To: <basiag42@yahoo.com> who wrote: 

Since I have started to trace my family tree, I have discovered many family surnames that I would like to know the origin of, but I will limit myself to inquiring about only a few. I am familiar with the origin of a couple names. Among those, Gajda, which is the name of the bagpipe-type instruments from Gorny Slask (Upper Silesia), and Sieradzki, from the town of Sieradz, near Wielkopolska. However, My interest primarily lies in the names Nawrocki, Jazwiec, Has'kiewicz (accent on s) and Gl~ogowski.

Nawrocki comes from the verb nawracac~, nawrócic~, "to turn, revert, convert," especially referring to a change in religion or conversion; as of 1990 there were 21,798 Poles by this name, living all over Poland.

Jazwiec, the name of 777 Poles as of 1990, comes from a Polish noun meaning "badger"; the largest numbers lived in the provinces of Kalisz (234), Katowice (97), and Krakow (111) in southcentral Poland.

Gl~ogowski means "one from Gl~ogów or Gl~ogówko," and there were 6,886 Poles by that name as of 1990.

Has~kiewicz means "son of Hasiek or Has~ko," and as of 1990 there were 205 Poles by that name, scattered in small numbers all over Poland.

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

BUDZYNSKI - KARPINSKI

To: Thderhrt3@aol.com who wrote:

I am researching a friend's family name of Budzynski and Karpinski.

I'm afraid I can't help much. Both names are fairly common, and both come from place names that can apply to a number of different villages in Poland. As of 1990 there were 7,212 BUDZYNSKI's, living all over Poland; the name just means "one from Budzyn or Budzynka," and there are several villages and towns with names that could yield this surname. There were 19,174 Poles named KARPINSKI, also living all over the country, and that name just means "one from Karpin or Karpno" or some similar place name. So as is common with Polish surnames, the names themselves provide no useful information in tracing a given family. The only way to discover anything useful is by way of detailed genealogical research that may shed light on exactly which Budzyn or Budzynka or Karpin or Karpno this particular family was once connected with.

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

GRABSKI

To: Tom Grabski <tomg@alki.com> who wrote:

I am looking for general info on the last name of grabski. I am third generation in the united states.

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 4,738 Polish citizens named GRABSKI. The largest numbers lived in the following provinces: Bielsko-Biala 263, Bydgoszcz 220, Gdansk 199, Katowice 298, Lodz 282, Poznan 219, Warsaw 642. 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 really tells us is
that the name is found all over Poland, so that a Grabski family could come from anywhere.

This name probably refers in most cases to the name of a place the family was associated with at some point. The problem is, there are a lot of places that qualify, places named Grab, Grabie, etc. They come from the roots grab, "hornbeam tree," grabie, "rake," and grabic', "to rob." Most likely the majority of the places were named either for a local concentration of hornbeams or for a founder or owner named Grab. So Grabski literally means "of the hornbeam" or "of Grab" or "of the place of Grab or the hornbeams." Without detailed research into a specific family there's no way to know what the exact link was in their particular case.

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

FRENZEL

To: "Davis Gautreau, Elizabeth" <Elizabeth.Gautreau@killeenisd.org> who wrote: 

Do you have any idea what the origin of FRENZEL is?

It's German in origin, a diminutive of Franz, "Francis." Spelled Frenzel or Fra"nzel in German, it would mean something like "little Frank." It's not a very common name in Poland these days -- as of 1990 there were only 104 Polish citizens named Frenzel, scattered all over the country.  It's probably pretty common in Germany, but I have no data for that country.

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

KUNDE

To: Jim Kunde <kunde@gvi.net> who wrote: 

I am interested in learning about my last name Kunde my people came from the Koslin area of Prussia.

Kunde is a German name, which is not surprising or unusual in that area. According to Hans Bahlow's Deutsches Namenlexikon, this name comes from Middle High German kunde, meaning "known person, native."

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 Polish citizens named KUNDE, living in the following provinces: Bydgoszcz 16, Gdansk 6, Slupsk 22. The form KUNDA is much more common; there were 789 Poles by that name, including 29 in the province of Koszalin.Unfortunately I don't have access to further details such as first names or addresses, what I've given here is all I have.

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

ZATORSKI

To: Daniel J. Bristol <dhondup@yahoo.com> who wrote:

I found your site, and perhaps you can help me. I am attempting to find a section of my mother's
family that did not manage to escape Poland before the Nazi occupation. The family name is Zatorski or Zatorsky. I am curious as to the origins of this name.

ZATORSKI is adjectival in form, and comes from the noun zator, "blockage, especially of a river's course; ice jam," or from place names derived from that noun. There are at least three villages or settlements called Zator (at least 2, one near Bielsko-Biala and one near Skierniewice) and Zatory (near Ostroleka). As of 1990 there were 4,287 Polish citizens named Zatorski, living all over Poland. So like the vast majority of Polish surnames, this one doesn't provide a researcher a whole lot to work with.

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

FALKOWSKI, WAWAK

To: Ingrid Battersby <Miking.Battersby@tesco.net> who wrote: 

I am interested in two, Falkowski and Wawak and would appreciate any information on them.

FALKOWSKI just means "one from Falki or Falkow or Falkowa or Falkowo," and thus refers to a family's connection at some point with any of a number of places with names beginning Falk-. Without detailed info on a specific family there is no way to know which of these places the name
refers to.

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 9,306 Polish citizens named FALKOWSKI. The largest numbers lived in the following provinces: Warsaw 898, Bialystok 1,550, Olsztyn 546, Torun 879, and Wloclawek 406. So the name is especially common in northeastern and northcentral Poland; but a Falkowski family could really come from anywhere in Poland. With any luck your research may help you focus on a particular region or area, and if you find a place with a name beginning
Falk- nearby, chances are decent that is the place the name referred to originally. The name is pronounced roughly "fall-KOFF-skee," or sometimes "fall-KOSS-kee."

As of 1990 there were 748 Polish citizens named WAWAK ("VAH-vahk"), of whom by far the largest concentration, 516, lived in the south central province of Bielsko-Biala. The name is thought to have come from a kind of affectionate short form or nickname of the Polish first name
Wawrzyniec, "Lawrence." So Wawak originally meant something like "little Larry" or, more likely, "kin of Larry."

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

ZGONINA

To: Tim Zgonina <cstlz1@ux1.cts.eiu.edu> who wrote: 

I read with interest your material about names on the Polish Roots website. Could you please tell me anything you know about the name "Zgonina" which probably originated in the Slask region? Also, what does your more-detailed analysis of names involved and what is your fee?

I'm going to have to change what it says on the Website -- I just don't have time to do detailed research. All I can offer is "quick and dirty" analysis. To do anything more, you have to undertake detailed research into the geographical, historical, social, and linguistic context in which a particular family came to be associated with a specific name. I'm too committed to other projects to have any time for that kind of painstaking research in the foreseeable future.

What I can tell you is that the name Zgonina probably comes from the noun zgonina, "chaff." 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 64 Polish citizens by this name. They lived in the following provinces: Czestochowa 7, Katowice 22, Opole 31, Zielona Gora 4. This distribution tends to support your belief that the name originated in the region of Slask or Silesia -- Katowice and Opole are major cities of Silesia. Unfortunately I don't have access to further details such as first names or addresses, what I've given here is all I have.

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

PRZYBYLO

To: H. J. Przybylo who wrote: 

I came upon your name through the internet. Recently, my father passed away. He was remarkably closed mouthed, and revealed little about himself or his family. The little I do know is his father immigrated to the US just prior to 1900 supposedly from Krakow. His name was Michael Przybylo and his new home was Chicago. The only other facts I know are that my father's birth certificate listed Michael's place of birth as Pilsen and he had a brother, Joseph. We always considered the tracing of our name and heritage futile due to two wars we thought would destroy any records. Any comments you might have would be greatly appreciated.

The name PRZYBYLO is spelled in Polish with a slash through the L, and is pronounced roughly "p'shih-BI-woe," where the middle syllable has the short I sound in "bit." It comes from a noun
meaning "new arrival, newcomer," and is widespread all over Poland. As of 1990, according to the best data available (the Slownik nazwisk wspolczesnie w Polsce uzywanych, "Directory of Surnames in Current Use in Poland," which covers about 94% of the population of Poland), there were 2,744 Polish citizens by this name; 418 lived in the province of Krakow alone. The origin and meaning of the name itself offer nothing useful in the way of tracing ancestry.

Tracing your heritage in Poland is not the futile effort you might think. You'd be amazed at how many records survive in Poland; I routinely hear from people who've traced their families back to the 1700's. If you'd like to try doing some research in earnest, I recommend buying a copy of Rosemary Chorzempa's "Polish Roots." It's widely available, it's less than $20, and countless
people have told me they found it priceless in terms of the help it gave them in getting started.

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

TYLINSKI, ZIELINSKI

To: Patti Harris <pharris@san.rr.com> who wrote: 

I am trying to research the surnames "Tylinski" and "Zielinski" - I believe that my Tylinski Grandfather came from the Wielkopolska region - I believe from a town called "Kolo". I think the
spelling is reasonably true, as he came to the U.S. sometime after 1900. I am unable to find anything on the Tylinski name (except for a few references, but nothing of substance). I have just begun searching on"Zielinski", but I know even less about my grandmother's history.

Well, ZIELINSKI is spelled with an accent over the N and pronounced roughly "zheh-LEEN-skee." It's one of many Polish names that are so common and so widespread that there is no one derivation. As of 1990 there were 85,988 Polish citizens named Zielinski, living in large numbers all over Poland. There isn't one big Zielinski family that got the name one way, there are many families who all got the name independently in different ways; if you were in a big room full of Zielinskis, you would probably find this Zielinski family got their name one way, that one another, and that one yet another. The most we can say is that the basic root of the name is ziel-, which means "green," as seen in words such as ziolo, "herb" (a "green"), zielen, "the color green," and so on. So ZIELINSKI may have started in some cases as referring to the kin of a fellow who raised or sold herbs, or a fellow who always wore green, or some other perceived association between a person or family and something green.

In most cases, however, it probably started as a reference to the name of a place the person or family came from. There are many towns, villages, estates, etc. with names like Zielen or Zielin or
Zielina, all from the root meaning "green," and Zielinski could refer to any of them; it can just as easily mean "one from Zielen," "one from Zielin," "one from Zielina," etc. So there's no way to learn from the name itself anything about a given Zielinski family. Only successful genealogical research may uncover facts about which particular place the name refers to, if it refers to a place, or what the family's connection to "green" originally was, if it doesn't.

TYLINSKI is spelled with an accent over the N also, and is pronounced roughly "till-EEN-skee." Theoretically it can refer to a place name, something like Tyla or Tylin or Tylina or Tylno; but I can't find any places with names that fit. That doesn't necessarily mean much -- 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. Often surnames came from the names locals used for a particular field or hill or other feature of the land, names that would never show up on any but the most detailed maps, or in local guides. So it is quite plausible the name means "one from Tyla" or any of the other possibilities I mentioned.

But TYLINSKI literally means "of, from, connected with the _ of Tyl," so it might also mean "kin of Tyl." That is a name that can come from a number of different roots, including tyl, "rear, back,
behind," or tyle, "how much," or the German first name Thill, or even from a nickname from "Bartlomiej," the Polish form of "Bartholomew." So without detailed information on a specific family's background there's no way even to make a reasonable guess exactly which meaning is relevant. All I can do is list the possibilities, in hopes that one day your research will uncover some fact that will shed light on exactly how the name developed.

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 739 Polish citizens named Tylinski. The largest numbers lived in the following provinces: Warsaw 103, Leszno 111, Lodz 82, and Poznan 116. So there is no one area with which this name is particularly associated; a Tylinski could come from almost anywhere in Poland, especially western Poland. I'm afraid the place name Kolo isn't necessarily much help because there are at least 3 places by that name in Poland. The one you want is probably the one east of Konin and northwest of Lodz, since as of 1999 that is in the far eastern part of modern Wielkopolska province; but it's unwise to rule out the others until you're certain. In 1990 Kolo was in Konin province, and the Slownik nazwisk directory shows no Polish citizens named Tylinski living in Konin province.

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

SKIKIEWICZ

To: Paul <haverp@cbs.fiserv.com> who wrote: 

this is intriguing and it has me thinking if it's associated with something that the person is/was doing than I wonder what 'Skikiewicz' can mean(surely it can't be a skiing instructor) there was some mention that my g/grandfather had some dealings/trading in horses could that be part of it in a Slavic language

Polish surname expert Kazimierz Rymut mentions Skikiewicz in his book Nazwiska Polakow. Obviously it means "son of Skik," and he derives that name from the dialect noun skik, a variant
of standard Polish skok, which means "jump." The so-called Slownik warszawski adds that in addition to its use as a noun, skik is a dialect term used as an interjection meaning "hop! hush!" Neither source identifies what dialect this term is used in, but I suspect it would originate in the Kresy, the eastern regions of the Commonwealth, and especially in Ukraine. One reason I say
so is that the term skik is used in exactly this way in Ukrainian; and Ukrainian has a tendency to change O in most Slavic languages into I. Even without any information from Rymut or the dictionary, one could reasonably suggest Skik might be a Ukrainian form of Polish Skok.

So it appears safe to say SKIKIEWICZ means "son of Skik," and that name began as a sort of nickname, much as if you called a person "Hop" or "Jumpy" in English. It's impossible to say any
more than that without detailed research into the family's history. Considering that such names are typically several centuries old, it's questionable whether any records survive that will establish exactly how a fellow came to be called this. Perhaps the most we can do is propose reasonable and plausible suggestions based on the core meaning of the word.

You probably know this is a fairly rare name in modern Poland. As of 1990, according to the best data available (the Slownik nazwisk wspolczesnie w Polsce uzywanych, "Directory of Surnames in Current Use in Poland," which covers about 94% of the population of Poland), there were only 64 Polish citizens named Skikiewicz. The largest numbers lived in the following provinces: Gorzow 15, Lublin 11, and Wroclaw 16. The rest were scattered all over the country in tiny numbers. That distribution may seem inconsistent with Ukrainian derivation until you factor in the effects of the post-World War II forced relocation of millions from eastern Poland to the western territories recovered from Germany. These days we often see distinctively Ukrainian surnames concentrated in western Poland, far away from where we'd expect to see them. If we had data from before 1939, I suspect the name Skikiewicz would be found primarily in the east. However, I can't prove it.

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

BRUDZISZ, PIERZ

To: JBridge2@aol.com who wrote: 

I'm currently working with a Family Tree Maker to log my family tree. Some data I have obtained from other family research are the surnames PIERZ , GORSKI, both from Mosczcenica, Poland. Also any inofrmation on the surname Brudzisz, which is either Polish or Austrian? Thanks for your help. Brudzisz became Bridges around 1910 in USA with the birth of my granfather and the spelling that was reported by the midwife, so the story goes.

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 122 Polish citizens named BRUDZISZ. The largest numbers lived in the following provinces: Gorzow 19, Katowice 13, Krosno 17, Nowy Sacz 12, Tarnow 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. In Poland there are at least 9 places called Moszczenica -- which is almost certainly the correct spelling of the place name in question -- so I can't tell you which one your family came from. Many of them are in the south central and southeastern part of the country, which from roughly 1772 to 1918 was called Galicia and was ruled by the Austrian Empire. That explains how a name can be Polish and Austrian -- Poland was divided up by Germany, Russia, and Austria, and for a long time "Poland" ceased to exist as a nation, so people from there were officially classified as Germans, Russians, and Austrians by citizenship, but Polish by ethnicity.

The root of this name is seen in the noun brud, "dirt, filth," and the verb brudzic', "to dirty," so Brudzisz was probably a nickname for one who was usually pretty dirty, perhaps because of his work. The name is pronounced "BREW-jish," and if you say it out loud it's not hard to hear how it could be Americanized as "Bridges." We run into this all the time, as Polish names that sounded strange to Americans were modified to something a little less "foreign."

GORSKI is an extremely common Polish surname, borne by 41,790 Poles as of 1990. It comes from the noun góra, "hill, mountain," or from a place name derived from that noun such as Góra or Góry. It can be regarded as a kind of Polish equivalent to the English surname Hill, both in meaning and popularity.

PIERZ was the name of 602 Polish citizens as of 1990. The largest numbers lived in the following provinces: Warsaw 23, Czestochowa 101, Katowice 46, Koszalin 33, Krakow 31, Nowy Sacz 33, Tarnow 105, Wroclaw 92. So it's found all throughout southern Poland, especially the south central and southeastern parts of the country. It appears to derive from the noun pierze, meaning "feathers, plumage," and may have started as a nickname for one whose hair or clothes somehow reminded people of a bird's plumage. The name is pronounced roughly "p'yesh."

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

CZERWINSKI, PETKA

To: Pat Hammond <Patsie56@aol.com> who wrote: 

Hi,

I would appreciate any information you may have on the name PETKA (my fathers) or CZERWINSKI (my mothers).

With a lot of Polish names there is no one sure derivation. PETKA could come from several different roots. Perhaps the most likely is that it started as a kind of affectionate short form or nickname for Piotr or Pietr, Polish forms of the first name Peter; thus it may have originally
meant "son of Pete" or "kin of Pete." But it might also come from a variant of the term pestka, "stone in a fruit." Without more detailed information on the family's background, there is simply no way to say which is relevant.

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 564 Polish citizens named PETKA. The largest numbers lived in the following provinces: Gdansk 258, Katowice 42, and Rzeszow 55. So the name is found all over the country, but is particularly common in the area around Gdansk, on the Baltic in northcentral 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.

As for CZERWINSKI, I recently responded to another researcher asking about that name. I can add nothing to what I told him, so I have quoted that note below.

=====

To: Stephen J Czerwinski <Sswinski@aol.com> who wrote: 

 I am starting to research my family's roots. As I was searching different sites , I came upon yours. I noticed that my last name ,Czerwinski, was not on your list. I was wondering if you had gotten any new information on the origins and meaning of my last name. Any information would be greatly appriciated. 

CZERWINSKI in Polish is written with an accent over the N and is pronounced roughly "chair-VEEN-skee." Another spelling of the same basic name is Czerwienski. Both are thought to come either from the root seen in the noun czerw, "maggot, grub," or from the root seen in czerwien, "red." More directly, the surname probably refers to a family's connection with the name of a place where they once lived or worked, or -- if they were noble -- an estate they once owned; there are numerous mentions in the records of nobles named Czerwinski, so some Czerwinskis (though by no means all) descend from noble families. One source links this surname with a village called Czerwienne, today known as Miedzyczerwienne, near Nowy Targ in Nowy Sacz province. But that's only one of a number of places the surname might refer to, including places with the names Czerwieniec, Czerwiensk, Czerwin, Czerwinsk, etc.
Without more information on a specific family's history, there is no way to know which of these places the name refers to in a given instance. Those place names, in turn, would derive from either czerw, "maggot, grub," or from czerwien, "red."

So basically Czerwinski means "one from Czerwin (or any of the other places with similar names," and thus could be interpreted as "one from the place of grubs," "kin of the maggot" (in some cases Czerw appears to have been a nickname for a person who had something to do with the village's history), or "one from the red place," so called because of something reddish in the vicinity, such as soil, a mountain, etc.

Czerwinski is a pretty common name. As of 1990 there were 27,088 Polish citizens by this name, living in large numbers all over Poland. So a Czerwinski family could have come from anywhere in Poland; and it's a good bet there are a number of distinct families that came to bear this name independently, rather than one great big Czerwinski family.

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

DRAPINSKI, DROPINSKI

To: MAM5400@aol.com who wrote:

Could you please tell me what you know on the name Drapinski or Dropinski.

DRAPINSKI is probably from the root drap- seen in the verb drapac', "to scrape." As of 1990 there were 576 Polish citizens by this name, living all over Poland, with no significant concentration in any one area. DROPINSKI is probably from the noun drop, "bustard" (a kind of bird), or the archaic noun dropa, "scratch, mark." As of 1990 there were 350 Polish citizens named Dropinski, living all over Poland with some concentration in the western part of the country.

In either case a connection with the name of a place beginning Drap- or Drop- is quite possible. 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.

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

SZYGENDA

To: MsR76@aol.com who wrote:

do you have the meaning of the surname "Szygenda"? or is there one? thank you.

I'm sorry, none of my sources have anything on the origin of this name. All I can tell you is that 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 501 Polish citizens named SZYGENDA, with the largest number by far, 232, living in the province of Konin. There were also larger numbers in the provinces of Koszalin, 51, and Poznan, 55. So the name is found mainly in western Poland,
especially the area just west of the center of the country. But I'm afraid that's all I can tell you.

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

I'd be very interested in hearing what they have to tell you, because this one has me baffled. I can't find anything that sheds any light on it at all.

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

PIETROWIAK, NIEDZIELA

To: Shirley Pietrowiak <Ejp sjp@aol.com> who wrote: 

My husband was told by his family that Pietrowiak means "House of Peter" but I'm not sure how correct it is. Could you be so kind as to tell me the true meaning of this surname and how it differs from Pietrowski or Piotrowski surnames I've seen in the Polish military books?

Polish has a great variety of suffixes it adds to the roots of names in order to express different relationships; some of them don't really mean anything very specific, they just refer to a general connection. The -ski names you mention all refer to some kind of connection with a man named Piotr (Peter), which can also appear as Pietr and in various other forms. Pietrowski and Piotrowski both mean more or less "of, from the place of Peter," referring to a family's connection with any of a number of places with names like Pietrow or Piotrow or Pietrowo or Piotrowo, etc. PIETROWIAK (pronounced roughly "p'yet-ROVE-yock") is a little more general; it could mean "one from Peter's place," but it could also just mean "kin of Peter." The suffix -iak is all-purpose; it can mean "kin of" or "little" or just vaguely "one connected with." The Pietrow- consists of the name Pietr plus a general possessive suffix -ow, and thus means little more than "of Peter." So "kin of Peter" or "son of Peter's kin" is about as accurate as you can get. Your husband's family's rendering of "House of Peter" is really not bad; let's say it could be interpreted that way, but could also be rendered a little less specifically.

The name is not as common as I would have expected. 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 278 Polish citizens named Pietrowiak. I would have expected more; compare 2,031 Pietrowski's, 851 Piotrowiak's (which for all intents and purposes means the same thing as Pietrowiak), and 57,934 Piotrowski's. 

The largest numbers of those Pietrowiaks lived in the following provinces: Kalisz 37, Leszno 70, and Poznan 62. So while the name is found all over Poland, it is most common in an area just a little west of the center of 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.

My mother-in-law's maiden name is Niedziela. Could you please explain its origin and meaning?

NIEDZIELA ("nye-JELL-ah") means literally "not do," and is the standard Polish word for "Sunday," because that is the day when Christians were not supposed to work. I suppose the name could be applied to a person in the sense of "do-nothing, lazy," but most of the time it probably was a reference to the day of the week -- perhaps the person to whom the name was first applied was born on a Sunday, or had some special work or duty he performed on Sunday. Names like these derived from nicknames originated centuries ago, and in most cases we can't determine the exact reason for which they were originally given. About all we can do is note associations and make plausible suggestions. In this case a Niedziela was probably one for whom the nickname "Sunday" somehow seemed appropriate.

It's a moderately common name. As of 1990 there were 6,543 Polish citizens named Niedziela, living all over Poland. About all one can say about the distribution is that the name is more common in southern Poland than in the north.

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

STRYSZYK, SWIATKOWSKI

To: Colleen_Earls@gstworld.net wrote:

I found your homepage and thank you so much for posting all that information! I am researching two Polish names that did not appear on your list and am wondering if you have seen them before: Swiatkowski (known variants: Swiontkowski, Swontkowski, Swietkowski)
--
immigrated to the US from Monkowarsk, Kriese Bromberg, Posen Stryszyk -- immigrated to the US from Grossluto, Prussia (I've not yet found  where this was exactly) Do you have any history on these names at all?

The first name is generally spelled S~wia~tkowski in Polish; I'm using S~ to stand for the S with an accent over it, and A~ to stand for the Polish nasal vowel written as an A with a tail under it, pronounced much like "own". The nasal vowel A~ sounds like "on" and thus is often
written that way, so S~wia~tkowski is also often spelled phonetically as S~wiontkowski. Both versions are pronounced the same, something like "shvyont-KOFF-skee." 

There is another nasal vowel written as an E with a tail under it, and I use E~ to stand for it; it is pronounced more or less like "en," but we often see names with one nasal vowel have variants with the other. So S~wia~tkowski is the standard form, with S~wiontkowski a variant
spelling. We also see the form S~wie~tkowski, which sounds more like "shvyent-KOFF-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 5,793 Poles who spelled the name S~wia~tkowski, as opposed to only 48 who spelled it S~wiontkowski. These names are scattered all over Poland, with no useful or significant concentration in any one area. The form S~wie~tkowski was borne by 163, with the largest single number, 52, living in the northeastern province of Bialystok, and the rest scattered all over.

All these names refer to a family's connection with a place named something like S~wia~tki or S~wia~tkowo; so the name just means "one from S~wia~tki" (or S~wia~tkowo or whatever). There are quite a few places with names that qualify, so without more detailed info on a
specific family's background, there's no way to know which one the surname refers to in a given case. I will say this, however; there is a S~wia~tkowo southwest of Bydgoszcz (which the Germans called Bromberg) and more or less south of Ma~kowarsk, which is surely the Monkowarsk you mention. I can't say for sure this is the place the name refers to in your family's case. But it seems plausible, because it's the closest candidate and it seems to match up fairly well.

Names beginning with S~wia~tk- come ultimately from the root swie~ty, "holy, sacred," which in archaic Polish meant "mighty." In most cases the place names either mean something like "sanctuary, holy place," or else "place of S~wia~tek or S~wia~tko," referring to men who bore names derived from that root. Thus S~wia~tkowski can be interpreted either as "of the holy place" or "of the place of S~wia~tek or S~wia~tko." But usually the meaning, for all practical purposes, is "one from S~wia~tki" or "one from S~wia~tkowo."

STRYSZYK was the name of 192 Polish citizens as of 1990, of whom the majority, 146, lived in Bydgoszcz province. So it sounds as if this family came from the main settlement of people by this name in Poland, and perhaps there are a number of relatives still living there. Unfortunately I have no access to further details such as first names or addresses, so I can't offer you any further help in that regard.

This name, pronounced roughly "STRISH-ick," appears to come from the noun strych, "attic, loft," also used to mean "beggar, pauper." The -yk ending is a diminutive, so the name may mean "little attic, loft," or perhaps "son of the beggar." It could refer to a person who lived in
a small loft or attic, perhaps one too poor to live anywhere else. But people can be quite imaginative when it comes to giving nicknames that might later become surnames, so all we can do is suggest reasonable interpretations. Typically these names developed centuries ago, and frequently records survive that let us determine the exact meaning; so as I say, all we can do is suggest interpretations that make sense.

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DYCZKOWSKI, WLODYGA

To: JRicha8408@aol.com who wrote:

My cousin and I have been tracing our Polish roots but we've run into a brick wall getting back beyond my maternal grandparents who emigrated to Canada in the early 1900's. They, or at least he, was born in Kety, Biala, Poland which is a short drive from Krakow.

Can you help us with the origin of those names?

Unfortunately, Polish surnames seldom offer any real help with tracing a family's roots, because the vast majority of them are too common, rare, widespread, ambiguous, etc. I doubt anything I can tell you will be that much assistance, but I'll be glad to tell you what little I can.

DYCZKOWSKI, pronounced roughly "ditch-KOFF-skee," just means "one from Dyczki or Dyczkow or Dyczkowo" or some similar place name. This might refer to Dyczkow, now Dychkiv, near Ternopil in Ukraine; or it could refer to Dziczki, now Dychky, near Rohatyn, Ukraine; or it might refer to some other place not mentioned in my sources. Both the places I mentioned are in Ukraine now but before 1918 were in the crownland of Galicia, a subdivision of the Austrian Empire, seized from the Commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania during the partitions in the late 18th century. This area, which includes what are now southeastern Poland and western Ukraine, is where most Polish and Ukrainian emigrants came from who immigrated to Canada. 

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 753 Polish citizens named Dyczkowski, living all over the country, with no significant concentration in any one region. Of course that may be a moot point, since your Dyczkowskis may well have come from what is now Ukraine, and I have no data for that country. 

ORLICKI ("oar-LEET-skee") breaks down as meaning "of the sons of the eagle," from Orlicz, "son of the eagle," from orzel, "eagle." It probably refers to a family's connection with any of a number of places with names like Orlica or Orlice or Orlik, in Poland or Ukraine; but it might also have been used to refer to the kin of one nicknamed "the Eagle." As of 1990 there were 1,085 Polish citizens by that name; the largest single number, 226, lived in the province of Bielsko-Biala, a fact that may be relevant to your research. The rest were scattered all over Poland. I have no access to further details such as first names or addresses, so that's all I can tell you on that one.

WLODYGA is spelled in Polish with a slash through the L, which I represent on-line as L~; so the name is pronounced roughly "v'woe-DIG-ah." It appears to come from a variant form of the noun wl~odyka, a term or title for one in authority, with such meanings as "headman" and "bishop of the Greek rite." This form is Polish, in Ukrainian it would be more like vladyka, so it seems likely this family came from Poland; they might have been Greek Catholic rather than Roman Catholic, but there's not enough evidence to say this with any certainty. As of 1990 there were 184 Polish citizens named Wl~odyga, with the largest numbers in the provinces of Warsaw (51), Bielsko-Biala (26), and Katowice (43). As I said before, I can't help you get names or addresses for them.

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DOMARECKI, MODLISZEWSKI

To: RGibreal@aol.com who wrote: 

I am looking for the meaning or origin of these two Polish surnames, Modliszewski and Domarecka. Thank you for any help that you can give. 

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 216 Polish citizens named MODLISZEWSKI. They lived scattered in small numbers all over Poland, so there is no one area we can point to and say "That's where Modliszewskis came from."

The name refers to the name of a place with which the family was associated at some point, but unfortunately there are several different names and places the name might refer to, places with names like Modliszewo, Modliszewice, Modliszow, Modliszewko, etc. The last two are near Gniezno, in former Poznan province, whereas Modliszewo is near Kielce and Modliszewice is near Walbrzych. Thus without detailed research into a given family's background, there is no way to which place the name refers to in that instance; Modliszewski could refer to any of them.

DOMARECKA is the feminine form of DOMARECKI; that is, a male would be called Domarecki, a female Domarecka. This is a variant of a name that is spelled several ways, because as names were developing the vowels A and E were sometimes used interchangeably, depending on slight regional variations in pronunciation. Here is what I wrote another researcher <jonguede@jps.net> who asked about another form of the name, DOMERACKI. The info is equally applicable to Domarecki.

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The probable origin of this name is from an old Slavic pagan first name, Domarad, literally "glad at home." The ancient Poles and other Slavs gave their children names that were meant to be good omens, so giving a child a name like that was to express hope he would have a happy home. There are several villages in Poland with names that come from this name, probably because someone named Domarad founded them or owned them at some point; they include a village called Domarady in Olsztyn province, and villages called Domaradz in Krosno, Opole, and Slupsk provinces. There may be others that don't show up on my maps, but this shows there are at least four different places this surname could come from.

There are several reasonably common surnames formed either directly from the name Domarad, or else from places such as those I just mentioned, which in turn got their name from Domarad.  

As of 1990 there were 1,129 Polish citizens named DOMERACKI, with the largest numbers in the provinces of Bydgoszcz (302), Olsztyn (117), and Torun (139), and smaller numbers scattered all over the country. There were another 755 who spelled it DOMERADZKI, which would be pronounced exactly the same, roughly as "dome-air-OTT-skee," and for all practical purposes they could be considered the same name; the Domeradzki's were most common in the provinces of Warsaw 107, Plock 91, Radom 98, and Wloclawek 74. However, neither name is associated with any one area to such a degree that we can say "Here's where the name came from" ... Besides Domeracki and Domeradzki we also have the "standard" or most common form DOMARADZKI (there were 3,409 Poles by that name as of 1990), as well as DOMARACKI (317) and DOMARECKI (603). All of these are just variants of the same basic name with slight differences due to regional pronunciations, errors, etc. The data strongly suggests there isn't just one big family that shares this name, but rather the name got started independently in different places at different times.

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I'm sorry none of this provides helpful clues as to precisely where either name originated in your family's cases. But from my experience that's true of about 95% of Polish surnames. Only occasionally do I run into one that has some aspect of its form or frequency or geographic distribution that provides a really solid clue as to just where a given family by that name came from. Usually the only way to get a good fix on where and how a name developed is by way of successful genealogical research, which can uncover info that sheds light on the historical, geographical, social, and linguistic context in which a specific name came to be associated with a specific family.