To: ETyszka@aol.com, who wrote:

... I've just begun to search for my origins. Paternally -- Tyszka and maternally Filipkowski. Any information would be helpful. 

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 2,805 Polish citizens named Tyszka. The largest numbers lived in the following provinces: Gdansk 148, Lomza 533, Ostroleka 840, Suwalki 135, and Warsaw 374. 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 most common in northcentral and especially northeastern Poland.

Polish name expert Prof. Kazimierz Rymut mentions this name in his book Nazwiska Polaków [The Surnames of Poles]. He says it appears in records as early as 1427 and came from a kind of nickname for first names beginning with Ty-, especially Tymoteusz (Timothy). Poles often formed nicknames from popular first names by taking the first few sounds of the name, dropping the rest, and adding suffixes. So they would take the Ty- from Tymoteusz, drop the rest, add -sz- to give a basic nickname, then add a diminutive such as -ek or -ka or -ko; the process is kind of like the one that gave us "Teddy" from Theodore. So to the extent you can say Tyszka means anything, it would mean "little Tim, Timmy," or something like that. It is pronounced roughly "TISH-kah."

As for Filipkowski ("fee-leep-KOFF-skee"), as of 1990 there were 2,656 Poles by that name. The largest numbers lived in the provinces of: Bialystok 104, Gdansk 165, Katowice 109, Lomza 819, Olsztyn 193, Ostroleka 103, Suwalki 478, and Warsaw 128. So the name is found all over the country but is most common in the northcentral part.

Surnames ending in -owski usually refer to the name of a place where the family lived at some point centuries ago. We'd expect Filipkowski to mean "one from Filipki or Filipków or Filipkowo" or some similar place name, all of which mean more or less the same thing, "[place] of Phil (little Philip)." Rymut notes that the place this name is most likely to refer to is Filipki in Lomza province, Kolno gmina, and in view of the name's distribution pattern, I think he's right. But it's worth mentioning that the surname just means literally "of the _ of little Philip," and thus in some cases it could conceivably mean "kin of Phil" or "one from Phil's place." In some cases the surname could refer to some other little farm or settlement known locally as Filipki or Filipków or Filipkowo, too small to show up on maps. Still, that Filipki is the most likely candidate, especially if you find your ancestors came from that general region.

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KALE~BA - KALEMBA

To: James Kalemba, Kalemba1978@aol.com, who wrote:

...I was just curious if you could dig up any info on the name Kalemba Anything would be appreciated.

In Polish when you see -EM- before a consonant, it is usually a variation of the same name spelled not with -EM- but with the nasal vowel written as an E with a tail under it, which I represent on-line as E~. So we would expect the name to be spelled Kale~ba. That nasal vowel is pronounced like "em" when it comes before a B, so that Kale~ba is pronounced "kah-LEM-bah." Thus Kale~ba and Kalemba both make sense as reasonable ways of spelling this name.

As of 1990, according to the best data available (the Slownik nazwisk wspolczesnie w Polsce uzywanych, "Directory of 
Surnames in Current Use in Poland," which covers about 94% of the population of Poland), there were 145 Polish citizens named Kale~ba. The largest numbers lived in the following provinces: Bielsko-Biala 29, Krakow 75. 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. But this data tells us the name is found mainly in southcentral Poland.

What's odd is that usually the standard spelling is more common than the phonetic one, but as of 1990 there were 2,640 Poles who spelled the name Kalemba! The largest numbers lived in the following provinces: Katowice, 495, Krakow 330, Poznan 418. So this form of the name is also common in southcentral Poland, but also in the western part of the country. But in fact, the name is found in smaller numbers all over Poland; so a Kalemba could come from almost anywhere. There's nothing about the name itself that points toward any particular region of the country as a place of origin.

Polish name expert Prof. Kazimierz Rymut mentions this name in his book Nazwiska Polaków [The Surnames of Poles]. He says it appears in records as far back as 1494, and comes from a dialect word kale~ba that meant "thin old cow," and was also used colloquially to mean "fat woman." I'm not sure exactly how such a name got started as a surname, but it was probably by way of a nickname. In studying names I've come to realize humans can be very inventive when it comes to giving nicknames. And often a particular name makes perfect sense if you knew the guy or were there when it started, but otherwise it makes no sense. So with names given centuries ago we often have no way of figuring out exactly what they meant. About all we can say is what the word meant that the name came from, and then make plausible suggestions as to what the connection was that caused that name to "stick" to a particular guy and his family.

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CZERMAK - PE~KALSKI - PENKALSKI

To: Lovinlaudr@aol.com, who wrote:

I saw the question and your response to the name Peczkowski - Penczkowski. My first question: is my name (Penkalski) a derivative , or is it from a different root? My second question regards my grandmother's maiden name, Czermak. Can you give any insight into the origin of this surname? 

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 598 Polish citizens named Czermak. The largest numbers lived in the following provinces: Bielsko-Biala 112, Katowice 48, Tarnow 116, Wroclaw 71. Unfortunately I don't have access to further details such as first names or addresses, so I can't tell you how to find that info. This data tells us the name is found all over Poland but is most common in the southcentral to southeastern part of the country.

Polish name expert Prof. Kazimierz Rymut mentions this name in his book Nazwiska Polaków [The Surnames of Poles]. He says it appears in records as early as 1417 and comes from an archaic Polish word czermak, a red-winged bird. Another source mentions a possible link with the archaic word czerm, "worm, grub," and yet another points out the link to the Czech word c^ermak (little v over the c), meaning "redstart, a common European songbird," a term also used sometimes to refer to the devil (because of the association with the color red). There are many Polish names derived from words for birds, and I think that's the most likely connection with this name. It may have originated as a nickname because a person lived in a place where there were many of these birds, or he could imitate their singing, or his clothes reminded people of the birds' coloring -- almost any perceived similarity or connection could lead to such a nickname, which could then "stick" as a surname.

The name Penkalski would more often be spelled in Polish not with -en- but with the nasal vowel written as an E with a tail under it, which I represent on-line as E~; it is pronounced much like EN, and thus names with E~ were often spelled phonetically with EN. So the standard Polish spelling of this name would be Pe~kalski, with Penkalski a less common but still reasonable spelling. Both would sound more or less like "pen-CALL-skee."

As of 1990 there were 350 Polish citizens named Penkalski, as opposed to 1,799 Pe~kalski's. The largest numbers lived in the following provinces: Warsaw 180, Kielce 378, Przemysl 125, Tarnobrzeg 111, Wroclaw 250. So this name is found all over Poland but is also seen mostly in the southeastern part of the country.

This name comes from the same basic root as Pe~czkowski, but that doesn't mean much; one root can generate a great many different names with different meanings, without implying anything more than a linguistic connection that is almost incidental. I think the most likely derivation for Pe~kalski is as an adjective from the noun pe~kal, "squat fellow, one with a big belly"; thus it would mean "kin of the squat fellow, kin of the paunchy fellow." It's also possible it comes from nicknames for ancient Polish names beginning with the root Pe~k-, such as Pe~kosl~aw; Pe~kal or Pe~kal~a could come from such names, in which case the surname just means "kin of Pe~kal" or "one from the place of Pe~kal." Only detailed research into a specific family's past might uncover enough info to establish exactly when the name developed and exactly what it meant. But I think "kin of the squat fellow, fellow with a big gut" is most likely how it got started.

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DUNAJSKI - GADZAL~A - GADZ*AL~A - ODACHOWSKI

To: Sara J. Whittredge, Sjwsocks@aol.com, who wrote:

Hello, I have been working on my family genealogy for some time now, I was hoping you may have some information concerning the following surnames: Dunajski, Odachowski, Kodsidak and Gadzala or Godzado. Any information would be extremely appreciated.

Dunaj (pronounced roughly like a combination of the English words "do" and "nigh") is the Polish name for the Danube river, from a Slavic root meaning "deep water." DUNAJSKI "doo-NIGH-skee") just means "of the Danube." It probably began as a name for someone who lived near the Danube or some other large river referred to as a dunaj, perhaps by way of comparison with the Danube. 

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 1,526 Polish citizens named Dunajski. The largest numbers lived in the following provinces: Gdansk 488, Olsztyn 120, and Torun 154 (odd, since none of those cities are anywhere near the Danube!). Unfortunately I don't have access to further details such as first names or addresses, so I can't tell you how to find that info.

As of 1990 there were 415 Polish citizens named Odachowski (pronounced roughly "oh-dah-HOFF-skee"). The largest numbers lived in the northeastern provinces of Bialystok, 140, and Lomza, 101; the rest were scattered in smaller numbers all over Poland. Names in the form X-owski usually refer to the name of a place beginning with the X part, with which the family was connected at one time; if they were noble, they owned it, and if not, they lived and worked there. We'd expect Odachowski to mean "one from Odachów or Odachowo" or some similar name. 

I can't find any places by those names on modern maps, but that's not unusual. The thing is, Polish surnames developed centuries ago, and often came from the name of a field or hill or little settlement, names used only by locals, that would be unlikely to appear on any map or in any gazetteer. So the place this name refers to may now be quite obscure, or may even have disappeared or renamed or absorbed into another community centuries ago. It's also very possible a slight vowel change is involved and the surname refers to any of several places now called Odechów or Odechowo, such as two villages named Odechów, in Konin and in Radom provinces (according to the 1975-1998 provincial setup).

As for Gadzala or Godzada, the latter looks and sounds odd, and no one by that name lived in Poland as of 1990, so I think Gadzala is more likely correct. In Polish it is usually spelled with a slash through the L, which I render on-line as L~. Gadzal~a is pronounced roughly "god-ZAH-wah." Polish name expert Prof. Kazimierz Rymut mentions this name in his book Nazwiska Polaków [The Surnames of Poles], saying it appears in records as far back as 1440. He says named beginning Gad- usually come either from the verb gadac', "to talk," or from the noun gad, "reptile," also used colloquially to mean "worthless fellow." Gadzal~a might come from the latter meaning, but the suffix -al~a often is added to verb roots to mean "one always doing _." So I think Gadzal~a most likely started out meaning "one who talks a lot," though that is just a guess (and it might also mean "one always acting like a reptile" -- I can't rule that out).

As of 1990 there were 678 Polish citizens named Gadzal~a, with the largest numbers living in the following provinces: Chelm 86, Krosno 71, and Lublin 158. So while the name is found all over Poland, it is most common in the southeastern part of the country. 

I should add that Rymut also mentions a name Gadz*al~a (I'm using Z* to stand for the dotted Z, pronounced like "zh" in "Zhivago"), from a Ukrainian dialect term that means "ankle." There were 90 Polish citizens named Gadz*al~a in 1990, scattered all over (probably because of post-World War II forced relocations). This might be applicable in your case, since the dot over the Z and the slash through the L would be lost when the family immigrated to an English-speaking country. So the name probably means either "one who talks a lot" or "ankle," perhaps referring to one who had nice-looking ankles.

Kodsidak is a problem. None of my sources mention it, it doesn't look or sound right, and as of 1990 no one in Poland bore this name. That usually means either the name was very rare and died out after the family emigrated, or the spelling has been distorted somewhere along the line. I can't think of any name that could end up as Kodsidak. The only thing I can suggest is to keep doing research until you find a document with a reliable spelling and a name of the place of origin. If you find that, let me know and I'll see if I have anything on that name. 

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CZARNECKI

To: Ron Lipinski, rlipinski@mde.state.md.us, who wrote:

Please provide some information on my Mother's maiden name: Czarnecki. Thanks for your help. I've been reading all the material you have put up on the internet and it is a greatly appreciated service. 

Czarnecki is pronounced roughly "char-NET-skee" in Polish. As of 1990, according to the best data available (the 
Slownik nazwisk wspolczesnie w Polsce uzywanych, "Directory of Surnames in Current Use in Poland," which covers about 94% of the population of Poland), there were 32,525 Polish citizens by that name. They lived all over Poland, with no significant concentration in any one part of the country; a family named Czarnecki could come from anywhere.

Polish name expert Prof. Kazimierz Rymut mentions this name in his book Nazwiska Polaków [The Surnames of Poles]. He says it would usually refer to the name of a place where the family lived at some point centuries ago, a place with a name beginning Czarn-, from the root czarny, "black." The name is especially likely to refer to the village of Czarnca in Kielce province, Wloszczowa district, but you can't really count on that -- there are too many other cases where it referred to any of a number of villages named Czarne, Czarne, etc. 

I'm afraid that, as with most Polish surnames, the name itself just doesn't provide much in the way of useful leads for tracing a family, even though it refers to the name of a specific place. There are usually just too many places the name might refer to. The only way to determine anything with certainty is by way of genealogical research. Once you trace your ancestors to the specific area they came from, then you may be able to make a plausible connection with some nearby place with a name beginning Czarn-. But you have to narrow the search area down; as long as it could cover anywhere in Poland, you don't have much hope of success.

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GRZYMAL~OWSKI

To: Ralph Harris, rharris@cableregina.com, who wrote: 

I am searching for the name Grzymalowski. Do you have any record of that name? 

In Polish this name is spelled with a slash through the L, which I represent on-line as L~. Grzymal~owski is pronounced roughly "g'zhih-mah-WOFF-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 88 Polish citizens by this name. They lived in the following provinces: Warsaw 8, Ciechanow 18, Gorzow 19, Ostroleka 10, Radom 7, Skierniewice 2, Suwalki 22, Wroclaw 2. 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.

Polish name expert Prof. Kazimierz Rymut mentions this name in his book Nazwiska Polaków [The Surnames of Poles]. He says names beginning Grzym- usually come either from nicknames for the old Polish first name Pielgrzym ("pilgrim") or from the root seen in the verb grzmiec~, "to thunder," used either as a verb root or as a name component in ancient pagan names such as Grzymisl~aw, which means literally "thunder-fame." 

But in most cases we'd expect Grzymal~owski to come from the name of a place where the family lived at some point centuries ago, a place with a name along the lines of Grzymal~y or Grzymal~owo. Such place names, in turn, would derive from the roots mention above, so that the names originally meant something like "place of Pilgrim" or "place of thunder, place of Grzymal~a (the one of thundering renown)." There are a number of places in Poland with names that fit, including several Grzymal~ys and at least one Grzymal~ów, all of which could generate this surname. Without detailed info on a specific family, there's no way to know which place the surname refers to in their particular case. Fortunately, if you do some research and have a little luck, you may uncover info that will shed light on this question. 

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SCHULIST - SZULIST

To: Michael Shulist, michael@shulist.com, who wrote:

... I am doing research into my family whose name has been misspelled for generations. It has three current spelling in North America including: Shulist, Schulist, and what may be more original Szulist. I have been unable to find your book in our library network and Chapters (Canada's equivalent to Amazon.com) is now tracking it down. In the event that the name is not covered in the book what could you tell me about it?

You're right that the original Polish spelling was probably Szulist. The other spellings are phonetic, in that people speaking other languages (English for Shulist and German for Schulist) attempted to spell the name the way it sounded to them, using the phonetic values they were used to. Polish SZ is pronounced much like our "sh" and German "sch," so all three spellings are pronounced the same, much like "SHOE-list."

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 714 Polish citizens named Szulist. The largest numbers lived in the following provinces: Gdansk 513, Slupsk 107. 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 indicates the name is highly concentrated in north-central to northwestern Poland, in the area west and south of Gdansk.

There were also 23 Poles who spelled this name the German way, Schulist. They lived in the provinces of Elblag (8), Gdansk (11), and Szczecin (8) -- all in north-central to northwestern Poland, in the area that formerly comprised the German Empire's provinces of Pomerania, West Prussia, and East Prussia.

Polish name expert Prof. Kazimierz Rymut mentions this name in his book Nazwiska Polaków [The Surnames of Poles]. He says it is one of the many names that developed from nicknames or short forms of ancient Polish pagan names beginning with the root Sul-, from an archaic verb meaning "promise." Thus ancient Poles created names such as Sulislaw, literally "promise-glory," and Sulimir, "promise-peace." Like most Indo-European peoples, the ancient Poles tended to give their children names of good omen, so that calling a child Sulislaw meant something like "may he fulfill the promise of glory," i. e., "may he turn out to be glorious and renowned." The Poles often made nicknames of those ancient names, much as we turned "Edward" into "Eddie," by taking the first part of the name, dropping the rest, and adding suffixes. Thus Sulislaw or Sulimir gives Suli-, and the suffix -st was added to give Sulist or Sulista. 

In Polish we often see names beginning with S often have variant forms beginning with Sz-, as the plain S sound turned into an "sh" sound; similarly names beginning with Sz- often have variants with S-. What's interesting is that in this case the form with Sz- seems to predominate; Sulist or Sulista is very rare.

The geographical distribution of this name suggests it may be associated primarily with the Kaszubs, a Slavic people who are closely related to the Poles but have their own customs and language (very similar to Polish in most respects). I could be wrong about this, but from what I've seen in the past I believe this name is found primarily among the Kaszubs, who live in the area near Gdansk, Slupsk, and north of Bydgoszcz -- which is where this name is most common. So you might want to learn more about the Kaszubs and see if this offers any leads. This Website has some information:

http://feefhs.org/kana/frg-kana.html 

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PRAWDZIN~SKI

To: Richard Prawdzienski, Prawdz@aol.com, who wrote:

... Do you have a meaning or origin for the name Prawdzienski? I understand relatives in Poland do not use the -ski extension.

To get to your name ... , the basic root prawda means "truth," the stem of which is prawd-. The suffix usually added to this name is -in~ski, with accompanying softening of the root's final -d to -dzi-. So Prawdzin means literally "of truth," possibly used as a name for "a man of truth, a truthful man," or possibly referring to a place with a name derived from prawda. Prawdzin~ski means literally "of the _ of truth." Prawdzin~ski might refer to the kin of a man named Prawdzin, or to people coming from a place named Prawda, Prawdzin, Prawdziny, etc. As I said earlier, Prawdzien~ski is just a variant of Prawdzin~ski. I would not ascribe any particular significance to the alternate spelling without evidence of such significance; dialect or regional differences in pronunciation can easily account for it.

When I can find a place with a name that fits, I tend to go with that simply because surnames tend to come from something concrete rather than abstract; there are exceptions, but my experience suggests Prawdzin~ski is more likely to mean "one from the place called Prawda" than "kin of the truthful man." The only way to know for sure which rendering is appropriate is to do thorough genealogical research, which might uncover some record that sheds light on the exact derivation. In other words, Prawdzin~ski could mean "kin of the truthful one," but it can also mean "one from Prawda, Prawdzin, Prawdziny," etc.; and the odds are that the latter is more likely to be the right rendering. Still, one can't be positive without genealogical research.

In any case, I found two places in Poland with a name that fits. It may be there were or are others that qualify. Surnames originated centuries ago, often referring to names that were used by the locals for a hill or field or settlement, names that are highly unlikely to appear on any map or in any gazetteer; sometimes these places have been absorbed by other communities, or have disappeared, or have been renamed. So these two Prawda's may not be the only candidates; but they're the only ones I could find.

If you'd like to see maps of these places, go to this Website:

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

Enter "Prawd" as the name of the place you're looking for, and make sure you specify to search using the Daitch-Mokotoff Soundex. Click on "Start the Search." In a moment you'll get a list of places with names that begin with sounds that match "Prawd" phonetically. Scroll on down to the ones in Poland and click on the coordinates for the two named Prawda: PRAWDA 5157 2156 N Poland 44.7 miles ESE of Warsaw, and PRAWDA 5138 1928 N Poland 77.9 miles WSW of Warsaw. 

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 14 Polish citizens named Prawdzin. They lived in the following provinces: Jelenia Gora 12, Wroclaw 2. There were also 11 named Prawdzin~ski, living in the following provinces: Krakow 5, Lodz 1, Zielona Gora 5. There was no listing of anyone named Prawdzien~ski. Unfortunately I don't have access to further details such as first names or addresses, and I can't tell you how to get that info. The Polish government in general is very protective of its citizens' privacy and does not facilitate access to information on living Polish citizens.

This data further muddles the question of whether Prawdzin means "truthful one" or "one of Prawda" and Prawdzin~ski means "kin of the truthful one" or just "one from Prawda." The people with these names are scattered all over; that doesn't necessarily mean they were never connected with those places called Prawda, but it's not convincing evidence in favor of that hypothesis, either. 

And that's where I have to stop, because I've said all I can say. The only way to settle the matter, as I said before, is to do detailed genealogical research that reveals the historical, linguistic, cultural, and geographical context in which the name developed and became attached to your specific family. It's even possible (though, in view of the data, unlikely) that the name developed independently with different families; your Prawdzin~ski's got the name as "kin of the truth-teller," and another set of Prawdzin~ski's got it the other way, as simply "ones from Prawda." But without hard evidence I can't settle the matter.

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STUCZYN~SKI - SZTUCYZN~SKI - WOZ~NICKI 

To: Barb Woznicki, bwoznic1@twcny.rr.com, who wrote:

I read with interest your derivation for Wozniak. My name is Woznicki. Is there a difference? Also, anything on 
Stuczynski?

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 3,744 Polish citizens named Woz~nicki (the z has an accent over it, which I represent on-line with a tilde~). The largest numbers lived in the following provinces: Lodz 219, Plock 328, and Warsaw 601. Unfortunately I don't have access to further details such as first names or addresses, so I can't tell you how to find that info. This data tells us the name is found all over Poland but is particularly common in central Poland.

Woz~nicki is pronounced roughly "vozh-NEET-skee." It comes from the same basic root as Wozniak -- woz-, "convey, 
transport (especially by cart)." But generally would refer to the name of a place where the family lived at some point centuries ago. Thus we'd expect it to mean "one from Woz~niki or Woz~nica or Woz~nice." On modern maps I find one Woz~nice and a lot of Woz~niki's, so the surname would generally mean the family came from one of those villages; but without detailed genealogical research into a specific family's background, there's no way to know which one. The places, in turn, would take their names from some connection with carts, cart-drivers (woz~nica is a term meaning "cart-driver," and this name is an adjective that could come from that noun), cart-horses (woz~nik, and the name can also come from that), etc. As I say, there is a linguistic connection with Wozniak in that both come from that basic root meaning, but in practice there wouldn't necessarily be any blood connection between the two names. Woz~nicki is a name in its own right. 

Stuczyn~ski (accent over the N), pronounced roughly "stoo-CHIN-skee," was the surname of 774 Poles as of 1990. 
The largest numbers lived in the following provinces: Bydgoszcz 97, Konin 70, Krakow 60, Torun 101. This data tells us this name, too, is found all over the country, with some concentration in northcentral to northwestern Poland. It would almost certainly come from the root seen in sztuka, "piece, play, art," and sztuczyna, "a miserable piece." Names and words with S and SZ often alternate, so it's not odd that Stuczyn~ski might come from a word beginning with sz-. In fact, 
Sztuczyn~ski ("shtoo-CHIN-skee") is a perfectly plausible variant of this surname; but for some reason it's less common, 
borne by only 80 Poles as of 1990, in the same general area as Stuczyn~ski.

This might have started as a nickname for one who got stuck with a really pathetic piece of something, or produced rather miserable products, something like that. Or it might refer to a place with a name along the lines of Sztucz- or Stucz- or Sztuk- or Stuk-. Without a lot more detail on the individual family bearing the name, there's really no way to be sure.

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ZBYDNIEWSKI - ZBYDNIOWSKI - ZBYTNIEWSKI

To: Elizabeth Zbytniewski-Briggs, sakhmet@sfsu.edu, who wrote:

I would like to know if you can tell me anything about my family name, Zbytniewski. I know that my great-great-grandmother used the name with an A on the end rather than ski, but I don't know anything about the name or the origin. 

Well, to start with, most (not all, most) names ending in -ska are feminine forms of names which have standard forms ending in -ski (it's admittedly rather chauvinistic, but that's the way the Polish language developed). So a male with this name would be called Zybtniewski, and a female would be Zbytniewska; this is an integral part of the Polish language, one that Poles recognize instinctively. After immigrating to English-speaking countries, they found their new language could not deal with this feature, so they dropped it. The point is simply that the standard form of the name, the one we should look for, is Zbytniewski. It is pronounced roughly "z'bit-N'YEFF-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 566 Polish citizens named Zbytniewski. The largest numbers lived in the following provinces: Bydgoszcz 51, Konin 51, Lublin 84, Poznan 57, Tarnobrzeg 87. 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 the country, but appears in two slight concentrations, one in southeastern Poland (the areas near Lublin and Tarnobrzeg) and one in western to northwestern Poland (the other provinces cited). 

Incidentally, there were also 26 Polish citizens named Zbydniewski, all but 5 living in the province of Tarnobrzeg. There 
were also 27 named Zbydniowski, 19 of whom lived in Tarnobrzeg province. The reason this may be relevant is that in 
Polish the D sometimes changes pronunciation to sound like T, and in these names that happens with Zbyd-. It is written Zbyd-, but actually pronounced as if it were Zbyt-. The spelling of names in Polish has, until fairly recently, been somewhat inconsistent; names were often spelled phonetically, going strictly by sound instead of by "the rules." What this means is Zbydniewski, Zbydniowski, and Zbytniewski are all potentially different forms of the same basic name. If so, you need to know this -- if you research your family, it's possible you might run into any or all of these spellings. But of them all, Zbytniewski is clearly the most common spelling these days, and thus by default the standard spelling.

Names in the form X-ewski usually refer to the name of a place beginning with the X part, with which the family was connected at one time; if they were noble, they owned it, and if not, they lived and worked there. Thus we'd expect this name to mean "one from Zbytniew or Zbytniewo" or some similar place name. I can't find any places by those names on modern maps, but that's not unusual. The thing is, Polish surnames developed centuries ago, and often came from the name of a field or hill or little settlement, names used only by locals, that would be unlikely to appear on any map or in any gazetteer. So the place this name refers to may now be quite obscure, or may even have disappeared or renamed or absorbed into another community centuries ago.

The interesting thing is, I see two places named Zbydniów, one in Tarnobrzeg province (as the provinces were organized 1975-1998), the other in Tarnow province, both in southeastern Poland. Recalling what I said about D sounding like T, you'll see immediately that it's very possible these are the places the surname refers to (the change of -iów to -iew- is not troublesome, that happens often). It would not be at all odd if either the place name or the surname has changed spelling over the ages. I don't have any sources that discuss the original forms of these village names, so I don't know whether they were originally Zbytniów and the -t- changed to -d- over time, or if they were always Zbydniów and it's the surname in which the -d- changed to -t- (in most cases; as we see, there are still some who bear the name with -d- instead of -t-). Either way, I think chances are very good these two place names are what the surname derived from.

The distribution of the surname supports this, to some extent; the names seem to show up most often in southeastern Poland. As for the concentration in the west, it could be the family or families came from southeastern Poland and relocated there at some point in the past. It could also be they were forced to move there after World War II, when millions were forcibly relocated from east to west. For that matter, maybe there is or was another place in the west with a name beginning Zbyd- or Zbyt-I don't have data that would settle this. But if you do some genealogical research and have any success at it, you may uncover facts that will shed light on this.

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CETNAR - JAROSZ

To: JLCETNAR@aol.com, who wrote:

I am looking for information about the surname Cetnar. I was told that the family came from Pilzno, Poland. To the best of my knowledge the name has never been shorten. The GGG grandfather was married to a lady from Jaslo, Poland. Her surname was Jarosz. Thanks, Jackie

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 431 Polish citizens named Cetnar. The largest numbers lived in the following provinces: Bielsko-Biala 38, Krosno 84, Rzeszow 42, Tarnow 73, and Wroclaw 38. 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 most common in southcentral to southeastern Poland, which includes the area of Pilzno.

In Polish this name is pronounced roughly "TSET-nahr." Polish name expert Prof. Kazimierz Rymut mentions it in his book Nazwiska Polaków [The Surnames of Poles]. He says it comes from the noun cetnar, also seen as centnar, a term for a unit of weight, in English "quintal, hundredweight, 100 kilograms." Exactly how and why that came to be a surname is hard to say; surnames developed centuries ago, and often there are no surviving records that tell us exactly how a name got started. Presumably it began as a nickname for one who dealt with such weights in his work, or even a person who looked as if he only weighed 100 kilograms or pounds. It comes ultimately from Latin centenarius, "of, relating to one hundred."

Jarosz ("YAH-rosh") may have started as a nickname of older pagan compound names such as Jaroslaw, where the first part is an ancient root meaning "harsh, severe," or in some cases "robust, young." But some scholars think the specific names Jaroch and Jarosz came from a variant of the Slavic version of "Jerome." So the name probably meant originally something like "kin of Jerome." As of 1990 there were 20,694 Poles by this name, living in large numbers all over the country.

If you'd like more info on Jaslo and Pilzno, you can visit these Websites to see my translations of gazetteer entries on those towns:

http://www.pgst.org/jaslo.htm 

http://www.pgst.org/pilzno.htm 

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MOCHADLO - MOCZADLO~O

To: Melissa Mocadlo, lizmoc@excite.com, who wrote:

... I am a high school student, doing a report on my geneology. My last name is Mocadlo, but I have been told it was originally Moczadlo. Joseph Moczadlo worked in Poznan before coming to the U.S, and that is all that I know about our origins, in terms of location. I have contacted Dr. Regina Moczadlo, whose name I discovered on a search engine. She told me that she too has no information about our family, since WWII destroyed documents. She now lives in Germany. 

I think I can help a little. In Polish the name would be spelled Moczadl~o -- I'm using L~ to stand for the Polish letter written as an L with a slash through it and pronounced like our "w." The Polish combination cz is pronounced like our "ch" in "church," so that Moczadl~o is pronounced roughly "moch-ODD-woe" (rhyming with "go, Claude, go"). Polish name experts say it comes from the noun moczadl~o, which means "swamp, damp area, submersible device." So it probably referred originally to a person or family who lived in a swampy area -- there are many, many such names in Polish and other European languages. The basic root is mocz-, which means "wetness, dampness, moisture" -- the noun mocz has come to mean "urine," but at one time it just referred to any kind of wetness or moisture.

In certain areas of Poland there is a dialect tendency to turn the "ch" sound spelled CZ by Poles into the sound they spell C, which sounds like the ts in "cats." So in some areas the name might be pronounced more like "mote-SOD-woe," and thus spelled phonetically Mocadl~o. But the standard form is Moczadl~o.

As of 1990 there were 349 Poles by this name; it was most common in the provinces of Bydgoszcz (76), Olsztyn (30), and Torun (85), in northcentral and northeastern Poland. Unfortunately I don't have access to further details such as first names or addresses, what I've given here is all I have. I should add that Poznan is in western Poland, whereas the areas I mentioned above are farther north. But the Bydgoszcz area was once part of Provinz Posen (Poznan province), the name the Germans gave this region when they ruled it (during most of the 19th century and up to World War I). Most immigrants could not speak English well or at all, and thus had trouble making themselves understood. When asked where they came from, they didn't try to say "I'm from the village of Plochniczno Szczedrowskie" (a name I made up, by the way) because there's no way any American official ever heard of this place. So instead they gave the name of the nearest large city. I'm explaining this because it's possible your ancestor didn't actually live in the city of Poznan itself, but in a village or town somewhere within the region of which Poznan was the biggest city. If you research this, don't be surprised if it turns out your ancestor wasn't actually from Poznan; this happened a lot. On the other hand, Poznan's a big city, and a lot of people did live there, so maybe that is where he came from.

I'm sending a copy of this note to a gentleman named Jim Presenkowski, jimpres@home.com, because last year he asked about the name Mochadlo. My brain must have been somewhere else that day --but for some reason it never dawned on me that may well be a phonetic spelling of Moczadl~o (sorry, Jim!). I wanted him to read this note in case it might be helpful, and also because it is very possible the name he's researching is the same one you're asking about, and maybe you can compare notes to your mutual benefit. When I can bring together people researching the same thing, I like to do so. If it turns out you have no connections, no harm is done; if you do have connections, it may help both of you.

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JUCHNO - MALICKI

To: TonyG, tonyg@ccomm.com, who wrote:

... Malicki (Vincent) from Rzeprennik Strzyzewski region of Poland; Juchno - or - Yuchno - or - Uchno- or - Iuchno. Thank you. Appreciate any help or any brief amount of time you can manage. 

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 7,750 Polish citizens named Malicki. The largest numbers lived in the following provinces: Bydgoszcz 609, Katowice 419, Kielce 683, Poznan 682, Warsaw 604, Wroclaw 313, and Zielona Gora 339. Basically what this data tells us is that the name is found all over Poland, with no particular concentration in any one area.

Oddly, the Surname Directory shows only 12 Malickis in Tarnow province, which is the province Rzepiennik Strzezowski was in under the 1975-1998 setup. I wish I could tell you how to get first names and addresses of the Malickis in that province, but I don't have access to any further data, just a breakdown by province. You might be able to contact the PGS-Connecticut/Northeast <http://members.aol.com/pgsne2/> to see if they have copies of the Tarnow province phone directory. If so, for a moderate fee they can check to see if a specific name is listed, and if so, tell you the address given. It's a long shot, but it's the only way I can think of you might get an address, short of writing to the parish church that serves that area and asking if the priest can help you get in touch with relatives.

Malicki is pronounced roughly "mah-LEET-skee," and would generally refer to the name of a place where the family lived at some point centuries ago -- places with names like Malica or Malice. I can't find any places named Malica offhand, but there are at least five villages named Malice. The only way to know which one is referred to in a given family's case is by genealogical research that would pin down exactly where the family came from in Poland and then allow one to search for places named Malice or something similar in the area.

Juchno is tough because the J and CH stand for sounds that can be spelled different ways, and because this name could develop in several different ways. The J is pronounced like our Y, and the CH is a guttural, kind of a mild version of the "ch" in German "Bach" -- the name sounds like "YOOKH-no." Thus, depending on the language of the official who wrote down the name, it could be spelled Juchno (Polish), Iuchno, Yuchno, Yukhno, etc. 

In theory it could come from the Polish word jucha, "gore; rascal." But it usually started as a kind of nickname formed from various first names beginning with the J, such as Józef (Joseph), Joachim, Juchim (a Ukrainian name from the Greek name Euthymios), and Juryj (Ukrainian form of "George," pronounced the same as Russian "Yuri"). Poles and Ukrainians often formed nicknames from popular first names by taking the first few sounds of the name, dropping the rest, and adding suffixes. So they would take the Jo- or Ju- sound from those names, drop the rest, and add suffixes such as -ch-, plus further suffixes such as -no. That's how this name started, Ju- + -ch- no. It amounts to no more than a nickname, with no real meaning in and of itself, kind of like "Teddy" is a nickname from "Theodore." Teddy doesn't mean anything, but comes from a name that did mean something originally (in Greek Theodoros means "gift of the gods"). Juchno is a nickname from a number of different names.

As of 1990 there were 283 Polish citizens named Juchno, scattered all over the country, with no real concentration in any one area. One might also run into this name in Ukraine, but there it would be spelled in Cyrillic, which would look kind of like this:

I-O X H O

That's about all I can tell you. I hope it's some help, and wish you the best of luck with your research.