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Question on my name...


bobbyjThreads: 1
Posts: 2
Joined: Feb 3, 09 		  Feb 3, 09, 20:03 /  #
I believe my grandfather came to the USA in 1880 or 1881 from very near Augustowa. He spelled his name here "Dzianik", even over 25 years later. I'm trying to figure out if this is Polish, Russian, or Lithuanian.

The name was Americanized TO "Janik" which is my last name which sees to be a common Polish surname. I wondering why my grandfather persisted in spelling his name Dzianik. Is it possible I have been misinformed and that he's not even from Augustawa, perhaps Sloakia where the "Dzianik" exists (I don't see it in Poland anywhere).

I'm also wondering why would my grandfather leave during a boom time in that area of Poland and soon after the Russian/Turkish War (1878-1879). He was 20 or 21 when he left for the USA. My father, who is deceased, always said that my grandfather was a Russian Cossack.

Thanks in advance for your help!
plk123Threads: 30
Posts: 6,410
Joined: Aug 29, 07 		Edited by: plk123   Feb 3, 09, 21:08 /  #
augustów?

because his name IS Dzianik?

it definitely can be polish... augustów is located what has historically always been poland.
Polonius3Threads: 963
Posts: 4,547
Joined: Apr 11, 08 		  Feb 4, 09, 10:14 /  #
There are more than 21,000 Janiks in Poland (a surname dervied from Jan /John/), but not a single Dzianik. Dzianik is the way your garden variety American would pronounce Janik, but that does not solve this mystery. Dzianik would definitely be a Polish spelling, because a Ukrainian would most likely transcribe his Cyrillic name into something like Dyanyk.
bobbyjThreads: 1
Posts: 2
Joined: Feb 3, 09 		  Feb 4, 09, 12:32 /  #
What is throwing me is that there are so few people that currently spell their name "Dzianik". I have found only three people that do and all are in Bratislav, Slovakia, to the south of Poland. I have tried to contact those three people, but haven't been able to. What is hard to understand is that my grandfather was educated and rather than Americanizing his name to "Janik" after being in America for over 20 years, he signed his name as "Charles Dzianik".
bobbyjThreads: 1
Posts: 2
Joined: Feb 3, 09 		  Feb 5, 09, 19:12 /  #
Polonius3:
Dzianik is the way your garden variety American would pronounce Janik, but that does not solve this mystery.

Americans have difficulty pronouncing "Dzianik", so it's not at all an "Americanized" name. It was converted from Dzianik (my granfather's spelling) to Janik (his children's spelling) in America. Americans pronounce "Dzianik" as Dee-Zee-a-nik.
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