I am not Polish enough :-(

Someone isn't getting any...

the "ski" suffix is generally considered to be Polish and 30.3% of the Polish population carries this suffix.

the "ek" suffix is also Polish and consititutes 8.6% of Polish surnames

Ant what about "mont@ suffix in sych names as Ejsmont or Szymont etc.
Are these surnames or ethnic Lithuanian or baltic Prussian origin?

i do not know name Szymont. i know Polish name Szymon which comes from Hebrew Simeon.

Ejsmont is This is a typical example of the two-root noble
aspirative Lithuanian surname, which would date to before 1450. Roots:
_eislus_ "swift," "fleet," "nimble" and _mantus_ "wisdom," "sagacity."

Thank you for this explication. Even ethnic Lithuanians were unable to give me this information.
But there are several surnames with suffix "mont". I met also Skirmont.
Besides that Russian Orthodox Church has a Saint named Dowmont. He was a Lithuanian Duke, elected as Pskow (Russia) governour.
So mont or mantas are quite frequent suffix in East Europe.

And the second question. What can a Lithuanian suffix "but" mean? It exists in surnames as Korbut and Narbut

Narbut or Norbut is a Polonized form of a Lithuanian name, NARBUTAS or NORBUTAS. It comes from two Lithuanian roots joined together to form a name which is the way many old names were formed by the Poles, Lithuanians and Germans. The Lithuanian roots were nor, "to want, desire," and but, "to be."
Thus Narbut or Norbut means " want to be "

Today there are many Poles, Belarussians and Lithuanians who carry polonized surnames Norbut and Korbut that originate in the Grand Dutchy of Litwa.

I thought much about ethnic Lithanian people in Lithanian Szlachta.
I came to the conclusion that even at the beginning of 15 century despite the fact many of them could speak Lithuanian in their families, the majority already received Slav surnames. The surnames of szlachta appeared during the creation of lists of militia (so called Popis). In Litwa they were all composed in Russian. The surname as rule was formed by father's name according to Russian standarts. If an ethnic Lithuanian had a father by the name of Pawel he became Pawlowicz and not Pavlauskas as today.
Sometimes we can suspect (only suspect) an ethnic Lithanian origin. When the surname derives drom a name that Orthodox people don't have. For example Franckiewicz or Stankewicz. The majority of ethnic Lithuanians were Roman Catholics and very few Rusins in Litwa of 16 century

Witek

Did you notice any movement toward polonization of surnames in Lithuania in 17 century?
I know notning about that but some facts make me suspect that.
For example in the list of militia in Litwa in 1519 some 95% of Lithanian szlachta surnames have suffix -wicz and there are only very few surnames with suffix -ski.
As to 18 century, I think some 50% of surnames had suffix -ski.
We can suppose the majority of surnames with suffix -ski may appear in late 16-17 centuries when szlachta nubber was multiplicated in Litwa and new families with new surnames (already polonized) appeared. Besides that many old Lithanian families-clans separated in 16-17 centuries into different new families that received new surnames.
But there are still doubts...
For example in the List of militia of 1519 only one family with Rusin surname Anisimowicz was mentioned and the family was from Wolkowysk (sorry for possible wrong spelling). There were no Anisimowicz in 18 century as far as I know, but family Onichimowski was well known in Wolkowysk powiat in 18 century.

Pawel is a Polish name and Pawlowicz a Polish surname , in Lithuanian it is Pavlavičius wheras Pavlauskas comes from Pawlowski. Many Lithuanians borrowed Slavic suffixes such as avičius (from "-owicz") and auskas (from "-owski") was and is very common.

if you type the surname Anisimowicz into GOOGLE today you will find that the majority of the people that carry this surname are Polish today. This does not mean that the surname did not originate from Belarus.

Smart a.ss Witold :)

I'm of the same opinion. I wish I knew only a part he knows

How can you know you are 100%, do you know every member of your family 500 years back? I dont so I give possibilities.

i think sharing goodness is better :), so if there is english with polish! what is the problem?

i know polish, english, learning french (by myself), hindi (difficult sometime, but i think i am understand better than speak:D) also thinking to learn esperanto now :D .. if i get time lol!

i hope and wish i am not 100% polish, i am sure i am not! but as far as i can trace, all my roots are. I like and respect the diversity, the entire world! i think all are same, with good/bad in all! ofcourse in different community, different aspect get more attention! but all the aspects in human life are shared and present in every human :).

ofcourse, to my belief, no one can say he/she is 100% something :)

what you think ;)?

I can understand everything you wrote, but you aren't really supposed to post in Polish on here - read the forum rules.

Being Polish is nothing to with where you were born. That's Polish CITIZENSHIP, not ethnicity. If you were born in India, and your parents moved back to Poland a week after you were born, would you call yourself Indian? Of course not.

And I think you know exactly what I meant by "100% Polish", i.e. both my parents, their parents and grandparents were Polish, as I believe were my ancestors. Of course there may have been some mixing at some time, but who knows, and it's unlikely we will ever know?

If anyone's the racist, it's you, not me - you don't hear me telling people to "go home" and to "get out of my country" all the time!

To Witek:
Can you tell me something about my surname..... It's GITLER. tnx

Doesn't seem to be Polish... and you better register and open a new topic about It,

My parents are polish. Parents of my mum and parents of my dad are polish as well...

:) I think that only people with the roots coming from Mazovia peasants are pure Polish...

It is quite funy but in my opinion it is not serious talking about nationalities like Bielarusian or Lituanian in XVI century,

In the begining of XX century a lot of people form Polesie (part of todays Bielarus and Ukraine) asked about nationality answered "we are form here" I think that durring XVI century they would answer thesame.

But to show how multicultural our country was :



Poles: 65,5 %
Ukrainians 16%
Jews 9,4 %
Bielarusians 5,5 % ("we are from here" are added here as well about 1,5%)
Germans 2,6 %
Others 1%

what you should know, on east Poles and Jews lived in towns and Others in vilages (thats why there are not to green on the map ;) )

What can be intersting, Poles are still wining local elections in the grounds surrounding Wilno (in Wilno town we are minority because most of them were expeled from there after the war to towns like Wroclaw or Szczecin)

I m Pole but my mothers name is definetely lithuenian, when I asked my grandmother about her nationality she answered me that Polish, and that in the past Lituenia was just like Texas in USA now, and Poland was something like other state in USA. And being Pole was only problem of choice, if you wanted to be Pole you could be one ;) So Mickiewicz "writting Lithuania my fatherland", could mean something like singing in USA "my lovely Arizona" With lithuanians we had the same government, the same culture, there there were no anty Polish rebels ... What can be interesting, now in Lithuania there is group of people calling themselfs "Zmudzini" and they dont consider themselves Lithuanians, few years ago they would answer they are Lithuanians form region "Zmudz"

We should notice that in our history we have a lot of great people coming to our country and choicing to be Pole just because it was good place to live. It was good place to live because we were tolerant, in comparison to other countries we were giving a lot of freedom and it worked quite good.

Suddenly after II WW we were expeled by Red Army form eastern lands (in some regions we could stay) to terytories form where Germans were expeled. And now we live in country with 96,7% of native Poles. But we dont need to learn how to live together with other nations, we just have some good expirences.

Actually, Tczew is a part of Kociewie region. Kashubian region is located approximately 50-60 km west of Tczew with towns like Koscierzyna, Kartuzy and Wejherowo
That would make you a Kociewiak rather than Kashubian.

Everyone is Poland is mixed origins because although majority relate to the Slavic peoples there were other ethnicities within Poland. So a lot of Polish share germanic/slavic/ango/romani/jewish/whatever - but it is said kashubians are *closest* to majority slavic originis (something i heard, not sure).

One way or nother - who cares - we are polish, we are slavic, we are european, we are whatever we feel we are, we are a mix, whatever we are.... as long as we get along the world will be a better place and happier :-)

oh comon,why this apologetic sound comes from u?
there's no such a thing like being Polish enough..??if you feel much belongin to Poland and its culture plus have 'some' Polishness in the blood,that's enough to be POlish.
I know people being 100% Polish by their parents, but not being POlish AT ALL in my opinion,as they do not feel any belonging to the country.
best wishes
G.

That exactly right. If you feel a connection to a particular culture and in some form its a part of your life, or even daily part of your life - then that culture is a part of you.

It doesn't matter where you are born, what your first language is. Who you feel you are, is obviously then a part of who you are if your feeling it!

this does not mean that Kashubs don't live in this region. part of my family is Kashub not Kociewak and live in the Tczew area.

the surname Gitler or Gittler is a variation of the German place name Gitter, which comes from the Germanic word gitter meaning grid, grating and describing the man who lived by the gate or barrier.

Witek,

Can you give us the explication of nobel Prussian surnames ending by "c". Isn't it the Slav transformed "cz"? Does that mean that these nobels are of Slav origin or the villages they owned were Slavs?

im a little polish too lol, my great grandfather is polish and my great grandmothers is Ukraine ;)

SSpringer,

the same with me. :) Since I know my great great grandfather was Polish, dunno where he lived exactly, hope to find out. It's great I have some Polish roots, it explains also my attitude to Poland and Polish people :)

Though when I was a child, my grandfather told me also one of my veery distant relatives, (like g-g-g- etc. father) was a Tatar duke, lol.