JAWORSKI

JAWORSKI is pronounced roughly "yah-VORE-skee," and it is a common name among Poles. 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 44,104 Polish citizens by that name. They lived all over the country, with no particular concentration in any one area; a Jaworski family could come from anywhere. .

Polish name expert Prof. Kazimierz Rymut mentions this name in his book
_Nazwiska Polakow_ [The Surnames of Poles]. He explains that it appears in
records as early as 1386, and comes from the Polish noun jawor,
"sycamore." Jaworski is actually an adjective meaning "of the sycamore."
Thus it might have begun as a way of referring to an ancestor who lived in
or near a particularly prominent stand of sycamores; or he may have sold or
worked with sycamore wood, or something along those lines. Almost any
connection with sycamores could allow this name to get started.

But in most cases it probably refers to a family's connection with any of a
number of villages, settlements, etc. named Jawor, Jawory, Jaworze, etc. --
which, in turn, meant something like "place of the sycamores." There are
places by those names all over Poland, which explains why the surname
Jaworski appears all over Poland. The only way to tell which particular
Jawor or Jawory or Jaworze your family came from would be through
genealogical research, which would help you pinpoint exactly where in Poland
your family came from, and thus would let you focus on finding a place with
a name beginning Jawor- in that specific area, rather than having to search
all over the country.

I should add that the same basic word for "sycamore" appears in other Slavic
languages, so that this surname could also appear among, oh, Czechs or
Slovaks or Ukrainians. Normally we'd find the name spelled JAVORSKY in those cases -- as a rule, the spelling JAWORSKI would generally be associated with Poles. But spellings are not always consistent, and if a Czech named
Javorsky had papers filled out by a German or Polish official, that official
might spell the name the way he was used to, JAWORSKI (Polish) or JAWORSKY (German). In other words, without more info it's impossible to be certain this name is Polish in a given case. But usually it would be.

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BARTODZIEJSKI

To: Kelly Bartodej <bar2j@pobox.com>

> Have you any info relating to the name Bartodejski - later changed to > Bardodej and then to Bartodej (after my ancestors came to the US)? 

It's virtually certain Bartodejski is a variation of the name usually spelled Bartodziejski. That name is pronounced roughly "bar-toe-JAY-skee." Without detailed research into the family history I can't say why or how it came to be spelled Bartodejski (which would sound more like "bar-toe-DAY-skee"). It could be simply a misspelling or misreading; or maybe the name was simplified to make it easier for English-speakers; or maybe the family came from an area in Poland where the local dialect avoided the Polish tendency to turn simple D into the j-sound spelled DZI. Any of these could be a factor. But however you slice it, I feel 99.9% confident the name we're talking about is Bartodziejski. 

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 96 Polish citizens named Bartodziejski (and none named Bartodejski). The largest numbers lived in the following provinces: Gdansk 10, Lodz 14, Sieradz 13, Slupsk 13, and Wroclaw 18. 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, with no significant concentration in any one area. 

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 1488, and refers to any of a number of villages named Bartodzieje (which in turn comes from the noun bartodziej, "beekeeper"). So Bartodziejski started out meaning "one from Bartodzieje," which in turn means "[place of] the beekeepers." The only way to establish which Bartodzieje your ancestors came from would be through detailed genealogical research; the surname alone gives us no clue. 

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BEDNARZ - BEDNORZ 

To: John S. Wojtasczyk <jsw_001@msn.com> 

> I've been doing my family's research for many years, but no one here
> knows enough to know nor remembers what certain names may represent. 

> The name I would like to submit is Bednorz. If this helps any, the 
> Bednorz's came in 1854/5 to Panna Maria, Texas, and so most likely came with the Schleisen's (sorry on the spelling). 

Polish name expert Prof. Kazimierz Rymut mentions this name in his book Nazwiska Polakow [The Surnames of Poles]. Bednorz is pronounced roughly "BED-nosh," and is a distinctively Silesian variation of standard Polish Bednarz, which means "cooper." Many names in Silesia (or Schlesien in German, S~la~sk in Polish) take -a- in standard Polish and turn it into -o-, so it's quite normal to find Bednarz become Bednorz in that part of the country. The name just means the same as Cooper in English. 

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 1,556 Polish citizens named Bednorz, with the largest numbers in the southwestern provinces of Katowice, 1,159, and Opole, 229. 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. (By comparison, there were 13,140 Polish citizens who spelled the name Bednarz). 

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DUSZYN~SKI 

To: Ken Duszynski <KenDusz@aol.com> 

> Any information [about Duszynski] welcome.  Thank you and God bless you.  

In Polish Duszynski is spelled with an accent over the N (which I indicate online as N~), and is pronounced roughly "doo-SHIN-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 6,436 Polish citizens by that name. They lived all over the country, with no significant concentration in any particular area.. 

Polish name expert Prof. Kazimierz Rymut mentions this name in his book Nazwiska Polakow [The Surnames of Poles]. He says that the name generally would refer to the name of a place with which the family was associated at some point centuries ago, a place with a name beginning Dusz-. He specifically mentions Duszno, in Trzemeszno district of Bydgoszcz province, in northwestern Poland. When he mentions a specific place, it's because research done by scholars has conclusively linked the name with that place; it does not rule out possible connections with other places with similar names. 

So Duszyn~ski would generally mean "one from Duszno," or possibly some other place with a similar name. Offhand, however, I could find no other place with a name that fits. So I suspect "one from Duszno" would turn out to be applicable in most cases. At one time the name may have been associated with a noble family that owned an estate at Duszno; but as the centuries passed it came to be used as well by peasants living in that area, or working for the original noble Duszyn~skis. I have no sources that conclusively prove that's what happened; but it is what usually happened with surnames derived from place names. 

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GOL~A~BEK - GOL~OMBEK 

To: D. Noonan <noonan221@peoplepc.com> 

> I am interested in knowing the meaning of the surname- Golombek. 

This is an Anglicized spelling of a name that in Polish is written Golabek, with a tail under the A and a slash through the L, which I write online as Gol~a~bek. (Online 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 it's worth). Gol~a~bek is pronounced roughly "go-WOME-beck." The L~ is pronounced like our W, and the A~, when it comes before B or P, sounds like "om." So even though it seems odd to us, Gol~a~bek is pronounced that way. 

Names in Poland were often spelled more than one way because some sounds can be written more than one way. It's not at all unusual to see A~ spelled -ON- or -OM-, so that even in Poland you sometimes see this name spelled Gol~ombek. Then when Poles came to English-speaking countries the slash through the L was often just dropped, since English-speakers had no clue what to make of it. That's how Gol~a~bek can logically and sensibly come to be modified to Golombek. 

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 1399 and comes from the noun gol~a~bek, which means literally "little pigeon." It may not sound complimentary in English, but in Polish it probably began as an affectionate nickname, with no slight or hint of mockery intended. Poles would think that's a sweet thing to call a nice person, one they were fond of. 

Incidentally, the plural of that noun is gol~a~bki~, which is the name of a dish Poles are very fond of, a stuffed cabbage leaf. You often see the name spelled a jillion different ways, all pronounced roughly "go-WOMP-kee." It means "little pigeons," probably because there was something about the shape originally that reminded people of little pigeons (?). Whenever Polish food is served at a restaurant or dinner somewhere, you can be sure gol~a~bki will be on the menu. But it's unlikely the surname and the food have any connection -- it's probably just coincidence the same term ended up applied in such different ways. 

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 5,060 Polish citizens named Gol~a~bek. They lived all over the country, with no significant concentration in any one area. There were also 333 Poles who spelled it Gol~ombek. If I were you I'd keep my eyes open for either spelling, as a given family might appear as Gol~a~bek in one record, Gol~ombek in another; spelling was often inconsistent. But for all intents and purposes, these are just spelling variations of the same basic name. 

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HARASIM - HARASYM - HARAZIM 

To: Lillyforte@aol.com 

> My last name is harasim, the only place I’ve seen my name 
> is on a list of awards for Virtuti Militari, no other place. I would 
> greatly appreciate any help. 

Harasim is pronounced roughly "hah-RAH-sheem," and it developed as one of several different forms from a first name more common among Ukrainians (possibly also Belarusians) than Poles. Polish name expert Prof. Kazimierz Rymut mentions this name in his book Nazwiska Polakow [The Surnames of Poles], and says it comes ultimately from Greek Gerasimos, from a term meaning "honor, privilege." 

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 1,765 Polish citizens named Harasim, another 144 who bore the spelling Harasym, 511 who spelled it Harazim, and so forth. The largest numbers of those who spelled it Harasim lived in the following provinces: Warsaw 112, Bialystok 99, Lublin 165, Siedlce 205, Suwalki 293, and Zamosc 256. 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 indicates that, as we'd expect from its origin, the surname tends to be most common in eastern Poland, near the border with Ukraine and Belarus. 

So about all this name tells us is that you had an ancestor named Harasim, who was probably of Ukrainian descent. Since Poles and Ukrainians have mixed a great deal over the years, it's not at all odd that this name is found in Poland; but I strongly suspect it's also fairly common in Ukraine. However, I have no sources of data for that country. 

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JAL~OWIEC 

To: Kathryn Jalowiec <dealupa@msn.com> 

> My surname is Jalowiec, and I wasn't able to find anything about it on your Website (which is excellently done, by the way).  I've come to the conclusion (though it may be wrong) that the -owiec was at one point -owicz.  I was wondering if you had any information regarding the name.   

This is a perfect example of how tricky name origins can be. The suffixes -owiec and -owicz can often mean more or less the same thing, or the meanings of words X-owicz and X-owiec will generally prove to be related in some obvious way. So your reasoning is perfectly logical -- and the conclusion is probably wrong, defeated by a simple fact you could not have foreseen! 

Jalowiec in Polish is usually spelled with a slash through the L, which I indicate online as L~ and which is pronounced much like our W. So it's Jal~owiec, pronounced roughly "yah-WOVE-yets" (the second syllable rhymes more or less with the English words "trove" and "grove," although the Polish O isn't quite as long and deep as in those English words). 

Polish name expert Prof. Kazimierz Rymut mentions this name in his book Nazwiska Polakow [The Surnames of Poles], and explains that the basic root is seen in the verb jal~owiec~ (accent over the c), which means "to become barren, sterile," and in the adjective jal~owy, "barren, sterile." So it would be perfectly natural to conclude Jal~owiec would mean "son of the barren one, kin of the barren one." And in fact I suppose in isolated cases that is what the name meant (especially if it was meant ironically, as in "son of the supposedly barren one"). 

But it happens there is a noun jal~owiec that somehow came to be used as the name for the juniper tree (perhaps because the juniper can grow on ground otherwise seemingly barren?). Since there is that specific noun that sounds just like the name, we'd have to figure in most cases the surname did point to some association with that tree. That's the conclusion Rymut comes to. 

So a Jal~owiec ancestor presumably lived near a prominent juniper, or did something with juniper berries -- something of the sort. Clearly it made sense to those who knew him to call him "Juniper," and the name came to be applied to his kin as well, until it became established as their surname. We cannot absolutely rule out the interpretation "son/kin of the barren one," but it's not likely to be right in most cases. After all, how often would a barren one have a son? And besides, saying Jal~owiec has nothing to do with "juniper" is like saying the English surname Baker has nothing to do with bakers! When the name and the common noun match exactly, there will usually be a connection.

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 722 Polish citizens named Jal~owiec. The largest numbers lived in the following provinces: Czestochowa 48, Katowice 139, and Tarnow 196. 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 tends to be most common in southcentral to southeastern Poland, although not exclusively.

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KELIJAN - KIELJAN - KILIAN - KILLIAN

To: Walter Killian <whjkillian@msn.com>

> Have you any information on the meaning or origin of the surname Kilian?  Alternate spellings with which I am familiar would include Killian, Kieljan, Kelijan.

> I have been unable to locate any information on the name but I have been told that it is an old Polish name.  I know that there are Kilians living in Krakow and my family came from southern Poland.

In Polish the name is pronounced much as it is in English, roughly "KEEL-yahn" or "kee-LEE-yahn." 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 3,232 Polish citizens by this name. They lived all over the country, with the largest numbers in the following provinces: Gdansk 147, Katowice 249, Kielce 181, Lublin 145, Opole 206, Rzeszow 141, and Tarnow 558. 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 does indicate that the name tends to be more common in the south than in the north, but there are Kilians living all over the country. The Directory says there were 55 living in Krakow province. 

Polish name expert Prof. Kazimierz Rymut mentions this name in his book Nazwiska Polakow [The Surnames of Poles]. He says it comes from the first name Kilian, which is thought to be of Celtic origin. It appears in Poland as early as the 13th century, and its variants include Kilijan and Kielijan. So all the name signifies is that an ancestor went by this name. 

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KONDRATOWICZ 

To: Lorraine blythe <blestlady1@worldnet.att.net>

> My great-grandmother came from Poland with my grandfather and his sister.  
> Their surname was Kondratowitcz. That is the spelling on my great-grandmothers holy card from her death. I have heard it spelled Kondratowicz. They shortened it to Conrad in the US.

> Any help you can give me with this would be great.

The standard spelling of this name in Polish would be Kondratowicz, pronounced roughly "con-drah-TOE-veech." The -owicz part means "son of," so it means "son of Kondrat." Name experts argue over that name; some say it comes from ancient Greek Kodratos, later adapted into Latin as Codratus and Condratus. It may actually have started out originally as Latin Quadratus, "square." Other experts dismiss that, saying it is a variation of the Germanic name we know as Conrad (which appears historically in a variety of forms, including Kondrad, Kondrat, Kindrat, Kunrat, etc.).

Whichever origin is technically correct, I think there's no question at some point people began to associate this name with German Konrad and English Conrad. When your ancestors changed it to Conrad in the U.S., they were picking the English name that most closely corresponded with their Polish name. Kondratowicz means "son of Conrad," just as Conrad does in English. So there was a good reason for them to change it to what they did.

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KOWALEWICZ

To: Pam <Pamagapeach@aol.com >

> I recently married a man whose last name is Kowalewicz. I did not see it in your list of polish names.  Can you tell me anything about it or where I can look?

Kowalewicz, pronounced roughly "ko-vah-LEH-veech," is one of about a jillion Polish surnames from the noun kowal, "smith." The -ewicz part means "son of," so Kowalewicz means "son of the smith" -- much like the English surname Smithson.

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 1,297 Polish citizens by this name. They lived all over the country, with no particular concentration in any one area. A Kowalewicz family could come from practically anywhere.

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LASOWSKI

To: Deryck Urbas <stewie127@attbi.com>

> I am hoping you can give me any information on the last name of Lasowski. This is my mothers maiden name and I am trying to gather as much information as I can on it. I would also appreciate any information you could give me as who to go to in researching the history or genealogy of this particular name. My grandfather says we are of noble lineage, my grandmother would just roll her eyes at him.

In Polish Lasowski is pronounced roughly "lah-SOFF-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 71 Polish citizens by that name. They were scattered in small numbers all over the country, with no significant concentration in any one area.

Polish name expert Prof. Kazimierz Rymut mentions this name in his book Nazwiska Polakow [The Surnames of Poles]. He says it comes from the root in the noun las, "forest, woods." It would mean basically "of the woods," and as such probably began as a reference to a place where the family lived. It might very well refer to a specific village or settlement named Lasy or Lasow or Lasowo or Lasowice, but the only way to establish that is through detailed research into the history of the specific family in question. From the name alone there's no way to tell.

Surnames in the form X-owski mean literally "of the X's _," where the blank is to be filled in with something so obvious it didn't need to be spelled out -- usually "kin" or "place." So in some cases X-owski can mean "kin of [the] X." But most often it refers to the name of a place where the family lived at some point centuries ago, a place name beginning with the X part, which may have various suffixes that were detached before the -owski was added. If the family was noble, they owned an estate there; if not, they lived and worked there. So while X-owski can just mean "kin of X," it generally means "one from the place of X." That's why I say the name probably means "one from Lasy or Lasow or Lasowo or Lasowice." There are quite a few places with names that qualify, which is why it's impossible to say which one your particular Lasowskis came from.

At one time centuries ago anyone with a surname ending in -owski was noble. In fact, anyone with any kind of surname was noble. But by the 17th century peasants were beginning to use surnames, too, and from then on the form of the name tells us nothing about the social status of the people bearing it. So if you have records from the 1500s, say, mentioning your Lasowskis, it's virtually certain they were nobles who took their name from the name of their estate, which had a name beginning Lasow-. But by the 1700s Lasowski could mean nothing more than "one from Lasy or Lasow, etc."

I'm afraid genealogical research is almost always a do-it-yourself project, unless you're pretty wealthy and are willing to pay a professional to do it for you. I don't know anyone who does that, and don't know the names of any researchers; but you can find some online if you search. For instance, there's a list of pros on Cyndi's List at http://www.cyndislist.com/poland.htm#Professional.