who came from Posna in the year 1890. His name was John Wiatrak and his wife's name was Mary Lesna or Lesney.

Wiatrak is a reasonably common name in Poland, as of 1990 there were 1,129 Poles by that name. It comes from the root wiatr, "wind," and especially from the term wiatrak, "windmill." A person might have originally gotten such a name because he made windmills, worked at one, lived near one, etc. The name doesn't give us enough clues to be any more specific, we can only figure there was some association with wind and especially windmills that was obvious enough at the time to lead people to call a person by this name, and eventually it stuck as a surname. Some 17 of the Wiatrak's living in Poland in 1990 lived in the modern-day province of Poznan. The name is more common in the provinces of Kalisz (234), Krakow (128) and Radom (174). Kalisz province is southeast of Poznan, and it may at one time have been in the older, larger province of Poznan, so it's possible some of those Wiatrak's in Kalisz province were relatives of yours. Unfortunately I don't have access to further details such as first names and addresses, so this is about all I can tell you.

Lesney is probably an Anglicized form of Polish Les~ny (s~ is meant to stand for the Polish s with an accent over it, pronounced like a soft "sh") -- Les~na would be the form used when referring to a female by the same name. The word les~ny means "of the forest, woods," and might refer to a woodsman or a person who lived in the woods. It, too, is moderately common, as of 1990 there were 1,489 Poles named either Les~ny or Les~na; 291 of them lived in the modern-day province of Poznan, and that general area seems to be where the name is most common, although you find people named Les~ny all over the country.

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To: Bonnie Luhman, Toodang@aol.com, who wrote:

… While doing some research for my family tree, I came across a reference on the Net regarding a possible list you may have of Polish surnames. I was wondering if you have ever come across the names of Niedojadlo, Pocica, Kieca, Cieslik or Barys?

Barys could come from German Bär, "bear," especially used as a first name, or from nicknames of first names beginning with Bar- such as Bartl~omiej (Bartholomew); there are numerous other possibilities, but these seem the most likely sources of the name. As of 1990 there were 295 Poles named Barys and another 244 named Barys~ (with the accent over the s). There's no one area in which the name is most common, you find Barys'es and Barys~'es all over Poland. Tarnow province had 72 inhabitants named Barys (none named Barys~), whereas the largest single group of Poles named Barys~ (77) were in Czestochowa province in southcentral Poland.

Cieslik in Polish is Cies~lik, using s~ to stand for the Polish s with an accent over it, pronounced like a soft "sh," so that the name sounds like "CHESH-leek." It means "carpenter's son, carpenter's kin," and is quite common -- as of 1990 there were 15,022 Cies~lik's in Poland, living all over the country.

Kieca can come from kiec, "skirt," or from kiec, "the corncrake" (a kind of bird). As of 1990 there were 573 Poles by this name, with the largest numbers in the provinces of Katowice (116), Krakow (97), and Tarnow (77), all in southcentral or southeastern Poland.

Niedojadl~o comes from the same root as niedojad, "insatiable fellow." It means literally "one who can't eat enough, one who can't get his fill." Presumably it referred to a fellow who looked like he hadn't missed any meals, or perhaps to someone who ate and ate and never got fat. It's a moderately common name, as of 1990 there were 577 Niedojadl~o's in Poland. (The l~ represents the Polish slashed l, which is pronounced like our w, so that the name sounds like "nyeh-do-YAD-woe.")

I can't find any source that gives a clue what Pocica might come from. As of 1990 there were 229 Poles by that name, with the main concentration, 179, in the province of Tarnow in southeastern Poland.

I think my family is from Southern Poland. I have the towns listed as Grudna Gorna, Malo and Pilzno. I also have info from the Parish Church of Siedliska Bogusz. I'm sure that I probably spelled all of those wrong!

Actually, they all look right to me!

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To: Mary Ann Ziomkowski, buadziaz@pathwaynet.com, who wrote:

… I am trying to find the orgin of our last name - Ziomkowski/Ziombkowski.

The problem here is, which form of the name is right? Sometimes you can change three or four letters and it makes no difference, other times a single letter can make all the difference in the world. For what it's worth, in either case the name most likely started as a reference to the name of a village or settlement the family lived at one time -- most -owski names started that way. So for instance Ziombkowski is probably a variant of Zia~bkowski -- we use a~ on-line to stand for the Polish nasal vowel written as an a with a tail under it and pronounced usually much like on in French bon, but before b or p like "om." So the name could be spelled either Zia~bkowski or ziombkowski. One possible candidate could be the village of Zia~bki in Skierniewice province; people from there might very well end up with the name Zia~bkowski, meaning nothing more than "one from Zia~bki." The basic root is either zie~ba, "chaffinch," or zie~bic~, "to chill." Thus Zia~bki probably started out meaning "the place of the chaffinches," and Zia~bkowski was "one from the place of the chaffinches."

If the name is properly Ziomkowski, the basic root is ziemia, "land, earth," but again, the surname probably means just "one from Ziomek/Ziomki/Ziomkowo" or some other similar name. One candidate is Ziomek in Ostroleka province, but I'm sure there are others, that's the only one big enough to show up on my maps. In the centuries since surnames were established, many of the little villages or settlements they originally referred to have since disappeared, changed names, merged with other communities, etc. so often it's hard to find the particular one a family's surname refers to in a specific case. The best advice is to use your research to find the specific area in Poland where the family lived, then see if you can find some village or community nearby that started with a similar name, such as Ziomek or Ziomki or Ziomkowo or Zia~bki. If you do, chances are good that's the place the surname came from.

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To: skie13@gateway.net, who wrote:

… My last name is Cicheskie, This is the exact spelling of my grandfather and greatgrandfather (both of whom were born in Poland). They came to this country (settling in PA) in approx. 1903. Can you help with the orig. and also why the ending in -skie instead of -ski?

This name, in this form, does not exist in Poland any more -- at least there was no one named Cicheski or Cicheskie as of 1990. Most likely this is a variant form of a name that has since been standardized. The basic root is clearly cichy, "quiet, calm, peaceful," and the surname probably started as a reference to origin in a town or village named Ciche, Cichewo, Cichowo, something like that (all of which would mean basically "quiet place, or place of the quiet one"). In many parts of Poland the w in the ending -ewski is pronounced very softly or even dropped, so we are probably dealing with a name that was Cichewski but came to be spelled as it was pronounced.

There were 3,435 Poles named Cichowski as of 1990, and this may be relevant because the suffixes -owski and -ewski are basically the same thing; whether the vowel is e or o depends on Polish linguistics. There has been a bit of standardization going on in Poland since literacy became more or less universal, so a lot of variant forms of names have disappeared as people started going by the "standard" form. That may be what happened here -- some folks who used to go by Cichewski or Cicheski may have changed it to Cichowski, but this happened after some of the family had emigrated. That may explain why Cicheski is no longer seen in Poland.

In any case, it's a pretty sure bet the surname means "one from Ciche, Cichy, Cichowo," etc., and there are quite a few places in Poland that bear names that qualify. If you can find out what specific part of Poland the family came from, search that area for places with names starting Cich-, and if you find one nearby, chances are good that's the place the name originally referred to. It's doubtful any records go back far enough to prove it, but you never know!

As for -skie vs. -ski, I doubt it's significant. That may just be an Anglicized form, meant to help people pronounce the -ski correctly. It is true that, grammatically speaking, Cicheskie can be a form of the name Cicheski, referring to more than one female; thus if you saw a Polish-language document referring to, say, "Marta and Anna and Agata Cicheski," the Polish would be "Marta i Anna i Agata Cicheskie." That could account for the spelling -- or as I said, it may just be a spelling variant. I doubt it really makes any difference.

============

To: Cyndi, CIENNA25@aol.com, who wrote:

… I'm interested in finding any information on the name Jurgiel. It's my last name. I know it's Polish. But I've never heard of anyone else with it. If you could help I would be grateful. I'm trying to look up my heritage.

Jurgiel is one of many surnames that come from first names, in this case from a form of the name that appears in Polish as Jerzy, in English as George, in Czech as Jiri, in German as Georg, etc. The particular form Jurg- is thought to have been influenced by German (that -rg- toward the end is the tip-off). That doesn't mean the family bearing the name wasn't Polish -- over the centuries many, many ethnic groups have interacted with Poles and left some trace on the forms of names in particular areas. It's also worth mentioning that the name "George" shows up in Lithuanian as Jurgis (again, at some point in the distant past they may have gotten the name from Germans living in the area), and Jurgelis is a moderately common surname among Lithuanians -- it would mean basically "little George, son of George." Jurgiel might come into Polish by way of contact with Lithuanians or Germans, but that would not make it any less a Polish name. (After all, many saints' names appear in many European languages, yet are originally of Greek, Hebrew, or Latin origin -- but Pierre is no less French for having come from Latin Petrus). Whatever the exact origin, the name probably began as meaning "son of George."

As of 1990 there were 491 Polish citizens named Jurgiel. They lived in small numbers in many provinces, but the largest numbers show up in the provinces of Bialystok (154), Pila (44), and Szczecin (39). Bialystok is in northeastern Poland, right by the border with Lithuania and Belarus, and Pila and Szczecin are in northwestern Poland, where there were and are a lot of people of German ethnic origin -- so again we see a possible link with Lithuanian and German. But as I say, that doesn't make the Jurgiel's any less Polish... Interestingly, the surname Jurgielewicz, literally "son of Jurgiel," is more common than Jurgiel itself; as of 1990 there were 1,213 Poles named Jurgielewicz, and again, the name is most common in northern Poland, in areas near where Poles had constant contact with Germans and Lithuanians.

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ADAMCZAK -- TIPINSKI -- CIPINSKI

To: Richard Noll <rnoll@bellatlantic.net>

Hi,

My maternal grandfather's name was Stanley Vincent Adamczak. Is this a variant of Adamczyk that existed in Poland? Or is it a misspelling made upon arrival in the USA?

ADAMCZAK is very likely correct. The suffixes -czak and -czyk both mean "son of," and many names exist in both forms. So ADAMCZAK, pronounced "ah-DOM-chock," is just as good a name as ADAMCZYK ("ah-DOM-chick"). As of 1990 there were 7,872 Polish citizens named Adamczak, as opposed to 49,599
named Adamczyk; both names are found all over Poland, with no useful concentration in any one area. I don't know why the form with -czyk is so much more common than the one with -czak, but we sometimes see these puzzling phenomena with names.

My second major questions is: My maternal gransmother's name was Belle Marie Tipinski, and her father, Boleslaw Tipinski, came from Poland circa 1900. Is the name Tipinski in your book? And is it a common name in Poland?

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 no Polish citizens named TIPINSKI. This is not surprising: while the combination TI is not totally unknown in Polish, it doesn't usually occur in native Polish names and words. Poles prefer instinctively to use either
TY-, which sounds sort of like the "ti" in English "tip," or else CI-,
which sounds kind of like "ch" in "cheese." But the combination of T with I just doesn't usually happen in Polish except with words and names borrowed from other languages.

So the question is, what was the name originally? Or what is the standard form of the name today? It's tricky trying to figure something like this out, because there are literally hundreds of thousands of Polish names, and a change of one letter can sometimes involve enormous differences. But following the logic of what I just said, I see three likely possibilities: 1) TYPINSKI; 2) CIPINSKI; 3) the name originated as TIPINSKI in some other
Slavic language, possibly Russian or Ukrainian, and was brought into Polish as is.

As of 1990 there were 74 Polish citizens named TYPINSKI (accent over the N, pronounced roughly "tip-EEN-skee"). They were scattered in small numbers all over Poland, with by far the largest number 29, living in the province of Zamosc, on the Ukrainian border. Unfortunately I don't have access to further details such as first names or addresses, what I've given here is all I have.

There were 90 Poles named CIPINSKI (accent over the N, pronounced roughly "chee-PEEN-skee"). The largest numbers lived in the provinces of Katowice, 33; Skierniewice, 21; and Wroclaw, 11.

As I said, there were no TIPINSKI's in Poland as of 1990, and I have no other data for other countries. None of my sources on other languages discuss this name.

In any event, the name probably refers to a place name, meaning "one from Tipin/Cipin/Typin" or some similar name. Without being sure of the surname's form, it's hard to say what the name of the place might have been. There's a place named Ciepien, that's a possibility, but there are others. If you'd like to investigate some of the possibilities, you could go to this Website:

http://www.jewishgen.org/ShtetlSeeker/loctown.htm

Enter "Cipin" or "Typin" or "Tipin" as the place you're looking for (they all code the same in Daitch-Mokotoff Soundex anyway) and hit "Start Search." It will provide a long list of places in Eastern Europe with names that could be a phonetic match for this name. Most of them you can ignore; concentrate mainly on places in Belarus, Poland, Russia, and Ukraine that are reasonably close to the spellings I gave. Who knows, this might give you something to work with.

============

WASELEWICZ

To: Dr. John Madey <D0M0D1@aol.com> who wrote:

I have never seen my given surname posted anywhere, nor have I any knowledge of it's origins. In college, a German professor asked if I knew the etymology of my name. He indicated that he thought it had some religious significance. Possibly you could help id some way. The name is Waselewicz. Thank you.

In Polish the suffix -ewicz means "son of," and Wasel- is a variant of the Eastern Slavic first name Poles spell Wasilij; we would spell it Vasily. It developed as a first name from the Greek word basileus, "king." Via the Orthodox Church this name came into usage among Eastern Slavs (Belarusians, Russians, and Ukrainians) as Vasily or Vasyl or Vasylko; in Polish it became Bazyli, and in English it became Basil. Note that languages influenced primarily by Latin retained the initial B sound, whereas the Greek-influenced Eastern Slavs turned it into a V sound, which Poles spell with the letter W.

It's not unusual for Slavs in general to have used a great many different forms of the name before one or two finally came to be regarded as standard, and this often shows up in surnames, which developed centuries ago. So even though the standard form of the first name these days is Vasily, it's not odd that it might appear as Vasel, especially when a suffix was added. The name probably originated among Belarusians or Ukrainians as Vaselevich, but Polish was the standard language of record for a long time in those regions, and thus the Polish spelling Waselewicz came into existence.

The bottom line, therefore, is that the name means "son of Basil." It almost certainly originated among Belarusians, or Ukrainians (or perhaps Russians, but that's less likely). Later it came to be written in Polish form because Polish was the language of record for the entire Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which included Lithuania, Belarus, and most of Ukraine. Various different forms of this same basic name appear among Poles, including Wasilewicz, borne by 765 Polish citizens as of 1990, and Wasylewicz, borne by 240. As of 1990, according to the best data available, there were no Polish citizens who spelled the name WASELEWICZ -- probably because over the last century there has been a tendency to standardize name spellings, influenced by the greater degree of literacy. If you looked in older records for some of those families with the names Wasilewicz and Wasylewicz, chances are quite good you would see those names occasionally spelled Waselewicz. Wasielewicz is also a plausible spelling variation.

Unfortunately I have no data on the frequency of the name in Belarus or Ukraine, and of course it would be spelled in Cyrillic, not the Roman alphabet, looking kind of like this:

B A C E JI E B N 4

The N is backwards, the JI is joined at the top with a horizontal stroke, and 4 is a pretty weak approximation of the letter in question -- but if you ever see the name in Cyrillic, this may be close enough to help you recognize it.

That's about all I can tell you. I hope it's some help, and wish you the best of luck with your research.

============

MAJORSZKY -- MAJORSKI

To: Gabe Kerekes <ghkerekes@hotmail.com> who wrote:

I saw your site on the internet and thought I would write you. I have a Polish name in our family background and was wondering if you have any information on it. The name has been in Hungary since before 1840 and the spelling is probably a bit Hungarianized too, but family history says that it came from Poland and was lower royalty. The name is MAJORSZKY. Do you have anything on that?

I don't have anything specifically on this name, but I can venture an educated guess and feel fairly confident it's right. I've run into a lot of Hungarian names borne by Poles, with spellings modified so that they're written the way Poles expect a name pronounced that way to be spelled. And I've seen at least some Polish names borne by Hungarians, similarly modified. In Hungarian the sound Poles spell as S, a simple "s" sound as in "so," is written SZ. And just to make things really confusing, Hungarians use the letter S to stand for the "sh" sound Poles write as SZ! Hungarian is exactly backwards from Polish in that respect.

So we're not assuming too much if we figure a Pole named MAJORSKI (or possibly someone from another Slavic group, a Czech or Slovak, etc.) could very well have come to live in Hungary, and gradually the spelling was changed to reflect Hungarian norms. Polish MAJORSKI and Hungarian MAJORSZKY are pronounced so similarly that this hypothesis is quite plausible.

MAJORSKI is not a common name at all in Poland these days -- as of 1990 the best data available shows only 2 Poles by that name, both living somewhere in the province of Bydgoszcz. There are other names, however, from the same root that are more common, including MAJOR (1,779), MAJORCZYK (868), MAJOREK (932), MAJOROWSKI (223), etc. I'm not sure why Majorski isn't more common -- perhaps most of the folks by that name moved to Hungary!? There may be more to this, but none of my sources go into it.

MAJORSKI comes from the Latin word _major_ or _maior_, "greater, bigger," and especially in a sense of rank or position, such as "major" in the military and even "mayor" as head of a town's government. So the name MAJORSKI certainly could be connected with a degree of rank and authority. I don't have specifics on noble families, so there's not a lot more I can tell you. But you might be able to learn more if you post a question to the mailing list Herbarz-L. It is frequented by gentlemen with access to various armorials and libraries, and very often they are able to provide some information on specific noble families and their coats of arms.

To subscribe (which costs nothing), send an E-mail message with just the word SUBSCRIBE to this address:

HERBARZ-L-request@rootsweb.com

No one reads this note -- a computer will process it automatically, add you to the mailing list, and send you a brief note explaining procedures. Then you can post a note to the list itself, where it will be read by the members, at this address:

HERBARZ-L@rootsweb.com

That's about all I can tell you. I hope it's some help, and wish you the best of luck with your research.

============

MISIOROWSKI

To: Bob Misiorowski <A1Outfit@aol.com> who wrote: 

Do you have any information on the above family name? From Ulcie Solna, east of Kraków. Still have family in Poland with this name. Was told at one point that it meant butcher or meat cutter.

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 245 Polish citizens by this name. The largest numbers lived in the following provinces: Warsaw 33, Katowice 31, Kielce 53, and Krakow 35; the rest lived in much smaller numbers all over the country. Unfortunately I don't have access to further details such as first names or addresses, what I've given here is all I have.

With some Polish names it's fairly easy to tell what they come from without detailed info on a given family; with others there just is no way to say anything firm without research into the family's background. MISIOROWSKI is one of the latter. Names in the form X-owski usually refer to the name of a place beginning with the X part, with which the family was connected at one time; if they were noble, they owned it, and if not, they lived and worked there. So you'd expect this name to mean "one from Misiory or Misiorowo" or some similar name. But offhand I can't find any places with names that qualify. The thing is, Polish surnames developed centuries ago, and often came from the name of a field or hill or little settlement, names used only by locals, that would be unlikely to appear on any map or in any gazetteer. So the place this name refers to may be quite obscure, or may even have disappeared or renamed or absorbed into another community centuries ago.

If the form of the surname is reliable, it would seem to mean "one from Misiory or Misiorowo," and that name in turn comes from the noun misiora, "sorrel, mousetail (Myosurus)"; so the surname could be interpreted as "one from the place of sorrel." But I hesitate to accept that because there is, in fact, a noun misiarz that means "one who gelds animals." That -rz would simplify to -r- when suffixes were added, and the -a- could easily change to -o-; we see that happen all the time with Polish names. So even though the name appears to refer to a connection with a place name derived from misiora, it would be foolish not to recognize the real possibility that the name has changed slightly over the centuries and originally meant "kin of the animal gelder, one from the place of the animal gelders." 

As far as that goes, the Polish word for "meat" is mie~so (the e has a tail under it and is pronounced roughly like "en"). Given a little change in the pronunciation and spelling of the name, Misiorowski might originally have referred to a butcher or meat dealer. The form of the name as we have it now suggests otherwise; but the name certainly might have changed somewhere along the way, even before the family ever left Poland.

As I say, without detailed research into your particular family, there's no way I can know which one meaning is relevant. It's one thing to say misiarz or mie~so could yield a name in the form Misior-; it's another thing to prove it actually happened. So all I can do is offer these plausible explanations. With any luck your research may help you uncover some fact that will settle the matter one way or the other. 

============

GREGORCZYK -- GRZEGORCZYK

To: Scott Kerwin <Scott.Kerwin@courts.gov.bc.ca> who wrote:

I was wondering if you could tell me anything about the surname
Gregorczyk. My grandmother was Polish, but her family anglicized the name to Gregor after they arrived in Canada. I believe that the original Polish name was Gregorczyk.  They lived in what was then Austrian Poland (Galicia). I wonder if this name  was common in that part of Poland.

The standard spelling of this name in Polish is GRZEGORCZYK. It is possible that your ancestors bore this name with Gregor- instead of Grzegor-, because there are regional differences in pronunciation that can affect spelling. A German linguistic influence, for instance, might affect this name and make it Gregor- instead of Grzegor-. But more often than not, Poles would spell this name Grzegorczyk, and pronounce it sort of like "g'zheh-GORE-chick" (whereas Gregorczyk would be more like "greh-GORE-chick").

It comes from the first name Grzegorz, the Polish form of the name we call "Gregory." The -czyk suffix is quite common in Polish, and in surnames usually translates as "son of." So this is one of several
surnames in Polish that translate as "son of Gregory." As such, it is a name that could develop independently almost anywhere people spoke Polish and there were guys named Grzegorz. So we'd expect it to be moderately common and widespread, with no concentration in any one part of the country.

That is what modern distribution and frequency data shows. 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 10,123 Polish citizens named GRZEGORCZYK, living all over Poland. As for the non-standard spelling GREGORCZYK, it, too, is reasonably common; there were 3,999 Poles who used that form of the name. It's interesting, though, that there was a definite concentration of Poles by that name in the southeastern province of Radom -- 1,218. The other provinces with large numbers were Ciechanow, 115; Katowice 380; Kielce, 113; Kraków 165; Lublin 130; Olsztyn 124; Szczecin 119; and Warsaw, 348.

This data doesn't allow one to focus too precisely on any one area; but it does suggest that the name is especially common in that part of former Galicia near the city of Radom. Perhaps this will be some help to you.

============

CHMIELECKI

To: Andrew Chmielecki <AHC65@aol.com> who wrote:

Sir, can you give me any information on the name Chmielecki. I would be very grateful.

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 3,223 Polish citizens named Chmielecki. The name is found all over Poland, but is most common in an area from the center of the country northward, in areas near the cities of Lodz, Plock, Warsaw, Gdansk, and so on. Unfortunately I don't have access to further details such as first names or addresses, what I've given here is all I have.

The name is pronounced roughly "h'myel-ET-skee," and comes ultimately from the noun chmiel, which means "hops," the grain. This surname might refer either to the kin of one called Chmielek, "little hops," possibly as a nickname of a reference to his father's occupation. But most likely it refers to a family's connection with a place named something like Chmielec, Chmielce, Chmielek, etc., meaning "place of the hops." One candidate is the village of Chmielek near Bilgoraj and Zamosc in southeastern Poland; one of my sources mentions that there were records that connected a noble family named Chmielecki with the estate at this place. But there may be, or may have been, other places with suitable names that I can't find in my sources. The thing is, Polish surnames developed centuries ago, and often came from the name of a field or hill or little settlement, names used only by locals, that would be unlikely to appear on any map or in any gazetteer. So the place this name refers to may be quite obscure, or may even have disappeared or renamed or absorbed into another community centuries ago.

============

SZRPARSKI -- TRZENZALSKI -- TRZEMZALSKI

Laura A Hine <laura.ann.hine@juno.com> wrote:

I have two surnames that I am stumped on. They are: Tekla SZRPARSKI and Stanislawa TRZENZALSKI. I am assuming that these two women are from somewhere around the area of Strzelno, Poland, which is near Gniezno, as that is where their spouses were from. I wondered if anyone has access to the Slownik Nazwisk and could possibly do a lookup for me in that, to see where these names were concentrated at. Also, does anyone have any ideas of what these two names could possibly mean?

Unfortunately, the Slownik nazwisk says there was no one in Poland by either of those names. It's possible the names were rare and died out after the families emigrated. But more often, when I run into something like this, it turns out the forms of the names are wrong -- somewhere along the line they've been misread or distorted. Before looking I thought SZRPARSKI had to be mangled, and I strongly suspect TRZENZALSKI is too. Those don't look or sound right. And considering how many hundreds of thousands of Polish surnames there are, it can be very difficult to take a distorted or misspelled form and deduce what the original was. Sometimes you can -- it's not too tough to see that Covalsky is Kowalski, or Catcavage is Kotkiewicz -- but usually it's not possible because there are just too many variables.

I did find one possibility for Trzenzalski, however, and it looks pretty good: TRZEMZALSKI (dot over the second Z). As of 1990 there were 89 Polish citizens by this name. They were scattered all over in small numbers: the largest numbers lived in the provinces of Bydgoszcz (12), Katowice (19), and Krosno (18). Unfortunately I don't have access to further details such as first names or addresses, what I've given here is all I have.

This surname most likely refers to the name of a place with which the family was connected at some point. The only candidate I could find is TRZEMZ*AL in former Bydgoszcz province. If you'd like to see where it is, go to this Website:

http://www.jewishgen.org/ShtetlSeeker/loctown.htm

Enter TRZEMZAL as the place you're looking for, and click on "Start Search." You'll get a list of places with names that COULD phonetically match up with Trzemzal. Scroll down till you find: TRZEMZAL 5233 1754 POLAND 132.2 miles W of Warsaw. Click on it, and you should get a map that shows the location. The Strzelno you mentioned is perhaps, oh, 10-15 km. ENE of Trzemzal, so it's reasonable to suppose that in your ancestors' case the surname just mean "one from Trzemzal." It could be Trzenzalski is just an misspelling, or it could possibly be a legitimate phonetic variation of the name, since the EM and EN sounds can be pretty
close. Either way, I strongly suspect this is the answer to your
question on this name.

As for Szrparski, the only thing I can suggest is to keep doing research until you find a document with a reliable spelling and a name of the place of origin. If you find that, let me know and I'll see if I can tell you anything. Good luck!

============

MNICH

To: Steve Mnich <THEMNICH@aol.com> who wrote:

I would appreciate any information concerning the surname "MNICH".

According to Polish experts, this surname comes from the Polish noun mnich, "monk, friar." Presumably it originated as a nickname for the relatives of one who was a monk, or as a nickname for one who somehow reminded people of a monk, or even one who was the opposite of a monk -- the name may have been meant ironically in some cases. As of 1990 there were 2,734 Polish citizens named Mnich, living all over Poland, with no particular concentration in any one part of the country.

============

SADLOWSKI -- KRZYKWA -- GIZYNSKI -- JORGELEIT -- JURGELATJTIS

To: Kathy Sadlowski Buster <kbuster11274@earthlink.net> 

I just found your information on the internet for Polish surnames. Unfortunately my family names are not listed. If you could give me any information on any of the names I would appreciate it very much. SADLOWSKI, KRZYKWA, GIZYNSKI, JORGELEIT OR JURGELATJTIS

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 836 Polish citizens named GIZYNSKI. In Polish this name is spelled with a dot over the Z and an accent over the N, and pronounced roughly "gi-ZHIN-skee." It derives ultimately from the noun giza, "hind leg of a pig or ox," but it probably refers to the family's connection with any of a number of places with names somehow connected with that root, such as Gizyn and Gizyno. If you'd like to see some of the places this surname might be connected with, search for "Gizyn" at this Website:

http://www.jewishgen.org/ShtetlSeeker/loctown.htm 

JORGELEIT is a Germanized or Anglicized form of the name JURGELAITIS, which is actually Lithuanian in origin and means basically "son of little George." 

KRZYKWA was the name of 272 Polish citizens as of 1990. Polish name expert Prof. Kazimierz Rymut mentions this name in his book Nazwiska Polakow [The Surnames of Poles]. He says it comes from the noun krzykwa, "storm."

SADLOWSKI was borne by 2,879 Poles as of 1990. It is another name referring to a place name, Sadlow or Sadlowo or something similar, deriving from the noun sadlo, "fat, lard." So the surname means roughly "one from Sadlow or Sadlowo" and can further be broken down as "one from the place of fat or lard."

============

GLAZA

To: Matthew Glaza <mpglaza@email.msn.com> who wrote: 

I am trying to find the origin and history of the name Glaza. I know of a Johannes Glaza (b. 1822) who lived in the city of Sliwice (Cewice) if that is any help. Thank you very much for your time!

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 928 Polish citizens named GLAZA. The largest numbers lived in the provinces of Bydgoszcz (302) and Gdansk (373), with the rest scattered in much smaller numbers all over the country. 

None of my sources give any definitive information on what this name comes from. It might possibly come from the noun glaz, "glaze, silver mixed with gold," or from German Glas, "glass." There is a native Polish word gl~az, "stone, boulder," but the problem is that it has the L with a slash through it (which I represent on-line as L~, pronounced like our W ), and it is very hard to say whether and under what circumstances it would be relevant to a name with the standard L. As of 1990 there was no one in Poland named GL~AZA, but there were 2,013 named GL~AZ. So it's very much debatable as to whether that has anything to do with GLAZA.

============

MLECZEWSKI -- NUSZKOWSKI

To: Jolene (Mleczewski) White <DaunJolene@aol.com> who wrote:  

A friend of mine just gave me your website and told me you do quick surname origins and meanings. I am wondering if you would be kind enough to consider a short analysis of my maiden name, which was Mleczewski. Old Bible records indicate my grandfather was born either in 1889 or 1890 in Tadejewo, Rypin, Pomarskie, POLAND. I recall, as a child, I was told he was a well-educated man, who served as a governmental interpreter. I do remember he spoke several languages. (Don't know if you want or need this last information, but for what it might be worth, I've included it.) His mother's maiden name was Nuszk'owska. >>

Literally Mleczewski means "of, from the _ of milk"; in names ending with -ewski or -owski, that blank is filled in with something so obvious it didn't need to be spelled out, either with "place" or "kin." So this name could mean "kin of the milk guy." But more likely it means "one from the place of milk," referring to a place with a name derived from Polish mleko, "milk." Such a place could be named Mleczew or Mleczewo, or almost anything beginning with Mlecz-. There is at least one good candidate, Mleczewo, a few kilometers east of Sztum, which is southeast of Gdansk and southwest of Elblag. Mleczewski makes perfect sense as meaning "one from Mleczewo." However, it is quite possible there are or were other places with names from which the surname might develop; Mleczewo's just the best one I could find offhand.

By the way, he was born in Tadejewo (or Tadajewo?), Rypin, Pomorskie. That's just an adjective referring to the region of Pomerania. There's a Tadajewo very near Rypin, east of Torun -- presumably that's the place you're referring to. It's quite a distance south of Mleczewo, so it's hard to say whether that Mleczewo is the place to which the name refers in your ancestor's case; but it is at least possible.

Mleczewski is not a very common name at all. 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 only 29 Poles by that name. They lived in the provinces of Gdansk (5), Torun (21), and Wloclawek (3). Unfortunately I don't have access to further details such as first names or addresses, what I've given here is all I have. As of 1990 Rypin and Tadajewo were in Wloclawek province, so that suggests those 3 Mleczewskis in that province might be relatives; for that matter, some of the 21 in Torun province might also be, that's not too far away.

It's interesting that Nuszkowski is also a rare name: there were only 22 Poles by that name, living in the provinces of Bydgoszcz (8), Gdansk (10), and Szczecin (4). It, too, probably refers to a place named something like Nuszki or Nuszkowo. I can't find any places by those names on modern maps, but that's not unusual -- surnames developed centuries ago, and often the places they referred to have since disappeared, changed names, become too small to show up on most maps, etc.

============

MARAJDA

To: Kathleen Daniels <kard13@juno.com> who wrote: 

I ... wondered if you had ever come across the name "MARAJDA" in your investigations? My husband's grandmother was an Anna Marajda, and she married a Peter Wisniak. He spoke Russian and Polish, she only Polish.

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 23 Polish citizens named MARAJDA. Two of them lived somewhere in the province of Sieradz, the rest lived in the province of Lodz. Unfortunately I don't have access to further details such as first names or addresses, what I've given here is all I have. But perhaps it will help you focus your research on the Lodz area, since the odds are that's the most likely area in which to find relatives.

As for the derivation or meaning of this name, I'm afraid none of my sources give any information at all. This makes me suspect the name is not Polish in origin. But I couldn't find anything on it in my German, Lithuanian, or Ukrainian sources, either. So I'm at a loss to suggest what language it came from, let alone what it means. Most Polish names beginning with Mar- come either from short forms of the first name Marek, "Mark," or from the noun mara, "phantom, nightmare." There's also a verb marac that means "to dirty, smear, soil." But I can think of no plausible way for MARAJDA to come from any of those roots.

============

GRYGLEWICZ -- FARON

To: Lou Ann LaJeunesse <alajeun1@nycap.rr.com> who wrote: 

My husband's grandparents immigrated from Poland in the very early 1900's. Their names are listed as Andrez Gryglewicz and Anna Farron. I am having trouble researching them. Could you tell me what the origin of the names are and if I am even close in spelling.

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 537 Polish citizens named GRYGLEWICZ, so this is probably a correct spelling of the name. The suffix -ewicz means "son of," and Grygl- comes from Grygiel, a kind of nickname or variant from of the first name we know as "Gregory." So the surname means basically "son of Greg." That
name Grygiel is found more in the eastern part of Poland or the regions just east of there, i.e., Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine; so most likely the first bearers of this name came from that general area. In the centuries since then, however, the name has been spread all over Poland -- these days there is no one region in which this name is concentrated.

As for FARRON, Poles usually don't use double letters unless you
actually pronounce the letter twice; the doubling of the R probably
happened after the family left Poland. In this case, I suspect the original form was FARON, pronounced roughly "FAR-own," a name borne by 1,701 Polish citizens as of 1990 (there was no one named FARRON). The largest numbers lived in the following provinces: Katowice 194, Kraków 98, Nowy Sacz 769, and Opole 166. So it is most common in southcentral and southwestern Poland.

I found only one expert who discussed this name, but he was an expert on names in the Nowy Sacz region, which is where the name is most common -- so his insights are probably reliable. He said it derives from faron, which is a variant of the noun piorun, "lightning." Presumably it started as a nickname for one whom people somehow associated with lightning. He mentions it might also be connected with the noun fanfaron, which came from French and means "boaster, braggart, fop."