To: swampp@email.msn.com who wrote: 

Appreciate any information you can give me on the origin and meaning of my surname. All I know is that my grandfather Joseph Ferfecki came to the U.S from Poland in the early 1900's and settled in Chicago.

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 776 Polish citizens named FERFECKI (pronounced roughly "fair-FETT-skee"). The largest numbers lived in the following provinces: Bielsko-Biala 384, Katowice 107, and Rzeszow 98. Unfortunately I don't have access to further details such as first names or addresses, what I've given here is all I have. But this data allows us to say the name is most common in southern Poland, and especially southcentral Poland.

A scholar who did a book on names in that area mentions FERFECKI and says it's not certain what the name derives from, but it probably comes from the German name Ferfert. This may sound odd, but there are and have been large numbers of Germans living in Poland, and it's not at all rare to find Polonized names that started out as German. So the best educated guess scholars have made is that this name means "kin of Ferfert" or "one from Ferfert's place." 

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ORYNIAK, SUSZKO

To: Cathy Norton <dcnorton@capital.net> who wrote: 

I found your list of meanings of Polish names and didn't find these two [SUSZKO and ORYNIAK] on it. Would you know what they mean? Many thanks in advance.

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 82 Polish citizens named ORYNIAK. The largest numbers lived in the provinces of Warsaw (15) and Radom (45), with the rest scattered in small numbers all over Poland. Unfortunately I don't have access to further details such as first names or addresses, what I've given here is all I have.

The most likely derivation of Oryniak (pronounced roughly "oh-RINN-yock") is from the Ukrainian feminine first name Oryna, a Ukrainian version of "Irene." The -iak suffix is one that usually shows a general connection with the first part of the name, so that Oryniak probably meant "son of Irene" or "kin of Irene." Surnames derived from women's names are somewhat rare in Polish, but more common among Eastern Slavs (i. e., Ukrainians, Belarusians, and Russians). So this name has a kind of eastern flavor to it -- we'd expect it to have originated more often among Ukrainians, say, then Poles. This is not at all unusual; we see a lot of mixing in names between Poles and Ukrainians, and the history of these countries makes it clear that this is to be expected.

As of 1990 there were 1,024 Poles named SUSZKO. The largest numbers lived in the province of Bialystok (167), with the rest scattered in smaller numbers all over Poland. For comparison, there were 3,134 with the similar name SUSZEK, and 801 named SUSZKA. None of these names is concentrated in any one area to the point we can say "People by that name came from here"; families by these names could come from anywhere in Poland.

The basic root here is such-, "dry"; the noun susz means "dried fruit or vegetables," and a suszka is, among other things, a tree that has dried up after pruning. The suffixes -ek and -ka and -ko are diminutives, so that the name might mean something like "little dry one," referring perhaps to a person who was thin and leathery or his kin. Or it might refer to that noun suszka and began as a nickname for one who dried fruits and vegetables, or liked to eat them -- some connection of that sort. Without detailed info on the family's background it's impossible to be more specific on the exact meaning of a name that developed centuries ago, but it's pretty clear it referred to some perceived association between a person or family and something dried out.

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MIROWSKI

To: NSyncNA5@aol.com who wrote:

could u tell me what the surname MIROWSKI MEANS

It really just means at some point the family was connected with any of a number of villages named Mirów, Mirowo, Mirowice, etc. There are a number of different places the surname could refer to, so this Mirowski might come from one, that Mirowski from another. 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 3,946 Polish citizens named Mirowski, living all over the country, with no particular concentration in any one area.

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HORODYNSKI, HORODENSKI, GWOZDEK

To: joshua@camdenfarms.com who wrote: 

aloha, wondering if you could help me discern the root of a friends last name? She is in the process of changing her name from the Ellis Islandized Horski to the original Polish Horodynski. A relative of her's mentioned over the holidays that the name was hyphenated after the n. Assuming, after perusing the your surname listings, the origins lie in the area her relatives were from I was hoping you could shed some insight on the meaning/locale of Horod(?). If you could also find the roots of my grandmothers maiden name, Gwozdek, it would be much appreciated.

The relative got it a little wrong. In Polish this name would be spelled with an accent over the N; since I can't reproduce that letter without a certain amount of aggravation, I just use N~ to stand for it, thus spelling this name HORODYN~SKI. The name is pronounced roughly "ho-row-DINN-skee." It's actually a Polish spelling of a Ukrainian name, which would be written in Cyrillic -- but if you write it out phonetically, Horodynski is a pretty close match.

It comes ultimately from Ukrainian horod, "town, city," but most likely refers to the name of a specific town or village the family came from at some point. There are a number of places with names that could yield this surname, places with names like Horodno and Horodenka. Without detailed research into the family's background, there's no way to know which one the surname refers to in their particular case. But they would be located in eastern Poland or in Ukraine, because of the form of the name. In Polish it would be Grodynski or Grodzinski because Ukrainian horod matches up with Polish gród (the Polish word, however, does not mean "city, town," but refers to the ancient military fortifications around which medieval towns first sprang up); the same root appears in Russian gorod, "city," and in seen in place names such as "Leningrad" and "Stalingrad." It's related to the same Indo-European root that shows up in English "yard" and "garden," referring to an area enclosed and tended or secured.

Thus if the name were Polish in origin it would be more like Grodzinski or Grodynski. The fact that it begins Horod- proves it must be Ukrainian. This isn't odd; Poles and Ukrainians have interacted extensively over the centuries, so that you see lots of distinctively Polish names in Ukraine and distinctively Ukrainian names in Poland. Poland ruled Ukraine for a long time, and many people of Ukrainian ethnic descent were identified by others, and even identified
themselves, as Polish citizens. Thus "Polish" can be a misleading term; you often find that Polish names are not of Polish linguistic origin.

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 370 Polish citizens named HORODYN~SKI. They were scattered all over Poland, with no really significant concentration in any one area of the country. There were also 281 Poles named HORODEN~SKI, which is a very similar name meaning much the same thing; Horodyn~ski and Horoden~ski came be regarded as variants of the same name, except Horoden~ski is found mainly in the area of Bialystok (214) in northeastern Poland. That's because in that region there is a dialect tendency to change a Y
sound into an E, so they'd pronounce "Horodyn~ski" as "Horoden~ski," and eventually the spelling would reflect that fact.

As of 1990 there were 117 Polish citizens named GWOZDEK (pronounced roughly "g'voz-deck"); the largest numbers lived in the provinces of Katowice, 65, and Opole, 23; so the name is most common in southcentral and southwestern Poland, roughly in the region known as 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.

This name can derive from two different roots: gwozd, an archaic word meaning "forest, woods," or from gwozdz (accents over the o and both z's), meaning "nail." The suffix -ek is diminutive, so the name Gwozdek can mean either "little forest" or "little nail." It presumably began as a nickname, possibly for one who lived in or near a small forest, or for one who reminded people of a little nail, or for the son of one who made or sold or used nails. These surnames developed centuries ago, and we often cannot say with any precision exactly what the original meaning was; the best we can do is note what they appear to mean and make
plausible suggestions on why that name came to be associated with this family.

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OLCHOWY, OLCHAWA, LIERMANN, STOIBER

To: Mary Barton <ambart@alaska.net> who wrote: 

I am interested in these Polish/German surnames. Liermann (Prussia area) Olchowa (Kracow area) Stoiber (southern Poland area)

OLCHOWA is the feminine form of OLCHOWY, which comes from an adjective meaning "of the alder tree." Presumably someone by this name lived near a grove of alders, or worked with or sold alder wood -- some sort of connection like 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 359 Polish citizens named OLCHOWY or OLCHOWA. They lived all over Poland, with more living in southern Poland than in the north; 7 people by that name lived in the province of Krakow. Unfortunately I don't have access to further details such as first names or addresses, what I've given here is all I have.

There is also a similar name OLCHAWA, meaning much the same thing, except it might also refer to a place named Olchawa, which in turn was surely named for some connection with alders. Olchawa is a somewhat more common name; it was borne by 912 Poles as of 1990, with the largest numbers in the provinces of Katowice (114), Krakow (70), Nowy Sacz (207), and Tarnow (183). I mention this because A and O can easily be misread for each other, and they also are known to switch in names sometimes because of regional pronunciation tendencies. Thus it is entirely possible at some point you'll find the name in question is Olchawa instead of Olchowa, and this info may be relevant.

As of 1990 there were 4 Polish citizens named LIERMANN, living in the provinces of Gdansk (1) and Kalisz (3). There was no one named STOIBER. After World War II millions of ethnic Germans fled Poland for East Germany, so German names are much rarer now than they used to be.

In Hans Bahlow's Deutsches Namenlexikon it says STOIBER is a variant of STEUBER, from a verb meaning "to scatter, stir up dust, run away." In standard Hochdeutsch STEUBER is pronounced "shtoy-ber," so among Poles it could easily be spelled phonetically as Stoiber or Stojber or Sztojber. Bahlow says LIERMANN comes from Liermann, Low German for a
term meaning "organ grinder, street player." LIERMANN is a German spelling, unaffected by Polish phonetics and orthography.

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DULKA

To: A. W. Dulka <Witrubrit@aol.com> who wrote: 

I saw your notice on the internet and wondered if you could help me with any information as to the origins of my husbands surname, Dulka, as he is now deceased and my young son appears to be the only male left in this area to carry this name it would be really nice to be able to tell him the background of his name, Thank you. A. W. Dulka.

As of 1990, according to the best data available (the Slownik nazwisk wspolczesnie w Polsce uzywanych, "Directory of Surnames in Current Use in Poland," which covers about 94% of the population of Poland), there were 245 Polish citizens named DULKA. The largest numbers lived in the following provinces: Bydgoszcz 34, Gdansk 26, Katowice 22, and Torun 116. So the name is most common in the area just north and northwest 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.

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 far back as 1414 and comes from the root dul-, "swelling, thickening." While it's hard to be sure with names that began so long ago, it seems likely this began as a nickname for one who had a conspicuous swelling on his body -- perhaps a swollen nose or a large bump or something like that. The suffix -ka is diminutive, so that the name means literally "little swelling."

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PANASEWICZ

To: Malcolm, malcolm@mapcargo.com, who wrote:

... Would appreciate if you could advise on the name: Panasewicz (Last), Marek (First)

Well, Marek is simply the Polish form of the first name "Mark." As for Panasewicz, the -ewicz ending means "son of," so the surname means "son of Panas." That name is a little harder to interpret, because it could come from a couple of different roots, and without detailed information on a given family it's impossible to say which one the name actually came from. It could come from the noun pan, "lord, mister, gentleman," in which case the surname could conceivably have meant something like "son of the lord, son of the gentleman."

But if the family originally came from the eastern part of Poland or from Belarus or Ukraine, the more likely source is from the first name Panas, a short form of Opanas or Apanas, which is in turn an Eastern Slavic version of the first name seen in Polish as Atanazy and in Latin as Athanasius, from a Greek word meaning "immortality." This name never caught on in western Europe, but is not so rare among followers of the Orthodox church, and that includes Belarusians and Ukrainians. So "son of Panas" is a perfectly plausible and even probably derivation, if the family has any connection with eastern Poland, Belarus, or Ukraine.

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 611 Polish citizens named Panasewicz (pronounced roughly "pah-nah-SAVE-itch"). The largest numbers lived in the provinces of Bialystok (254) and Suwalki (87), both in northeastern Poland, near the border with Belarus; the rest lived scattered all over the country. If we had data from several centuries ago, it's likely most of the Panasewiczes would be found living in the eastern part of the old Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. But in the centuries since the name was established, it has spread all over Poland.

There is also a variant of this name, Panasiewicz (pronounced roughly "pah-nah-SHAVE-itch"), borne by 702 Poles as of 1990; and it, too, is found in the largest numbers in provinces on the eastern border, e. g., Biala Podlaska 47, Lublin 42, Suwalki 120, Zamosc 188.

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

SZYJANOWSKI

To: Oleg Shyyanovskyy <olegshyy@netzero.net> who wrote: 

I'd like to get some information about name - "SHIYANOVSKIY" (it's English spelling). What's name origins and meanings.

In Polish this name would be spelled SZYJANOWSKI. 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 Polish citizens named Szyjanowski, all living in the province of Szczecin, in far northwestern Poland near the German border. Unfortunately I don't have access to further details such as first names or addresses, so I cannot tell you how to contact them.

Names ending in -owski usually refer to the name of a place with which the family was connected. We would expect Szyjanowski to mean "one from Szyjan, Szyjany, Szyjanow, Szyjanowo," and so forth -- any of these names could produce this surname. 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. Without more information, I cannot say exactly what the surname comes from; but it probably does refer to the name of a place where the family once lived, a place with a name beginning Szyjan- (Polish spelling; in English it would be Shiyan-).

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CHAZEN, CHAZON

To: MICHIE105@aol.com who wrote: 

Can you please check out the name "Chazen"

According to Alexander Beider's Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from the Kingdom of Poland, CHAZEN is a variant of CHAZON, which comes from a Hebrew word meaning "cantor in a synagogue." Beider says in the last century this name was found among Jews living in the districts of Plock, Sierpc, Konskie, Gostynin, and Warsaw.

As of 1990 there was no listing of anyone named Chazen or Chazon in Poland. If we had data from before the Holocaust I'm sure this name would show up, but names that were fairly common in Poland before 1939 now either don't appear or appear in very tiny numbers. In any case, the only data I have access to is from 1990.

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DRAB, ZJAWIN, ZUKOWSKI

To: dorothyv@home.com who wrote: 

I recently discovered your work on the internet and wonder if you can shed any light on the following names:Zjawin, Drab, and Zukowski. I am assuming the last is Polish and understand that Zuk translates into beetle, however, I am not even certain if Zjawin or Drab are Polish names. I have never found any reference at all for Zjawin and have found Drab once on a list of Slovak names. ANY information you might have would be so much appreciated.

As of 1990, according to the best data available (the Slownik nazwisk wspolczesnie w Polsce uzywanych, "Directory of Surnames in Current Use in Poland," which covers about 94% of the population of Poland), there were 3,360 Polish citizens named DRAB. Polish name expert Prof. Kazimierz Rymut mentions this name in his book Nazwiska Polakow [The Surnames of Poles], saying that it comes from the noun drab, which means "mercenary" or "uncouth fellow," and is also a term for a kind of ladder; as a surname, however, it probably refers to the "mercenary" or "uncouth fellow" meanings. The name is pronounced more or less like the English word "drop."

Similarly, Z*UKOWSKI (Z* stands for the Polish Z with a dot over it, and the name is pronounced roughly "zhoo-KOFF-skee") is another surname referring to place names such as Z*uki and Z*uków and Z*ukowo. So the name means basically "one from the place of the z*uk." That noun can mean "dung beetle" and also "black ox." As of 1990 there were 14,508
Poles named Z*ukowski, and this name, too, is fairly common and widespread, because there are a lot of villages named Z*uki, Z*uków, etc.

ZJAWIN ("Z'YAH-veen") is rarer; as of 1990 there were only 358 Poles by that name. The largest numbers lived in the following provinces: Jelenia Gora 63, Legnica 42, Wroclaw 48, Zielona Gora 108; so this name is most common in the southwestern corner of 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. Prof. Rymut mentions Zjawin in his book, saying it comes from the root seen in the verb zjawic', "to appear," and the noun zjawa, "apparition." Zjawin would mean literally "one of the apparition." Perhaps it began as a nickname for one who was thought to have seen apparitions, or one who people thought looked like an apparition.

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SZEWC

To: Janet Lucia, 8thday@compuserve.com, who wrote:

... I am doing a family search on the surname Szewc. The family came from Krakow, Poland around 1938. If you have any information could you please inform us or point us to a direction which we could search.

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 3,330 Polish citizens named Szewc. The name was found all over the country, although it is more common in southern Poland than in the north, especially in the province of Tarnobrzeg, with 892 Szewc's. There were 88 living in the province of Krakow. Unfortunately I don't have access to further details such as first names or addresses, what I've given here is all I have.

The origin of some Polish surnames is difficult to establish, but this one is simple. It comes from the noun szewc, "shoemaker." So it's one of the many surnames that began as a reference to a man's occupation, and came to be applied to his family, and thus became a hereditary surname -- much like the English name Shoemaker. By the way, this name is pronounced roughly "shefts."

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POREDA

To: PeggyK, marge54@mediaone.net, who wrote:

... Any info you can share on the surname Poreda would be greatly appreciated.

As of 1990, according to the best data available (the Slownik nazwisk wspolczesnie w Polsce uzywanych, "Directory of Surnames in Current Use in Poland," which covers about 94% of the population of Poland), there were 779 Polish citizens named Poreda. The largest numbers lived in the following provinces: Warsaw 99, Lomza 159, Lodz 65, Siedlce 50, and Suwalki 122. Unfortunately I don't have access to further details such as first names or addresses, what I've given here is all I have. This data suggests the name is most common in the area north and east of the center of the country, but that's about the most we can say.

Polish name expert Prof. Kazimierz Rymut mentions this name in his book Nazwiska Polakow [The Surnames of Poles]. He believes it is a dialect variation of Porada, which comes from the noun porada, "advice." He adds, however, that this would be found mainly in Pomerania; it is a trait of northern dialects to turn standard Polish A into E, but I'm not sure that applies to this name when it is found in northeastern Poland. It's a little odd that a Pomeranian name variant would show up primarily in Lomza and Suwalki provinces! Still, it's possible; and none of my sources suggest any other derivation. So for now I would say it probably started as a nickname for one who gave good advice, is found primarily in northeastern Poland.

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MAJEWSKI

To: Carmen Majewski, majecr23@uwgb.edu, who wrote:

... I am a college student at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. For one of my classes, Intro to Global Studies, I was told to find a project to work on for the entire semester. The project I chose was of my genealogy. I found your web page quite useful, however, I did not find the meaning of my surname. My last name is Majewski, which was very similar to Maciejewski. I was wondering if they had anything in common as faw as ancestory and meaning go, like perhaps my family dropped the "Cie" to make it shorter??? 

Well, with Polish names we never say never, because Polish names were often mangled badly during and after immigration, especially when the immigrants tried to adapt to life in this country and found that Americans had trouble with their names. So it would be irresponsible to say Majewski can't be from another name such as Maciejewski. In fact, it's usually impossible to say anything very definitive about most names without detailed research into the family's history. 

But it's unlikely this name has been changed. Majewski, pronounced roughly "mah-YEFF-skee," is a very common name in Poland; and if a Polish name like Maciejewski ("mah-chay-EFF-skee") were going to be Americanized, it would surely be changed to something more "American-sounding" than Majewski. So it's highly likely Majewski is the correct and original form of the name.

Names ending in -ewski usually derive from the name of a place with which the family was associated at some point; if they were noble, they owned estates there, and if they were peasants, they lived and worked there. A name like Majewski would refer to places with names beginning Maj-, and especially Majew or Majewo. Unfortunately, there are several places in Poland called Majewo, including ones in the pre-1999 provinces of Bialystok, Elblag, and Gdansk. So again, without detailed info on a specific family's history, there's no way to tell which place they came from. But it is probable the name simply means "one from Majewo." 

That name comes from the noun maj, the Polish word for "May." Majewski means literally "of, from the _ of May," where the blank is usually filled in with something so obvious it didn't need to be spelled out -- usually "family" or "place." It's known that the name Maj has been borne by Poles, usually referring to some connection between a person and that month; a person by that name might have been born in May, or might have some special duty or job he did every May. About all we can say is that there would be some perceived association with the month of May. So the name might mean "kin of May." But in most cases it would be correctly interpreted as "one from the place of May" = "one from Majewo."

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 46,379 Polish citizens named Majewski. They lived all over the country, and there is no one part of the country with which the name is associated. So a family named Majewski could come from anywhere in Poland.

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KOMANSKI

To: K. Dorothy Komaski Wood, doow12414@webtv.net, who wrote:

... Martin Komanski was my Grandfather. I think he lived in Lodz,Poland. My father was Frank Komanski, Born 1895-in Poland, Died 1931 in Stamford,CT, USA. My mother was Ksenia Mageira Komanski, Born 1895 in the Ukraine, Died 1966 in Stamford,CT, USA. My name is K. Dorothy Komanski Wood & you can post this were ever you wish to,if you think it will help with our search.

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 191 Polish citizens named Komanski. The largest numbers lived in the following provinces: Warsaw 25, Czestochowa 23, Krosno 40, and Tarnobrzeg 27, with smaller numbers scattered all over Poland. Unfortunately I don't have access to further details such as first names or addresses, what I've given here is all I have.

None of my sources discuss this name, so I can't say with any certainty what it comes from. Most likely, however, is that it refers to the name of a place where the family once lived. Thus, for instance, there is a mountain Koman in the Carpathians, and there is a village Komanino in Sierpc district. The surname might refer to these places, or some others that are too small to show up in my sources. The thing is, Polish (and Ukrainian) surnames developed centuries ago, and often came from the name of a field or hill or little settlement, names used only by locals, that would be unlikely to appear on any map or in any gazetteer. So the place this name refers to may be quite obscure, or may even have disappeared or renamed or absorbed into another community centuries ago.

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

DAWIEC

To: NicksDcvr@aol.com

... surname Dawiec

As of 1990 there were 739 Polish citizens named Dawiec. The largest number, 243, lived in the province of Nowy Sacz, with the rest scattered in much smaller numbers all over Poland. None of my sources discuss the origin of the name, so I can't say much on that. It appears to come from the verb dawac', "to give," and thus might mean "giver, one who gives." But that's just a guess.

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

PATRYLO

To: Crs101169@aol.com, who wrote:

... My maternal grandmother's maiden name was Tessie Patryolo. I've seen it spelled Patrylo, also, which I believe is a misspelling. Do you have any information on the name? Thank you for your assistance. 

Actually Patrylo is more likely to be right. We rarely see native Polish or Belarusian or Ukrainian names with the ending -yolo -- that would seem more likely to be of Italian origin -- whereas -ylo is not unusual. So the name probably is Patrylo, or rather Patryl~o. I'm using L~ to stand for the Polish L with a slash through it, pronounced like our W; the Polish pronunciation of this name would be "pot-RI-woe," where the middle syllable has a short i sound as in "ship." 

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 59 Polish citizens named Patryl~o (and none named Patryolo). They were scattered all over, mainly in the southern part 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.

None of my sources discuss the origin of this name, and it's kind of hard to say what it comes from. I can find no native Polish or Ukrainian roots that seem relevant, although it's possible it comes from the root seen in the Polish verb patrzyc', "to look at." If so, the name would mean "one always looking on, one always watching or looking." This is possible, but it's not really convincing.

Maybe a little more likely is derivation from a first name, and if that's so, the name could be a variation of Piotr, "Peter," or just maybe "Patrick." That last name, however, has never caught on among Slavs, so it would be very surprising if Patryl~o meant "kin of Patrick" -- it's not impossible, I suppose, but it's very far-fetched. "Kin of Peter" is a little easier to swallow. We see the name Peter show up in many different forms among Poles and Ukrainians, including Petr, Pietr, Piotr, Petro, etc. And Belarusians sometimes use it in the form Pyatr. So it's not too outrageous to suggest this surname means "kin of Peter" and originated somewhere east of Warsaw, most likely in Belarus or Ukraine.

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

SADLOWSKI

To: Christian Sadlowski, Polydeukes@aol.com, who wrote:

... Hi I have been looking through your website and I was wondering if you could help me. Through your web site I learned that a name ending in -owski usually means the name was taken from a city. Then I remembered that my grandfather told me that our last name was taken after a city. Since I can not ask him any more I thought maybe you can help. I went to a Polish map to look but I found nothing. Maybe you can at least tell me where to find maps to look at. Right now all I know is that my grandfather was the first one in his family born in America around 1923. I guess I would need a map from the teens to the 20's if it even exists. Our Surname is Sadlowski. I have looked it up in the phone book in many cities and besides my aunt in Jersey city I have never seen the same name. 

Names in the form X-owski usually refer to the names of places where the family once lived; that is, they mean more or less "one from X," but the X can take different forms. In this case Sadlowski could theoretically refer to places called Sadly or Sadlow or Sadlowo or Sadlowice, etc. 

There are at least three places in Poland with names that would fit, and chances are one of them is the one for which your particular Sadlowskis were named. Without detailed research into the family's past, there's no way for me to know which one it would be. But you can see maps of them, and maybe find details that will help, if you go to this Website:

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

Enter "Sadlow" as the place you're looking for, and click on "Start the Search." It will return a long list of places in central and eastern Europe with names that could possibly be phonetic matches for Sadlow or Sadlowo, etc. Scroll down till you get to the part of the list with places in Poland, and look for Sadlowo. There are three of them. Click on their coordinates (printed in blue and underlined) and you'll see a Mapquest map of the area in which they are located. You can print the map, zoom in, zoom out, etc. I find this a very useful tool for locating places.

There are two points I should mention. One is that in Polish all three places are spelled with an L with a slash through it, which I represent on-line as L~. So the real place name is Sadl~owo, and the Polish spelling of the surname is Sadl~owski. This can matter, because in Polish-language reference works the L~ follows L in alphabetical listings. So Sadl~owo would come after Sadly, for instance, if that L in Sadly is the normal L without a slash. (The L~ is pronounced much like our W, so Sadl~owski is usually pronounced "sod-WOFF-skee.")

Also, with most Polish place names -- and this is no exception -- there are several possible matches. The only way to know which one is relevant to your family is to do some research and dig up papers -- naturalization papers, passports, ship passenger lists, parish records, something -- that gives more info. It could be the name of the nearest large town, the county seat, the province, something along those lines. I know that's easier said than done, especially if you don't have much to work with. But it's the only way I know of to proceed (short of finding a bona fide psychic!).

As of 1990 there were 2,879 Polish citizens named Sadl~owski, scattered all over Poland, with no real concentration in any one area. So the frequency and distribution data on the name doesn't give us much to work with either. 

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CHACHUL~A — HAHUL~A

To: Bernard M. Chachula, Chachula@yahoo.com, who wrote:

...I was about to do some pruning of my accumulated eMail (452 I'm afraid) and I found your contribution. It reminded me that Anita Camplese just told me that my surname Chachula means "snout" in Polish. Now, I don't have a really good command of Polish, but I can comprehend quite a few words and this surprised me. I think the name may have been spelled Hahula in some places also. What do you think?

Well, Anita most likely got that info from me or my book, and I got it from a book by Dr. Kazimierz Rymut, widely regarded as the prime expert on Polish surnames. I'm afraid that is what Chachul~a means (the l~ stands for the Polish slashed l, pronounced like our w). In Polish the ch and h are pronounced exactly the same, so Hahul~a would be merely a variant spelling of Chachul~a -- both would be pronounced roughly "hah-WHO-wah," and both come from an archaic or dialect term chachul~a meaning "snout, muzzle, mug" (I confirmed this in my 8-volume Polish dictionary, so it's not just Rymut saying so. This is not a word used much in modern standard Polish, probably only students of archaic or dialect Polish would ever have heard of it.)

When people ask me to tell them what their name means, I often have to ask back "Are you sure you want to know?" It's amazing how many Polish names mean something comic or downright insulting, and believe me, by comparison yours is not one of the more unpleasant ones! Presumably a name like Chachul~a got started as a nickname for someone with a large or prominent mouth, perhaps like our slang expression "big-mouth." It's not very flattering, but as I say, I've seen much, much worse!

At least you have company -- as of 1990 there were 1,056 Polish citizens named Chachul~a; they were scattered all over the country, with the largest numbers in the provinces of Kalisz (100), Katowice (70), and Lodz (249), in a kind of line runing roughly from central to southcentral Poland.

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To: Chris Cichocki, Ccicho8401@aol.com, who wrote:

...My surname is Cichocki.. Unfortunately my father has passed on and left me with very little knowlege of my history. I would like to let my kids know more about their heritage. Any info you can supply would be gratefully received.

It is possible Cichocki might in some cases might be a variant of Ciechocki, a name from the basic root ciech-, "joy, consolation." But in the vast majority of cases it surely comes ultimately from the root cich-, "quiet, calm." The name is pronounced roughly "chee-HOT-skee," and is probably connected with the noun cichota, "quiet, calmness." The personal name Cichot appears in 16th-century documents, and Cichocki is probably just an adjectival form of that name; you'd expect such a name would be given to someone who was calm and quiet, didn't make a fuss -- really kind of complimentary, as Poles have a certain respect for people who are modest and unassuming and take care of business without making a big fuss out of it. Cichocki most likely started out with the basic adjectival meaning of either "[someone or something] connected with or related to Cichot" or "one who is quiet." It's also conceivable it might derive from a place name, except I can't find any place with a name that fits (something like Cichota, Cichota), so the connection is probably with a person rather than a place.

This is a pretty common name, as of 1990 there were 13,228 Poles named Cichocki. They lived all over Poland, with no one area standing out as the place to find Cichocki's -- so we have to assume there isn't just one big Cichocki family, but rather numerous families in different areas that all got the name independently.

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To: Carol McNernie, mcnernie@oberon.ark.com, who wrote:

...Could you please the meaning of the surname of Brisch?

I'm afraid none of my sources mention it, at least not in that spelling, which is German. Spelling it phonetically by Polish values, it would be either Brys~ or Brysz in Polish. These names do appear in Poland -- as of 1990 there were 2,248 Poles named Brys~ and 319 named Brysz. This surname comes from the Latin first name Brictius, which was originally of Celtic origin. So it doesn't really mean anything, it's just a nickname for someone named Brictius, or for his son.

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To: Brian Patrick Hogan [E-mail address inadvertently deleted], who wrote:

... I need anything you have on the following surname of my Polish Chicago area family: Cerotsky, Cerotzky, Cerozky, Cerotski...

I wish I could help, but there was no one in Poland by any of those names as of 1990, and the problem is that the form of the name is questionable. None of those spellings looks right, it's almost certain the name was originally something else -- but there are too many possibilities to figure out what. It could be Ceracki, Seracki, or Cieracki, or Czeracki, on and on. Without a better idea of the original form of the name, I'd just be spinning my wheels trying to speculate on the name's origin or meaning.

I do note that obituaries appeared in the Dziennik Chicagoski (a Polish-language Chicago-area newspaper published 1890-1972) for a Anna Helena Cerocka on 17 December 1924, and for an Augustyna Cerocka on 12 January 1923. Cerocki is a credible spelling of the name, judging by the forms you gave, and Cerocka is just the feminine form of that surname -- so there may be info on a Chicago-area fmaily named Cerocki available through these obits. You might visit the Webpage of the Polish Genealogical Society of America http://www.pgsa.org and search their databases for more people by the name Cerocki/Cerocka and the other spellings. You just might find some relatives! And there are explanations on the Web page as to how you can get hold of copies of the obits or other records involved.

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OLESZAK

To: K8TSE@aol.com, who wrote:

... I would like to know the origin and meaning of the name Oleszak.

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 436 Polish citizens named Oleszak. The largest number, 165, lived in the province of Poznan, with the rest scattered in much smaller numbers all over the country. Unfortunately I don't have access to further details such as first names or addresses, what I've given here is all I have.

Oleszak is pronounced roughly "oh-LESH-ock." Polish name expert Prof. Kazimierz Rymut mentions it in his book Nazwiska Polakow [The Surnames of Poles]. It comes from the name Olesz plus the suffix -ak, which is a kind of general suffix meaning "of, from, connected with." So Oleszak means more or less "son of Olesz, kin of Olesz." That name, in turn, comes from a nickname for either Aleksander (Alexander) or Aleksy (Alexy). Among Poles and Ukrainians both names -- which come from the same Greek root meaning "protect, defend" -- were often pronounced and spelled with an initial O rather than A, so almost any name deriving from Alexander or Alexy will have its counterparts spelled with O-. In the process of making nicknames, Poles and Ukrainians tended to take the first few sounds of a name, drop the rest, and add suffixes (kind of like our "Eddy" from "Edward"); so Olesz could come from either of those names. If we wanted to give an English approximation of Oleszak, therefore, it would be kind of like "Al's kin, Al's son." 

Obviously a name like this could get started almost anywhere, and thus it gives no useful clues as to exactly where a family by that name might come from. The only clue is that it starts with O- rather than A-, but that doesn't really narrow it down any. So the only way to nail down exactly where a family named Oleszak came from is by successful genealogical research. Your Oleszaks might come from here, someone else's Oleszaks might come from a completely different place. The only thing they'd have in common is that both families, somewhere along the line, had an ancestor who was often called by the nickname Olesz.