To: Barbara Longo, Barb0926@cs.com, who wrote:

... Would you have any information as to the names Lipinski or Szachnitowski? I would appreciate any info you could tell me.

In Polish the name Lipinski is spelled with an accent over the N, and is pronounced "lee-PEEN-skee." 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 23,390 Polish citizens named Lipinski, living all over the country; there is no concentration in any one area, a Lipinski family could come from anywhere in Poland. 

The surname refers to the name of a place where the family lived or worked at some point. The problem is, Lipinski could come from a number of different place names, including Lipno, Lipie, Lipina, Lipiny, etc. There are a great many places by these names in Poland. They all come from lipa, "linden tree," so that you can interpret Lipinski as "one from the place of the lindens." So without detailed info on a family's history, there's no possible way to tell which of these places a given Lipinski family might have been named for.

Szachnitowski (pronounced roughly "shokh-nee-TOFF-skee," with kh representing a guttural like the "ch" in German "Bach") is a fairly rare name. As of 1990 there were only 71 Polish citizens by that name. The largest numbers lived in the provinces of Katowice (17), Szczecin (11), and Torun (30), with the rest scattered in small numbers all over Poland. Unfortunately I don't have access to further details such as first names or addresses, what I've given here is all I have.

Usually -owski names also refer to names of places, so we'd expect this to mean "one from Szachnitowo" or some similar name. I can't find any place by this name or anything similar on modern maps, but that's not unusual. 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.

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MLEKODAJ

To: Pat Pipkin, LESTERPAT@inetone.net, who wrote:

... I am in search of any info on the name Mlekodaj. My husband's grandparents came to Chicago from Poland in the early 1900s, I am guessing. Their names were Albert and Josephine Mlekodaj. At some point they moved to northern Indiana. Can you enlighten me any further?

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 83 Polish citizens named Mlekodaj. Most surnames are scattered all over Poland, but this one is unusually concentrated: 67 of those 83 lived in one province, that of Nowy Sacz in southcentral Poland. 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 at least you have some reason to believe the family probably came from the area near the city of Nowy Sacz.

The name comes from the roots mleko, "milk," and daj-, "give." So it means "milk-give," literally. The term mlekodajny is used to refer to cows who give milk, and presumably Mlekodaj was given originally as a nickname to one somehow connected with dairy cows, or one who gave or sold milk, or one who loved milk. Surnames developed centuries ago and it's hard for us, all these centuries later, to know for sure exactly why they seemed appropriate. We can, however, interpret the basic meaning of the words and make plausible suggestions, and that's what I've tried to do.

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WINSZMAN

To: Karen, SLaffertyAsst@caa.com, who wrote:

... If you have time please tell me what Winshman or in Polish Vinchman'means. Also, if you have any idea what the name Milka means I would love to know. It is my great grandmother's name and my middle name. 

I hope I'm correct in assuming these names are of Jewish families -- if I'm wrong, that could change things a lot. When asking any question related to genealogy, it's good to mention whether the families were Jewish or not, because there are many practical research considerations different for Christians and Jews.

Polish doesn't use the letter V, and the sound CH is used as a guttural, so it's virtually certain Vinchman is not the Polish spelling. But "Winshman" or "Vinchman" would probably equate to Polish Winszman in Polish. Alexander Beider mentions this name in his Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from the Kingdom of Poland. He says it was borne by Jews living in the areas of Bedzin and Nowo-Radomsk (there may have been Jews with this name in other parts of Poland, his data covers only the part ruled by Russia). Beider says it comes from German Wunsch, central Yiddish vinsh, "wish, desire," thus meaning "wish-man." That suggests it was originally given to one known for being wishful or having strong desires. 

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 Winszman. Unfortunately, this is not surprising, in view of the Holocaust; names of Yiddish origin, common before 1939, are now very rare in Poland.

Milka is tricky because it can come from the Slavic root mil-, "dear, beloved," and thus would mean "little beloved one, darling." But Beider says it comes from a Hebrew name Milkah found in Genesis 11:29. Normally we'd expect Jewish females bearing this name to bear it in reference to the Biblical reference, but we can't entirely rule out a Slavic influence. It's possible Jews might have liked it because it was an ancient Hebrew name that also meant something nice in Polish, Russian, etc.

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FABISZAK

To: Edward W. Fabisak, kasibafe@elogica.com.br, who wrote:

... My great-grandparents, Stanislaw(1869-1942) and Adamina(1871-1935) FABISAK, were from Weglew, Golina, Konin, 120 miles west of Warsaw. They came over in 1890 and settled in Northampton, Mass. Some of my recently located cousins think that the original surname was FABISZAK. but no one is really sure. Do you, by chance, have any information about the meaning of this particular surname? 

It is likely the name was originally either Fabisiak or Fabiszak, because as of 1990 there was no listing of anyone in Poland named Fabisak, whereas there were 4,422 named Fabisiak and 891 named Fabiszak. It seems likely Fabisak is a slight modification of one of these two names. 

Fabisiak and Fabiszak are closely related and sound similar; in effect, they're slightly different versions of the same basic name. They both sound roughly like "fah-BEESH-ock," and names that sound the same but are spelled differently are easily confused. Both come from the Latin name Fabianus, or in English "Fabian." Poles often formed nicknames from popular first names by taking the first few sounds of the name, dropping the rest, and adding suffixes. So they would take Fabi- from "Fabian," drop the rest, add -s to make a kind of nickname "Fabis," and later the suffix -iak could be added to that to make Fabisiak; or if they added -sz instead of plain -s, the addition of -ak would give Fabiszak. They all mean pretty much the same thing, "son of Fabian" or "kin of Fabian."

As I said, 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 4,422 Polish citizens named Fabisiak, living all over Poland, with especially large numbers in the provinces of Warsaw (1,170), Kalisz (235), Konin (206), Plock (310), and Szczecin (202). The 891 named Fabiszak lived all over Poland, but with larger numbers in the provinces of Bydgoszcz (163) and Konin (277). 

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REMIAN or REMIJAN

To: Sandy Remijan, SRemijan@OuterCircle.com, who wrote:

... If you have time, I would appreciate any information you may be able to find on the last name Remijan. The only information that we have is that it may possibly mean Son of Remi (as in Johnson). My father is an only child, my grandfather has already passed on, and my grandmother has severe alzheimer's, so it is difficult to get any family history to pass on other than the fact that my grandfather's family first immigrated to Pennsylvania.

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 was no one in Poland named Remijan. There were 162 named Remian, and it is quite plausible that Remijan was a spelling variation of that name. The largest numbers lived in the following provinces: Warsaw 16, Tarnow 53, and Wroclaw 32. Unfortunately I don't have access to further details such as first names or addresses, what I've given here is all I have.

Polish name scholar Jozef Bubak mentions Remijan in a book he did on surnames found in the area of Nowy Sacz and Stary Sacz, in southcentral Poland; it was the only source I found that mentioned it. Sources from 1664 mention a Hipolit Remijan who was the wójt (village headman, local authority) for Maszkowice, west of Nowy Sacz. So this establishes that the name did once exist in that area (although no Remians lived in the province of Nowy Sacz as of 1990). Bubak speculates it may come either from the first name Jeremi or Jeremiasz (Jeremiah, Jeremy) or the first name Remigiusz, which came from Latin Remigius, the source of the French and English name Remi or Remy. So "son of Remi" or "kin of Remi" is a plausible interpretation, as is "son of Jeremy." But neither one is certain; they're just the best suggestions one expert was able to make.

I don't know if there's anything to it, but an Armenian connection is possible. Armenian names usually end in -ian, meaning "son of," so Remian or Remijan might work as an Armenian name meaning "son of Remi," also. We find Armenian names among people living in Poland, so the idea is not as outrageous as it sounds. Still, one does not have to conclude that that suffix -ian indicates Armenian descent; it can and does exist in native Polish names as well. But since we can't be positive about any of this anyway, I thought it wouldn't hurt to mention this possibility, for what it's worth.

To conclude, the name is found in Poland, but these days is spelled Remian. It is scattered throughout the country, with larger numbers found near Warsaw, Tarnow, and Wroclaw; and in the 1600's there were obviously people by this name living in the area west of Nowy Sacz, in southcentral Poland. The derivation is uncertain, but it's plausible to suggest a connection with the Polish versions of the names Jeremy or Jeremiah and Remy or Remi.

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ADAMCZYK, ADAMSKI

To: CDeese6348@aol.com, who wrote:

... I have searched for family ties from Poland for 5 years now, and always come to a dead end. Death certificates, marriage licensees are of no real help. The 1910-1920 census have no official record of my grandmother, Marya Adamczyk, (Adamski) under either spelling. It is VERY important to me to find some thread to follow. Primarily, I am interested in finding any Jewish ties. Can you give me any information about the name derivatives of Adamski? I know that it is a common name, but any light on the subject is better than none. 

I wish I could help you, but with some names there's nothing you can do. Adamski just means "of Adam," and Adamczyk means "son of Adam." As of 1990 there were 49,599 Polish citizens named Adamczyk, and 28,406 named Adamski; they lived all over Poland, with no concentration in any one part of the country. So neither name tells you anything helpful -- they just mean the family descends from a guy named Adam who could have lived anywhere in Poland. 

I'm sorry I couldn't tell you more, but I see no point in deceiving you; these names don't give you much to work with. Good luck with your research, I hope you finally make a breakthrough.

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KOT

To: Dave Burke, dabartburke@earthlink.net, who wrote:

...interested in receiving information on the name Kot.

This one's short and simple: it comes from the Polish word kot, meaning "cat." As of 1990 there were 19,902 Polish citizens named Kot, living all over Poland, with no concentration in any one part of the country.

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WOLNIK

To: Danielle Wolnik-Tudor <Bunyz girl@aol.com> who wrote:

Hi! My name is Danielle Wolnik-Tudor and I visited your site today. I have just started doing research on my father's ancestors (surname Wolnik). They came from Poland sometime in the 1800's and I am trying to find out a meaning or origin on the name. Anything you can tell me about it would be appreciated. 

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 1,773 Polish citizens named Wolnik. The largest numbers lived in the following provinces: Bydgoszcz 101, Czestochowa 103, Katowice 785, Krakow 96, Leszno 110, Tarnow 189, Zielona Gora 109. Unfortunately I don't have access to further details such as first names or addresses, what I've given here is all I have. What this data tells us is that the name is most common in southern Poland, especially the southcentral part of the country.

Polish name expert Prof. Kazimierz Rymut mentions this name in his book Nazwiska Polakow [The Surnames of Poles]. He says it comes from the archaic noun wolnik, which meant "a man freed from having to labor obligations to a liege lord, a newly-arrived settler, a settler in a new colony [called a wola] exempted from taxes and duties for a certain period." The basic root is the adjective wolny, "free," but it usually refers to one who had earned his way free of the labor and services serfs were obliged to perform for their feudal masters.

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KLUCZYK

To: KKluczyk@aol.com who wrote: 

Hello I am trying to figure out where my last name may have come from . I am also doing my own genealogy that's when I started finding the change of my last name. I am not asking for genealogy help I am only asking you a question if you can answer it. my last name is kluczyk .now when I went searching my family roots .I don't have any family members alive to ask this to . I found a deceased uncle in the social security death index, I sent away for iiit. when i received it I noticed the last name was keys? the g-parents were from New York, would you have any information you may be able to provide me with. 

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 927 Polish citizens named KLUCZYK. The largest numbers lived in the following provinces: Bialystok 140, Bydgoszcz 64, Kalisz 124, Leszno 51, Warsaw 183. Unfortunately I don't have access to further details such as first names or addresses, what I've given here is all I have. About all this data tells us is that the name is not concentrated in any one area; a family named Kluczyk could come from many different parts of Poland.

Polish name expert Prof. Kazimierz Rymut mentions this name in his book Nazwiska Polakow [The Surnames of Poles]. He says it appears in records as early as 1255, and comes from the word klucz, "key." The ending -yk is diminutive, so that the noun kluczyk literally means "little key." It is also used in various other meanings, including "clavicle" (which comes from a Latin word meaning "little key") and "primrose." 

Your information about an uncle named Keys suggests that some members of the family retained the original Polish version, while others decided to change it, to fit in better in America; so they went with what amounts to a translation of the Polish word. This is not unusual. Many immigrants found that Americans had trouble with their names, so they changed them to something less foreign-sounding. If they could find an English name that meant more or less the same thing as their Polish name, that was often the name they went with. 

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L~ACNY

To: J. (Lacny) Kayser, MOBYKAY@aol.com, who wrote:

... The surname I am searching is L~acny. I am told in Poland this name had the meaning "easy." My question is, why the little slash thru the first letter (L) of the surname? Appreciate your information. 

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 849 Polish citizens named L~acny. The largest numbers lived in the following provinces: Czestochowa 68, Katowice 83, Krakow 62, Nowy Sacz 58, Opole 71, Tarnow 95, Wroclaw 91, and Zielona Gora 56. 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 date shows this name is more common in southern Poland than in the north, but that's about all we can say about it.

The L~ is how we represent on-line the Polish letter L with a slash through it. It is regarded by Poles as the "hard" L, and is pronounced in most areas much line English W. There is also the "soft" L, which looks just like ours and is pronounced more or less the same as ours. This name begins with the hard L, and since it's difficult to print that letter on-line without a certain amount of fuss and bother, we just represent it in various ways, such as L~ or L- or L/... The name L~acny is pronounced roughly "WOTT-snee."

Polish name expert Prof. Kazimierz Rymut mentions this name in his book Nazwiska Polakow [The Surnames of Poles], and he confirms that it comes from the adjective l~acny, "easy." Presumably it began as a nickname that seemed somehow appropriate for a person -- maybe one who did things easily, or had an easy way about it -- and stuck. More than that we can't say, unless detailed genealogical research uncovers some additional information on why this particular name would come to be associated with a given family.

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DZIATKOWSKI, KASIEWSKI

To: roachno@bellsouth.net, who wrote:

... I am currently researching my family names as above. I have traced the family back to Ernst Kassiewski in circa 1770. In the next generation, 1817, the surname changed to Kaschewski? Why would that be? Eduard married Charlotte Dziatkowsky in the 1840s - they lived in East Prussia near Wegorzewo. I see that Dzialdowo is not that far away? Could Dziatkowsky be derived from that town? 

I'd recommend you read an encyclopedia article on the history of Poland, and especially the partitioning of Poland. It's very hard to understand much of what you find in research -- including changes in name spelling -- without that background knowledge. Basically, the reason the spelling changed is almost certainly because Kaschewski is a German phonetic spelling of Kassiewski, and at that time the Germans ruled all this area and tended to Germanize everything. Eventually it got to the point that speaking Polish was not even allowed. So through most of the 19th century we see an increasing tendency to spell things in a German way, rather than Polish, till eventually Polish disappears from records.

Kassiewski is probably an archaic spelling; in modern Polish they seldom use double letters. So Kasiewski is probably closer to the correct form. Also possibly relevant is Kaszewski. Note that all these forms are pronounced much the same, sort of like "kosh-EFF-skee." It's just a question of whether you're spelling the name according to German phonetics, older Polish phonetics, or modern Polish phonetics.

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 25 Polish citizens named Kasiewski; they lived in the provinces of Olsztyn (9) and Ostroleka (16). Unfortunately I don't have access to further details such as first names or addresses, what I've given here is all I have. In any case, the Kasiewskis in Poland today don't live in the near vicinity of Wegorzewo, but they're not too far away.

There were 1,381 Poles named Kaszewski, living scattered all over Poland, with no concentration in any one area. There was only 1 in Suwalki province, however, and not that many in neighboring provinces, so this name may not be relevant. Still, any time you have a name with -sie- in it you want to at least take a look at names with -sze- because those combinations are pronounced very similarly and thus are easily confused. 

Names in the form X-owski or -ewski 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 this name seems likely to mean "one from Kasiew or Kasiewo" or something similar. 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. It is also very possible the name has been changed over the centuries; in other words, other possibilities such as Kaszewski or Koszewski or Kosiewski may be involved. Without detailed research into the individual family's history, there is no way to know; I can only deal with the form of the name I have at hand.

As for the name Dziatkowski, pronounced "jot-KOFF-skee" or, more colloquially, "jot-KOSS-kee," as of 1990 there were 189 Polish citizens by that name, of whom the majority, 101, lived in Suwalki province! So it seems entirely possible some Dziatkowski relatives still live in the area of Wegorzewo. Unfortunately, as I said, I have no access to further details such as first names or addresses.

This name, too, probably refers to the name of a place, and there are several in Poland that might be relevant. One worth some attention is Dziadkowice, 14.5 km NE of Siemiatycze in Bialystok province. This surname could very well have started out meaning "one from Dziadkowice," and that village is not all that far from the area where your ancestors came from. But again, without detailed genealogical research there is no way to know for sure which of the various places with names beginning Dziadk- is the one your particular family came from. Incidentally, all these place names probably derive from the noun dziadek, "grandfather," so that they originally meant "grandfather's place."

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BORKOWSKI

To: Ken Borkowski <KBOR53@aol.com> who wrote:

... I can't tell you how thrilled I was to wander into your site. My father has been looking for information about our name for some time,he hasn t had much luck because it is not a common name in our area.I d appreciate any information you can give me to pass onto him.The name we re interested in is Borkowski. thanks again. 

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 32,555 Polish citizens named Borkowski, living in large numbers all over Poland. While not quite the "Smith" or "Jones" of Polish, it is a pretty common name.

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 this surname means basically "one from Borki or Borków or Borkowo" or a number of other names beginning Bork-. One reason the surname is common is because there are a lot of places in Poland with names beginning Bork-. Some come from the root seen in the noun borek, "small forest," so that in some cases the surname might be interpreted as "one from the place of the forests." But more often it probably refers to places named for their owners or founders, who went by nicknames deriving from ancient Polish pagan first names such as Borzyslaw, Bolebor, etc., where the root bor- "means struggle, fight, battle." Thus the place names meant more or less "place of Bor" and the surname means "one from the place of Bor."

So the short answer is, the surname Borkowski means "one from Borki or Borków or Borkowo," etc., referring to a number of places with names beginning Bork-. Those places might have those names by reference to nearby forests, or to early owners or founders with first names such as Borek or Borko, which in turn derive from ancient Slavic first names based on a root meaning "fight, struggle." For practical genealogical purposes, however, the key is that the name is pretty common, is found all over Poland, and can refer to a family's connection with a number of different places. Only successful genealogical research can hope to establish which particular place an individual Borkowski family came from.

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BASAIK, FAFINSKI, PIWOWARSKI

To: Lisa Fountain, FountainLM@telergy.net, who wrote:

... I am in the process of doing some research on my family's lineage. Would you have any information on the following last names : Piwowarski ( I have been told that it means "Beer Maker") this was my maiden name. Basaik, which was my great grandmother's name and Fafinski which was my great grandfather's name. Any help or guidance you could lend would be greatly appreciated.

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 5,642 Polish citizens named Piwowarski. They lived all over Poland, with no significant concentration in any one area. As you say, the name comes from piwowar, "brewer" (literally "beer-brew") and just means "of the brewer," presumably "kin of the brewer." It is pronounced "pee-vo-VAHR-skee."

As of 1990 there were 536 Poles named Fafinski (with an accent over the N), pronounced "fah-FEEN-skee." The largest numbers lived in the following provinces: Ciechanow 64, Gdansk 56, Olsztyn 216, and Torun 67; the rest were scattered in small numbers all over Poland. Unfortunately I don't have access to further details such as first names or addresses, what I've given here is all I have.

None of my sources discuss the origin of this name, so I can only make an educated guess. I would expect it to refer to a place name, something like Fafin or Fafnia. 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. The name might also mean something like "kin of Fafa," referring to a first name. That might come from the verb fafac', "to say 'fe'" (an expression of disgust). So Fafinski might mean "kin of the one who says 'fe'" or "one from the place of the one who said 'fe'" (sounds almost like a Monty Python sketch!). There is a term fafula, "booby, fathead," from the same basic root. I can't be sure, but that's my best guess.

Basaik is a problem; I have to suspect that's the original correct spelling of the name, or else the name is not originally Polish. As of 1990 there was no one in Poland by that name, and -aik is not a combination normally seen in Polish. Basiak would make sense, but not Basaik. In any case, it probably comes from nicknames beginning Bas-, which can come from several names, including Basia, a nickname for "Barbara," or from Sebastian. Whichever name it referred to (and in different cases it could refer to different names), it would mean something like "kin of X."

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MIECZNIKOWSKI, PAWELCZYK

To: Edward Maclosky, macedd11@worldnet.att.net, who wrote:

... Could you please tell the origins and or meanings of the following: Miecznikowski, Pawelczyk.

Pawelczyk comes from addition of the suffix -czyk, usually meaning "son of," to the first name Pawel~, "Paul" (I'm using L~ to stand for the Polish L with a slash through it, pronounced like our W). So it's one of several Polish names meaning "son of Paul," and thus would be comparable to the English name Paulson. As of 1990 there were 2,743 Poles by named Pawelczyk, living all over the country, with no particular concentration in any one area, though this particular form seems to be more common in the northern part of Poland. There were another 3,174 named Pawel~czyk, and that form seems more common in the south.

Miecznikowski comes from the noun miecznik, "master of the sword," an honorary position held by a noble who was in charge of the sword for a king or higher noble. But this surname probably means either "kin of the miecznik" or especially "one from the place of the miecznik." Thus the surname probably began as a name for one who came from a place called something like Mieczników or Miecznikowo, "place of the miecznik," referring perhaps to an estate or village owned or founded by a miecznik. I could find no places by this name in my sources, which may only suggest they have since disappeared or been renamed or been absorbed into larger communities, or may suggest the name was one used only by locals, unlikely to appear on any but the most detailed maps. As of 1990 there were 1,822 Polish citizens named Miecznikowski; the largest numbers lived in the provinces of Warsaw (517), Ciechanow (240), Olsztyn (172), and Ostroleka (193). So the name is found all over Poland, but is most common in the northeastern part of the country.

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GENDOLLA

To: Camilla Gendolla, Smallapfel@aol.com, who wrote:

... My dad once told me that our family name, Gendolla, has its origin in Poland. I would like to know more about it, about its meaning. Could you help me?

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 9 Polish citizens named Gendolla. They lived in the following provinces: Bydgoszcz 1, Poznan 5, Wroclaw 3. There were 26 with the name Gendol~a, using L~ to stand for the Polish L with a slash through it, pronounced like our W; they lived in the provinces of Bydgoszcz, 4; Gdansk, 4; Pila, 15; and Walbrzych, 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.

None of my sources discuss this name, but I think I can make a reasonably good guess as to its origin. In Polish there are two nasal vowels written with tails under them, which I represent on-line with tildes; so there is A~, pronounced usually like "own," and E~, pronounced usually like "en." Any time we see a Polish name with EN, it's reasonable to ask if it's a phonetic spelling of that nasal vowel E~. So if we replace EN with E~, we have Ge~dolla. Polish doesn't usually use double letters, that normally is a sign of some foreign influence on the spelling. So that gives us Ge~dola.

The root ge~d- or ga~d- means "to play (an instrument)," and the suffixes -al~a or -ol~a or -yl~a usually mean "one always doing _, one closely connected with _," where the blank is the root preceding the suffixes. So Ge~dola makes sense as a name meaning "one always playing." I think it's pretty likely this name started out as a sort of nickname for one who loved to play music. I can't be certain, but this is reasonably consistent with analysis of other names beginning Ga~d- or Ge~d-. There are other, more common names that express more or less the same thing, but that's what I think the name means.

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

ZAGROBELNY

To: guszag@aol.com who wrote:

... looking for Zagrobelny. Last known of one Thadeus Zagrobelny living in Glubczyce,woj Opolskie. 

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 593 Polish citizens named Zagrobelny. The largest numbers lived in the provinces of Przemysl (175) and Wroclaw (89). There were 28 living in Opole province. 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 probably comes from the noun zagroble, "area behind or past the dam or dike," from the roots za, "behind, past, on the other side of," and grobla, "dam." Thus Zagrobelny most likely began as a reference to where a family lived or worked, "the ones on the other side of the dam."

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MAJEROWICZ, SKIRZYNSKI

To: Darren Stanziano, darrens@cybernex.net, who wrote:

... Hello, I saw your information on Polish surnames on the web. My mother's side of the family has its ancestry in Poland. There are two names I would appreciate any information on that you may be able to find. If you can find any quick and dirty info, that is fine. Also, I may be interested in more detailed information and would be willing to pay the $20 per name if you can provide such info. The two names are as follows:

Majerowicz and Skirzynski

These are the names of my grandparents. Unfortunately, I do not where from Poland they came. My brother visited immigration and naturalization and search their records years ago. Zero information was found on Majerowicz, and a little bit on Skirzynski, names of my greatgrandfather and his children. The word "Czajkowsk" is written in his notes. He does not remember whether this is name or a town or something else.

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 420 Polish citizens named Majerowicz. There was no one part of the country in which the name was concentrated; a family by this name could come from anywhere in Poland.

The suffix -owicz means "son of," so Majerowicz (pronounced roughly "my-air-OH-vich") means literally "son of Majer." The derivation of this name depends on religion: if the family was Jewish, it comes from the Hebrew name Me'ir, from a root meaning "light, illumination." If the family was Christian, it probably comes from German Meier, "steward of an estate" or "dairy-farmer." Germans lived all over Poland, so it's not at all unusual to find Poles bearing names that prove to be ultimately of Germanic origin. 

As of 1990 there were 326 Polish citizens named Skirzynski (accent over the N, pronounced roughly "skee-ZHINN-skee"). The largest numbers lived in the following provinces: Warsaw 60, Plock 53, and Radom 61; the rest were scattered 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. This data suggests the name is most common in an area just a little north and east of the center of Poland.

Skirzynski is a hard one to trace. Most often names ending in -ynski refer to place names, so that this could mean "one from Skira, one from Skirzyn," something like that. But I can find no places with names that qualify. That's not necessarily significant, however; 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.

If it's not from a place name, it could come from the roots skra, "spark," or skier, "ruffian, police guard," or skierowac', "to direct, send." There's also an expression skirz meaning "because, on account of," and it's possible a person might get a nickname from an expression like that, if people noticed he tended to say it a lot. Still, none of these explanations is all that persuasive, and I have nothing that says definitely one way or the other.

I don't have the time or resources to do more detailed research on names; all I can give is "quick and dirty" analysis. If you would like to get an opinion from the real experts and don't mind spending about $20, you can write the Anthroponymic Workshop of the Polish Language Institute in Krakow. The staff consists of Polish scholars specializing in name origins, with access to large collections of material on the subject; there is surely no one else in the world better qualified to answer questions on Polish names. They can correspond in English, and the charge for researching a single name is seldom more than $20-30. You write to them with your request, and the individual who does the research will reply, and will tell you how much he/she is charging and how best to send payment. It is usually quite painless, and most people I hear from are very satisfied with the results; but the staff has been a bit slow lately in answering letters -- they have lots of other work to do, after all -- so patience is advisable. If you'd like to give this a try, here's the address:

Instytut Polskiego Jezyka
Pracownia Antroponimiczna
ul. Straszewskiego 27
31-113 KRAKOW
POLAND

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SKONIECZNY

To: Thomas R Skonie, ThomasS532@aol.com, who wrote:

... I am interested in the name Skonieczny. I realize that there is a fee of $20 and would be happy to pay--or any other reasonable amount. 

I only charge a fee if I have to spend more than, say, half an hour digging up info in my sources. In most cases, as in this one, it only takes a few minutes to find everything I have on a particular name, and I don't charge for that information.

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 5,727 Polish citizens named Skonieczny (females would have the feminine form Skonieczna). The largest numbers lived in the following provinces: Bydgoszcz 619, Lodz 385, Wloclawek 452, and Warsaw 669. Unfortunately I don't have access to further details such as first names or addresses, what I've given here is all I have. What this data tells us is that the name is found all over Poland, but is particularly common in areas in the center of the country and just northeast and northwest of there.

Polish name expert Prof. Kazimierz Rymut mentions this name in his book Nazwiska Polaków [The Surnames of Poles]. He says it comes from the archaic adjective skonieczny, meaning "final, one living at the end"; that in turn derives from the preposition z, "from, of," prefixed to the noun koniec, "end." So the name originally meant something like "the last one" or "the one living at the end," say, of a street or village. 

That's about all I can tell you. By its nature this is a name that can't be defined too exactly or associated with one specific region; it just indicates that a person or family was perceived as being final or last in some context. I would think most often it would refer to where they lived, on the outskirts of a village or settlement. But many names have no great degree of precision built into them, and this is one. It just means "final, last, at the end."

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To: petero@themusiczone.net, who wrote:

... Please, if you could help me with ANY information on the last names of Ochabski and Krulikovski, I would be deeply in your debt. 

In Polish Ochabski would be pronounced more or less like "oh-HOBB-skee." 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 12 Polish citizens named Ochabski. They lived in the provinces of Katowice (11) and Konin (1). 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 name may come from the name of a place. One possibility is Ochaby Wielkie, near the Czech border, which under the 1975-1998 set-up was in the province Bielsko-Biala. If you'd like to see a map of this place, go to this Website:

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

Enter "Ochaby" as the name of the place you're looking for, and make sure you specify to search using the Daitch-Mokotoff Soundex. Click on "Start the Search." In a moment you'll get a list of places with names that might match Ochaby phonetically. Scroll on down to the ones in Poland and click on Ochaby at 49 degrees 51', 18 degrees 46'. This will bring up a map of the area which you can save, print, etc

It's also conceivable Ochabski could come from, say, the Ukrainian term okhab, "swamp," or from a variant of the first name Achab (Ahab). But considering that most Ochabski's lived in Katowice province, and that's near where Ochaby is, it's quite plausible the surname began as a reference to the family's connection with that place. Of course, only genealogical research would uncover enough information to establish for sure that's the connection, and I can't do that research. But the link seems pretty reasonable to me.

As of 1990 there were only 293 Poles name Krulikowski (pronounced somewhat like "crew-lick-OFF-skee"). But in Polish the vowel U and the vowel Ó (an accented O, in case that doesn't transmit properly) are pronounced the same, and names are often spelled more than one way. In Polish this name is usually spelled Królikowski; as of 1990, there were 10,731 Polish citizens named Królikowski, scattered all over Poland. One cannot point to any one area and say "That's where a family named Królikowski came from"; a family by this name could come from anywhere in Poland.

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. We would expect this surname to mean, therefore, "one from Królików or Królikowo or Królikowice," or some similar place name. Unfortunately, there are a number of places with names that fit; without much more detailed info on a specific family, there's no way to know which one the surname refers to in a given case.

The surname and the place names ultimately derive from the Polish noun królik, literally "little king" (in Polish "king" is król); in old Polish that word meant "king's viceroy," and is also a term used for a kind of rabbit, Latin name Oryctolagus cuniculus L. So the surname means "one from the place of the rabbits," or possibly "one from the place of the viceroy"; we can't rule out the possibility that in isolated instances the name might also have meant "kin of the viceroy" or "kin of the rabbit," but most of the time it would refer to the place name. 

To sum up, the immediate derivation is from królik, "viceroy, or a rabbit," and chances are the surname originally referred to the family's connection with people or a place somehow connected with a królik, especially a place with a name beginning Królikow-.

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To: Kirk T. Karaszkiewicz, kirkkaras@worldnet.att.net, who wrote:

... I wonder if you would review my surname, Karaszkiewicz, and share your findings with me and any others who would be interested.

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 202 Polish citizens named Karaszkiewicz. The largest numbers lived in the provinces of Warsaw (67) and Poznan (27), with the rest scattered all over Poland. Unfortunately I don't have access to further details such as first names or addresses, what I've given here is all I have.

I should add that in Polish SZ sounds like our "sh," and there's another Polish sound that's similar, written as an accented S (which I represent on-line as S~). In carefully pronounced, proper Polish the SZ and S~ are distinguishable sounds that, in theory, should never be confused; but in practice they are often used interchangeably. Thus a name spelled with an SZ can sometimes also be spelled with S~. This is relevant because as of 1990 there were 742 Polish citizens named Karas~kiewicz. The largest numbers lived in those same provinces, Warsaw (112) and Poznan (136). So one can regard these as two different versions of the same basic name.

Polish name expert Prof. Kazimierz Rymut mentions both forms of this name in his book Nazwiska Polaków [The Surnames of Poles]. He says both come from the noun karas~, "crucian carp" (a kind of fish). Karas~ is a moderately common surname in its own right, borne by 8,724 Poles as of 1990. The -k- is a diminutive, and -iewicz means "son of," so the name means literally "son of the little carp." Most likely Karasek/Karasko/Karaszek/Karaszko, "little carp," came to be used used as a nickname for one who liked to fish for carp, or sell them, or eat them, or somehow reminded people of a carp. Then Karas~kiewicz or Karaszkiewicz could come to be used as a name for his sons or kin, and eventually stuck as a surname.

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To: C. B. Galley, FOURSTRIPE@aol.com, who wrote:

... Do you have anything on Nizinski? That is my wife's maiden name.

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 1,528 Polish citizens named Nizin~ski, spelled with an accent over the 2nd N, which I represent on-line as N~. The Poles by this name were scattered all over the country; there was no one area with which the name was particularly associated.

The basic root of this name is niz-, which means "low," but in most cases this surname would almost certainly refer to the term nizina, "lowland, valley, depression," or to a specific place with a name such as Nizina or Niziny. There are several places in Poland that have these names, and it's pretty likely they were all called this because they were in a valley or a lowland. So Nizin~ski (pronounced roughly "nee-ZHEEN-skee") would mean more or less "one from Nizina or Niziny" = "one from the place in the valley." As you can imagine, a name like this is equally applicable in many different areas of Poland, so it's not too surprising the name is found all over the country, with no particular concentration in any one area.

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BL~ASZCZYK

To: Jackie Tomosky, JACKNAG@aol.com, who wrote:

... I am looking for information on my father's family name Blaszczyk

In Polish this name is spelled with a slash through the L (which I indicate on-line as L~), and pronounced roughly "B'WASH-chick." 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 24,791 Polish citizens named Bl~aszczyk, living in large numbers all over the country. So there is no one area we can point to and say "That's where a Bl~aszczyk family must have come from"; a family by this name could have come from anywhere in Poland.

Polish name expert Prof. Kazimierz Rymut mentions this name in his book Nazwiska Polaków [The Surnames of Poles]. He says it developed by addition of suffixes to nicknames or short forms of first names beginning with Bl~a-, especially the name Bl~az*ej (slash through the L, dot over the z), the Polish form of "Blaise." This is not a very common name in the West, but St. Blaise was a bishop and martyr venerated as the patron of those with throat diseases, and Bl~az*ej is not an unusual name in Poland. So we run into a lot of surnames formed from it. The suffix -czyk usually means "son of." The closest English translation of Bl~aszczyk, therefore, is "son of Blaise, kin of Blaise."