SZWEDA - WASIKOWSKI - WA~SIKOWSKI 

To: Dorothy Dyer, wildot@webtv.net, who wrote: 

… Origin and meaning of my name Szweda and the name of Wasikowski. My granddaughter is doing a genealogy  of her name in school.  

You've written to me before about Szweda. I don't know if you never received the reply, but here is what I wrote in it: 

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 4,554 Polish citizens named Szweda. The largest numbers lived in the following provinces: Bydgoszcz 421, Gdansk 838, and Katowice 1,737. 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 tells us the name is found all over Poland, but is particularly common in southcentral Poland, with another sizable concentration in the northcentral to northwestern part of the country. 

Polish name expert Prof. Kazimierz Rymut mentions this name in his book Nazwiska Polaków [The Surnames of Poles]. He says it comes from the noun Szwed, "Swede." People from virtually all European countries resettled in Poland over the centuries (and vice versa), and there was a particularly big influx of Swedes in the mid 1600's, when Sweden invaded Poland. So this is not a particularly rare name. It might have originally applied to an actual Swedish immigrant, but I suppose it might also have been used as a nickname for one who looked Swedish, i. e., tall, blond, with a ruddy complexion. The name is pronounced roughly "SHVADE-ah." 

As for Wasikowski, in Polish it is pronounced "vah-she-KOFF-skee." As of 1990, according to the Slownik nazwisk, there were 180 Polish citizens by that name. They lived all over Poland, with the largest numbers in the provinces of Warsaw, 76, and Szczecin, 39. 

Polish name expert Prof. Kazimierz Rymut mentions this name in his book Nazwiska Polaków [The Surnames of Poles]. He says it, along with many other surnames beginning Was-, derives from nicknames of first names beginning with Wa-, such as Wawrzyniec (Lawrence), Iwan (John), Wasyl (Basil), etc. 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 Wa- from those first names, drop the rest, add -s, and that gave the nickname Was. Add the suffix -ik and you have a name meaning basically "kin of Was, son of Was, one connected to Was." 

The -owski means "of, from," so this surname just indicates that an ancestor was kin of, or came from a place owned or founded by, a man with a nickname from a first name beginning Wa-. Without detailed research into a specific family's history there's no way to know any more about it. Generally, though, surnames in the form X-owski come from a place name beginning X, so we'd expect this to mean "one from Wasiki or Wasikow or Wasikowo" or some place with a similar name. 

I should add that there is another name in Polish spelled Wa~sikowski with a tail under the A, which I represent online as A~. When people by that name came to English-speaking countries, the tail was often just dropped, leaving the name spelled Wasikowski. This name is pronounced roughly "von-shee-KOFF-skee." As of 1990 there were 867 Poles by that name; the largest numbers lived in the following provinces: Warsaw 169, Bydgoszcz, 152, Krakow 79, Torun 68. It comes from the word wa~s, "moustache," and means something like "kin of the guy with the moustache" or "one from the place of the guy with the moustache," i. e., Wa~siki or Wa~sików or Wa~sikowo, etc. 

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GA~GOLA - GA~GOLEWICZ - GONGOLA - GONGOLEWICZ  

To: Ava Goldman, Ava120849@aol.com, who wrote: 

… I am interested in my mother's maiden name: Gongolewicz. I have "met" online someone who is interested in his family name: Gongola. I understand that -ewicz means "son of".  I hope you can help both of us.   

The names in question are usually spelled in Polish Ga~gola and Ga~golewicz. I'm using A~ to stand for the nasal vowel written as an A with a tail under it (I use the tilde to represent the accent or other diacritical marks  because the Polish characters don't show up on browsers unless you configure them for eastern European languages, which is more trouble than most folks want to take). This letter is usually pronounced much like “own,” or as in French bon, and thus names with that letter are often spelled phonetically with on. But in most cases the standard or "correct" spelling is with the nasal vowel I'm representing as A~. Thus Ga~gola is pronounced roughly "gone-GO-lah," and Ga~golewicz is "gone-go-LAY-vich." 

The -ewicz suffix does mean "son of," and Ga~gol- comes from the noun ge~ga (another nasal vowel, an E with a tail under it, pronounced roughly "en"). That noun means "goose," and a related noun is ga~gor, a dialect term meaning "gander." So Ga~gola probably started as a nickname meaning something like "Goosey," and Ga~golewicz would have originally referred to the son or kin of one who bore that nickname. "Goosey" sounds rather silly in English, but in Polish it's not necessarily ridiculous. It could be an affectionate nickname for one who tended geese, bred and raised them, lived in an area where there were a lot of geese, sold them, or somehow made a noise or had a way of walking that reminded people of a goose. Nicknames are often very ingenious, and these names developed a long time ago, so there's no way to say exactly what the name signified in a given instance. The most we can do is note what it means and then make plausible suggestions on the nature of the association that caused people to start calling someone by that name. 

I should add, however, that in Polish there are two L's, one normal and one with a slash through it, pronounced like our W, which I represent online as L~. There is also a term ga~gol~ that means "a kind of duck or duck-like bird," Latin name clangula glaucion (apparently the duck called the "golden-eye" in English is a member of this family). So in some instances the surname might refer to a perceived connection between a person and this duck. 

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), here's how many Polish citizens bore the names Ga~gol, Ga~gola, Ga~golewicz, Ga~gol~, Ga~gol~a, Gongola, and Gongolewicz: 

     Ga~gol: 300; largest numbers in the following provinces: Krakow 50, Lublin 33, Siedlce 33, Slupsk 51
     Ga~gola: 225; largest numbers in the following provinces: Bydgoszcz 26, Nowy Sacz 30, Tarnobrzeg 21, Tarnow 42
     Ga~golewicz: 39, living in the following provinces: Warsaw 3, Elblag 1, Gdansk 13, Lodz 7, Piotrkow 9, Szczecin 6
     Ga~gol~: 302; largest numbers in the provinces of Lublin, 187, and Torun, 22
     Ga~gol~a: 0 [this means the name was in the database but data was incomplete, so we don't know how many there were or where they lived -- presumably there was only 1, and the form may well be a misspelling of one of the other forms]
     Gongola: 18, living in the following provinces: Krakow 1, Rzeszow 5, Szczecin 1, Tarnobrzeg 11
     Gongolewicz: 6, in the following provinces: Bialystok 1, Gdansk 4, Lodz 1 

Unfortunately I don't have access to further details such as first names or addresses, so I can't tell you how to find that info. 

As you can see, it's of some importance to determine the original spelling of the name in Polish. It was probably Ga~gola, if the numbers are any indication, and thus came from the word for "goose." But it could be a form of Ga~gol~, in which case the meaning and distribution are different. 

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KOZL~OWSKI - ZAWACKI - ZAWADZKI - ZAWASKI  

To: Susan Zawaski, szawask@tulane.edu, who wrote: 

….. Hello I am a 19 year old college student inquiring about the history of my name.  I was the queen of the Polish American Cultural Club last year and have since been looking for information about the origin of my name.  My family name is Zawaski. Any info on this name would be appreciated.  My mother's maiden name was Kozlowski - any info on this name would also be great.  

In Polish the name Kozlowski is written with a slash through the L, which I render on-line as L~. The surname is pronounced roughly "koz-WOFF-skee." It is one of the most common Polish surnames; as of 1990 there were 72,368 Poles by this name, living in large numbers all over Poland. So we can't point to any one area and say "That's where a Kozl~owski family came from"; people by this name could come from anywhere in Poland. 

The name means "one from Kozl~owo" or other, similar place names from the root koziol~, "he-goat." In other words, it means literally "of the he-goat," but usually referred to places with names from that root, places named Kozl~owo or Kozl~ów or something similar. The problem is there are a great many places in Poland by those names, so without the kind of detailed background information produced by successful genealogical research, there is no way to know which place the surname refers to in a given instance. 

Zawaski is almost certainly a variant of the name more often spelled Zawadzki or Zawacki. Both those names are pronounced roughly "zah-VOTT-skee." They come from the noun zawada that means "obstacle, impediment," and in archaic usage "fortress," because soldiers often set up fortified positions in places where some natural feature of the land would block the way for enemy armies and make them vulnerable to attack. The surname Zawadzki or Zawacki means "of the zawada," and thus could refer to a person somehow connected with such an obstacle or fortress. 

More likely, however, the name refers to a family's coming from any of a number of places named Zawada or Zawady because of a connection with such an obstacle or fortress. There are literally dozens of places by those names, and the surname could refer to any of them. Only genealogical research into the history of a specific family might enable one to determine which of those places the name refers to in their particular case. 

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 Zawaski, but there were 35,225 named Zawadzki and another 751 named Zawacki. They lived all over Poland, with no real concentration in any one area. So a family by these names could come from almost anywhere in Poland.

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BARYCZ - OWCZARZAK 

To: Michelle Owczarzak <mmozark@msn.com> 

... I am looking for any information on the surnames Owczarzak or Barycz. Thank You. 

Owczarzak is pronounced roughly "off-CHAH-zhock," and consists of the noun owczarz, "shepherd," plus the diminutive suffix -ak. So it would mean literally "little shepherd," but more often as a surname would be used in the sense of "shepherd's son, shepherd's kin." 

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 2,340 Polish citizens named Owczarzak. The largest numbers lived in the following provinces: Bydgoszcz 476, Konin 93, Pila 105, Piotrkow 105, Plock 125, and Poznan 861. So this name tends to be most common in central to western Poland. 

As for Barycz, pronounced roughly "BAR-itch," Polish name expert Prof. Kazimierz Rymut mentions it in his book Nazwiska Polakow [The Surnames of Poles]. He says it appears in records as early as 1412 and can come from the noun barycz, "marketplace, trading center," or from any of several places named Barycz, or from the personal name Barycz (which would mean basically "son of Bar"), or from a Proto-Slavic root barych that mean "bog, marsh." So there isn't just one possible derivation, but several; it would take detailed research into a specific family' history to find any clues as to which one was applicable in their particular case. 

As of 1990 there were 92 Polish citizens named Barycz, scattered all over Poland but with some concentration in the southcentral provinces of Bielsko-Biala (12) and Krakow (26). Unfortunately I don't have access to further details such as first names or addresses, so I can't tell you how to find that info. 

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BLICHARZ 

Teresa <MNTANDREWS@peoplepc.com> asked: 

... Could you tell me what the name Blicharz might mean? 

According to Rymut's book on Polish surnames, Blicharz and Blecharz are both names coming from the noun blicharz or blecharz. It is a term for an occupation, a "bleacher." A Blicharz family presumably got that name because it had an ancestor who bleached or whitened cloth or clothes. Rymut says it appears in records as early as 1561. By English phonetic values Blicharz would sound kind of like "BLEE-hosh," but the "ch" sound is a bit more guttural than English H, yet less guttural than German "ch" in "Bach." 

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 2,446 Polish citizens named Blicharz. The largest numbers lived in the following provinces: Biala Podlask 136, Lublin 198, Rzeszow 135, Tarnow 170, and Zamosc, 560. Unfortunately I don't have access to further details such as first names or addresses, so I can't tell you how to find that info. This data tells us the name is found all over Poland, but is particularly common in the southeastern quarter of the country. 

Blecharz, by contrast, was the name of only 251 Polish citizens, with the largest number, 128, in the province of Krakow, and the rest scattered in small numbers all over Poland, especially southwestern Poland. I'm not positive, but this distribution suggests the word for "bleacher" was pronounced one way (with a short E sound) in southcentral to southwestern Poland, and another way (with the longer EE sound written in Polish as I) in eastern and southeastern Poland. 

Incidentally, "bleacher" is an example of an English word that has come to mean something entirely different from what it once meant. At one time it was used primarily to mean "one who bleaches clothes." These days you never hear this word, but the plural form "bleachers" is common. It means "an often unroofed outdoor grandstand for seating spectators" -- rows of seating, sometimes outside, sometimes in a gymnasium, for people to sit on as they watch a sports event or other activity. Apparently it came to mean that by comparison to the bleaching effect the sun has on linens hanging outside to dry. 

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BRONICKI 

To: Brian <Emile@aol.com> 

... I am trying to learn anything about the name: Bronicki. Do you know anything about its origin or anything else?  

In Polish Bronicki is pronounced roughly "bron-EET-skee." This name would usually refer to the name of a place where the family lived at some point centuries ago, a place with a name beginning Bronic-. If they were noble, they owned an estate there; if they were peasants, they lived and worked there, or had occasion to do business there frequently. This name can also be a variant form of the very similar surnames Broniecki or Bronecki -- names that close were often confused -- in which case places with names beginning Broniec- or Bronec- or even Bronka or Bronki could also be involved. 

There are several places in Poland and the neighboring countries this surname could refer to. Genealogical research is the only way to pin down which one your particular Bronickis came from. If you can locate the area they came from, you can search in that specific area instead of all over eastern Europe. 

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 758 Polish citizens named Bronicki. There was no one area in which they were concentrated; a Bronicki family could come from practically anywhere. 

I'm afraid the vast majority of Polish surnames just don't give you much in the way of useful clues as to exactly where a given family came from. I estimate fewer than 5% are concentrated in any one area, or have some aspect of their meaning that helps you trace them. 

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BROZIN~SKI - BROZ*YN~SKI - PIETRAS 

To: M. Pietras <rado143@lycos.com> 

... I am looking for information on the following surnames: Pietras & Brozinska. Any information you could provide on the origins and meanings would be greatly appreciated. These are the names of my paternal grandparents who immigrated to Canada in the early part of the last century. I am attempting to do a family genealogy. Unfortunately, their personal paper were thrown away years ago and I am starting from scratch. 

Pietras, pronounced roughly "P'YET-ross," is a moderately common surname by Polish standards. 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 9,007 Polish citizens by that name, as well as another 806 named Pietras~ (using the tilde ~ to indicate the accent over the S) and another 1,022 with the similar form Pietrasz (both those names sound roughly like "P'YET-rosh"). All three names come from the first name Piotr, the Polish version of the first name "Peter." They would mean little more than "Peter's kin," indicating that somewhere along the line there was an ancestor named Piotr or Pietr (Peter). As with most surnames derived from popular first names, this one is common all over the country; the name itself gives no clue where a specific family named Pietras would have come from. 

Brozin~ska is a feminine form of Brozin~ski (accent over the N) -- most Polish names ending in -ski change the ending to -ska when referring to a female. That name is pronounced roughly "bro-ZHEEN-skee." As of 1990 there were 92 Polish citizens by that name. They were scattered all over Poland, with the largest concentration, 43, in the southeastern province of Tarnobrzeg. Unfortunately I don't have access to further details such as first names or addresses, so I can't tell you how to find that info. 

A very similar name, Broz*yn~ski (with a dot over the Z and an accent over the N) is pronounced "bro-ZHIN-skee," and is therefore very, very similar in pronunciation. Considering how variable spelling used to be, it is entirely possible you might see the same family called Brozin~ski one time, Broz*yn~ski the next. 

Polish name expert Prof. Kazimierz Rymut mentions both names in his book Nazwiska Polakow [The Surnames of Poles]. Brozin~ski most likely comes from a short form of the first name Ambroz*y (dot over the z), the Polish form of "Ambrose." Broz*yn~ski can come from the same origin, or it can come from the noun bro~g, "stack, rick, haystack." So the name could mean "kin of Ambrose" or "one from Ambrose's place," or it could mean "one from the place of the haystacks." Only detailed research into a specific family's background might uncover information that would let one establish more; the name itself just doesn't tell us more than that. 

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CHWALKIEWICZ - FALK[E] - FALKIEWICZ 

[Posted to Herbarz-L in response to erroneous comments about the origin of the name Falkiewicz] 

In his book Nazwiska Polakow, volume 1 (Instytut Jezyka Polskiego PAN, Krakow, 1999) Kazimierz Rymut lists a number of Polish surnames from the root Chwal-, then comments "z dawnym malopolsko-mazowieckim przejsciem chw- w f-" and proceeds to list a number of surnames beginning Falk-, including Falkiewicz. Thus in Malopolska and in Mazowsze there was long ago a tendency to simplify the consonant cluster chw- in names to f-. Chwalkiewicz/Falkiewicz may be the best known example of this phenomenon, but there are others: Chwailbog vs. Falibog, Chwast vs. Fast, Chwial~a vs. Fial~a, etc. (Incidentally, a number of different Polish onomasts have noted this tendency of Chw- to simplify to F-, not just Rymut. From what I can tell, it is generally accepted as a proven hypothesis among Polish name scholars.) 

The patronymic Chwalkiewicz would have meant "son of Chwalek or Chwalka or Chwalko." Those names, in  turn, began in most cases as affectionate diminutives of ancient Slavic dithematic names which, in Polish, took the forms Chwalisl~aw (praise-renown), Chwalimir (praise-peace), Chwalibog (praise-god), etc. A name such as Chwalek or Chwalko could also develop directly from the noun chwala, "praise," or the root of the verb chwalic~, "to praise," so that Chwalek or Chwalko could have originally meant something like "little praiseworthy one, son of the praiseworthy one" or "little one who praises, son of the one who praises." But in most cases it is thought they began as nicknames or short forms of those ancient names Chwalisl~aw, Chwalimir, etc., just as "Eddie" developed from "Edward" in English by truncation of the original name and addition of a diminutive suffix. 

So it is perfectly appropriate to interpret Falkiewicz as "son of Falek/Falka/Falko = Chwalek/Chwalka/Chwalko." In such cases the name would indicate origin in Malopolska or Mazowsze... Of course it's true a name ending in -ewicz can refer to a place name; that is not out of the question, by any means. But the prime hypothesis in such a case is that the name means what it appears to mean, "son of Falek or Falka or Falko." One should turn to toponyms only if the patronymic derivation proves inapplicable. 

Names origins are seldom as simple as they appear, however, and as <eduard@eswo.org> wrote in his original question, Falkiewicz could indeed come from a German root. Rymut has an entry for Falk, "od niem[ieckiej] nazw[ej] os[obowej]

Falk(e), ta od s~rwniem. [s~rednio-wysoko-niemieckiego (Middle High German)] falche, 'soko~l~,' lub od im[ion] sl~owian~skich na Chwal-." Thus in addition to the link with Chwal-, Falk or Falke can exist as a name of German origin meaning "falcon," much as Soko~l~ can exist as a Slavic name meaning "falcon." Falkiewicz could be an instance where that Germanic name came into use among Slavs, and the patronymic suffix -ewicz was later added to indicate "son of the falcon." While one must be careful about postulating the addition of Slavic suffixes to German roots, there is no question that did happen at times, when people of German descent lived and worked in a Polish linguistic environment. If a German was named Falke and lived among Poles who grew accustomed to his name, his descendants might well come to be called Falkiewicz by his neighbors. 

I don't know on what basic the original questioner says Falkiewicz is of German origin. If he did so on the basis of sound genealogical research, and thus had good reason to make this assumption, we can only accept what he says and proceed from there. But it would be wise to remind ourselves that Falkiewicz cannot be ASSUMED to come from the German name unless one has evidence to that effect. All things being equal, we'd normally expect Falkiewicz to be Polish, a variant of Chwalkiewicz. But if the evidence is there that the name does derive from German Falk- and not Polish Chwalk-, that is certainly a tenable position to take.

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DEREN~ - DEREN~SKI 

To: Lisa Blyshak Thomas <M2andL@aol.com> 

... I have a question regarding the origin of my maternal grandfather's name.  He traveled with his parents from Poland to the United States around 1896.  The surname he used as an adult was Deren (Daren on a SS form).  One of my aunts said that he may have changed his name as a young man and that the family name was something such as Derensky. Can you shed any light on the origin of this name?

 In Polish the basic name is Deren~, with an accent over the N, pronounced roughly "DARE-rain." 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 2,974 Polish citizens named Deren~. They lived all over Poland, but with the largest numbers in the souther part of the country, especially the provinces of Krosno (191), Opole (313), Rzeszow (156), Tarnobrzeg (281), Tarnow (180), and Walbrzych (331). I'm afraid this doesn't shed too much light, however, on where a specific family by this name might have come from. 

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 deren~, "dogwood (Cornus mas), dogberry." Thus the name probably started as a nickname for an ancestor whom people associated with the dogwood for some reason. Perhaps he lived in an area where there were a lot of dogwoods. In any case, we can feel sure there was some link that was obvious enough to make the name seem appropriate. 

Deren~ski is a pretty rare name these days -- as of 1990 there were only 17 Polish citizens by that name. The numbers suggest Deren~ should be treated as the main form of the name. But I'd add that you should keep your eyes open for either form. Poles instinctively recognize Deren~ and Deren~ski as closely related names -- one means "dogwood," the other means "of the dogwood." So if a person or family was called Deren~, it would be pretty common to refer to them or their kin also as Deren~ski, or even Dereniewicz (son of Deren~) or Dereniowski (of the Deren~s). Of all those names only Deren~ is very common today. But until the last century or two there wasn't any great emphasis on using the same form of a surname consistently, and in most Polish villages everybody knew everybody else, so there wasn't all that much attention paid to surnames. 

In other words, odd as it seems to us, you might see the same family called Deren~ in one record, Deren~ski in another, Dereniewicz in another, and so on. The Poles all recognized the people involved, and the names were all so closely related that they saw no reason to act like some Prussian screaming "You vill use ze same name every time or ve vill punish you!" That frame of mind was foreign to Poles. They didn't make a big deal out of surname consistency. Thus your Deren~ might well have been  called Deren~ski sometimes. But at least in modern usage Deren~ is the main form of the name.