THE MEANING OF YOUR POLISH LAST NAME?

brenda611	Sep 14, 10, 23:50 #1,261
no what about birdina its not anywhere and never been heard of its my middle name

zetigrekThreads: 59 Posts: 2,709 Joined: May 20, 10 ♂	Sep 15, 10, 00:30 #1,262
brenda611: birdina never heard neither.

BookOwlThreads: - Posts: 33 Joined: Aug 27, 10 ♀	Sep 15, 10, 00:57 #1,263
Hello, could you please tell me the meaning of my grandparents' Polish surnames: Pconka (used to be spelled Pczonka in Poland, but the "z" got lost in the ocean on the way to America! :-) ) Strojny Uszko Gonciarz Thank you very much!

Polonius3Threads: 1,005 Posts: 4,833 Joined: Apr 11, 08 ♂	Sep 15, 10, 01:40 #1,264
BIRDINA?: No clue! PCZONKA/PCONKA: probably variant spelling of Pstrzonka from verb pstrzyć (bespeckle, cover with spots, dapple, make multi-coloured) STROJNY: dressy, fancy, smartly decked out, fashionable USZKO: little ear; also tiny filled dumpling or mini-pierogi (uszka) GONCIAR: Czech-influenced form of gonciarz (shingle-maker). For more info please contact polonius3@gazeta.pl

dwnukThreads: - Posts: 1 Joined: Sep 16, 10 ♂	Sep 16, 10, 05:12 #1,265
Thread attached on merging: Wnukowski - what it means and possibly where in Poland its from, and how common it is. Wnukowski Just wondering what it means and possibly where in Poland its from. oo and how common it is.

KberkowskiThreads: - Posts: 1 Joined: Sep 16, 10 ♂	Sep 16, 10, 05:55 #1,266
My last name is Berkowski does anyone know the meaning or where it originated at? Any help will be great as I am clueless of where it came from and who in my family came from Poland.

1jolaThreads: 33 Posts: 2,737 Joined: Sep 23, 08 ♂	Sep 16, 10, 08:07 #1,267
Wnuk means grandson.

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Sep 16, 10, 12:13 #1,268

WNUKOWSKI: root-word wnuk (grandson); topo nick from Wnukowo (Grandsonville); fewer than 1,000 users, nearly 200 in Radom area

BERKOWSKI: possible sources include the German word Berg (mountain), German name Behr or Jewish name Berko.

BIRDINA?: There exist such surnames in Poland as Byrda and Byrdy; origin is uncertain uncertain but some suggest Old Polish bardo (weaver’s comb), barda (baltle-axe) or bard (hillock) as possible sources.

For more info please contact: polonius3@gazeta.pl

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Sep 16, 10, 13:06 #1,269

PIŁSUDSKI: topo nick from Piłsudy, Polish name for Pilsudai in Samogitia; from patriotic Polish family reportedly of partially Lithuanian stock..

MATEJKO: common to Poland, Slovakia and Ukraine; hypocoristic form of first name Matyjasz (English Matthias) originally from Ancient Hebrew Mettithejah meaning ‘gift of Jehovah’; father was Czech, motehr Polish-German.

CHOPIN: name of French origin possibly from the verb “chopiner” (to tipple), so a chopin would be a boozer, souse, etc. Chopin’s father was a full-blooded but culturally polonised Frenchman.

COPERNICUS: Latin name for astronomer Mikołaj Kopernik; topo nick from Silesian village of Koperniki, earlier also known as Köppernig and Köppernick, or occupational tag because dad was a Kraków copper merchant; mother was German-Polish

KOŚCIUSZKO: from Belarussian hypocoristic form of Konstanty.

NOTE: Names are not the same as nationality, and the contributions of the above to Poland’s national heritage is indisputable Anyone know if any DNA studies have been conducted on the above? If a Frenchman named Lapin settled in Poland in 1721 and nearly all his male antecedents over the following generations married Polish women, with a few marrying German, Jewish and Ukrainian ladies, would the Lapins of 2010 still be considered French?

hiyper	Sep 16, 10, 16:45 #1,270
what is the meaning of and how do you spell and pronounce this properly : Laneski? do i need the e in there or is it Lanski or something? im part polish and Lane is the last name i use but the proper last name is Laneski or something? would be great if i could get some help cheers!

hiyper	Sep 16, 10, 17:57 #1,271
did some searching and it came up with : Łańskie ? is that correct? cheers

Polonius3Threads: 1,005 Posts: 4,833 Joined: Apr 11, 08 ♂	Sep 16, 10, 18:25 #1,272
ŁAŃSKI: topo nick from Łańsk; root-word probably archaic/dialectic łańka (łąka) - meadow

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Edited by: ShockTroop Sep 17, 10, 15:07 #1,273

i'm curious about my surname, if anyone could shed some light on it.

my last name is Bober, from my dziadek's side, and my babcia's last name is Stasiak. i'm more sure of the Stasiak name, but Bober is very difficult to find, except for the same, "Eastern German and Jewish (from Ukraine and Poland): from Polish bóbr ‘beaver’, Yiddish bober, applied as an ornamental name or as a nickname for someone thought to resemble the animal in some way.", repeated on every site i search.

i am not sure if Bober, in my case, is really yiddish (hope not), because i am a bit unsure of what my babcia's reaction will be, if i ask her. i have, however, asked if it was originally spelled "Bobr", to which she replied, "no, it's Bober, otherwise you'd be called 'Boober', and you wouldn't want that, now would you?".

i'd like to know, because my dziadek died when i was very young, and i learned very little about him. thanks

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Sep 17, 10, 15:29 #1,274

my dziadzia died when i was very young, and i didn't learn much about him. my babcia's surname is "Stasiak", and my dziadzia's name is Bober. any help?

i've seen, "Eastern German and Jewish (from Ukraine and Poland): from Polish bóbr ‘beaver’, Yiddish bober, applied as an ornamental name or as a nickname for someone thought to resemble the animal in some way.", but so far, that doesn't help. as far as i know, i'm not jewish.

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Sep 17, 10, 15:42 #1,275

BOBER: bober is the peasant dialectic form of bób (broad bean or fava bean, scientific name: Vicia faba); peasant nicknames derived from the names of corps, tools, livestock, etc. often evolved into bona fide surnames including Groch (pea), Sałata (lettuce), Żyto (rye), Byk (bull), Łopata (spade), Motyka (hoe), etc.

STASIAK: this is a straightforward patronymic nickname indicating the son of Staś (compare Stanson).

Polonius3Threads: 1,005 Posts: 4,833 Joined: Apr 11, 08 ♂	Sep 17, 10, 21:26 #1,276
Stasiak and Bober have already been explained elsewhere.

Lukasz KThreads: - Posts: 108 Joined: Feb 5, 08 ♂	Sep 17, 10, 21:33 #1,277
The name Bober is quite popular in Poland. There are about 9000 people with these name in Poland. Bober is an old fasioned (or regonal?) way of saying bóbr (beaver) so the name can be Polish but it can be yiddish as well. Regards Łukasz

Polonius3Threads: 1,005 Posts: 4,833 Joined: Apr 11, 08 ♂	Sep 19, 10, 14:47 #1,278
ŁYSZCZEK: possibly from verb łyszczeć (regional for błyszczeć - to shine, glitter, glisten, sparkle) RÓG - róg is the Polish word for horn; possibly topo niclk from Rogowo (Hornville) KWAŚNY: from word for sour (kwaśny); maybe a nick for a sourpuss. For more info please contact: polonius3@gazeta.pl

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Edited by: ShockTroop Sep 20, 10, 13:25 #1,279

thank you all very much for your answers, they have helped a great deal.

my grandfather was supposedly born in Eastern Poland, so it may very well be yiddish, which is odd, because there has never been any mention of jewry in my family. the only thing i can think of, is the pair of books, in hebrew, from the 40's with the "Berlin Library" stamp on it. my family, as well as many others, did get deported a lot during the war, so they may have picked it in the fracas.

there should be more interest in Polish surnames, and Polish history in general. we have had such a long eventful history, and i'm sure there's a lot of lost history, due to war.

(P.S. sorry for the double post)

A J XIV	Sep 20, 10, 13:37 #1,280
brenda611: THE MEANING OF YOUR POLISH LAST NAME? I don't know if my last name is Polish or French to be honest. Some say it's Polish, some say it's French. :S Are you going to remove this aswell?

ShockTroopThreads: - Posts: 5 Joined: Sep 17, 10 ♂	Edited by: ShockTroop Sep 20, 10, 13:52 #1,281
last question, if you will. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~jkmacmul/namemeaning s-coatofarms/bumber.html is this correct, possibly correct, or just wishful thinking on the author's part? it seems legitimate. (P.S. i know some of the information has already been confirmed here, but the rest is of interest to me)

Polonius3Threads: 1,005 Posts: 4,833 Joined: Apr 11, 08 ♂	Edited by: Polonius3 Sep 20, 10, 18:44 #1,282
Polish armorial resourcers list Gryf as the clan to which nobles of the Bober family belonged. Scroll down on the link for a glimpse of the Gryf heraldic device: http://pl.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Plik:Gryf_herb.svg&filetimes tamp=20061112204717

Polonius3Threads: 1,005 Posts: 4,833 Joined: Apr 11, 08 ♂	Sep 20, 10, 21:49 #1,283
TUCHANOWSKI: root-word possibly archaic verb tuchlić (to hide, conceał); probably topo nick from Tuchań, Tuchanie or (less likely) Tuchlin.

Polonius3Threads: 1,005 Posts: 4,833 Joined: Apr 11, 08 ♂	Sep 20, 10, 23:15 #1,284
EKNER: probably from Old High German first name Eckhart BIGARCZYK: patronmyic nick from biegarz/biegacz (someone often seen ruinning from place to place) KAPUŚNIAK: cabbage or suaerkraut soup ŻAKOWICZ: patronymic nick meaning the scholar's son.

singwell

Sep 21, 10, 02:13 #1,285

My mum in law is Gudrun Ilse Kauschke, who was born in Breslau Silesia in 1933. Her father, Wilhelm Julius Richard Kauschke was born in Rothlach Kreis Bunzlau in 1888. His father was Julius August Kauschke, but we don't know anything about him, other than his wife being Emma Anna John. All we have is from the Familienstammbuch, which was one of the few things grabbed as my mother in law and her mother, the last survivors of their family, fled west in 1945.
The name is of mixed German/Slavic origin. In the Middle Ages, young poor from the cities were recruited to colonise the frontiers, in order to keep the Slavs back. This is the origin of the Pied Piper story. The 'children' were really teens and twenties who were lured by musicians and fast talkers to 'sign up', with the promise of land.
The Kauschkes got their name from the village of Kauschen in Silesia. Add to this a slavic ending -ka, and you have a Kausch-ka, a person from Kauschen. The earliest on the IGI have fantastic names like Melchior and Balthasar, which are more used amongst the Slavs as well, so there must have been some intermarriage.

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Sep 21, 10, 09:37 #1,286

KAUSZKA: This is the only form of the name currently used in Poland. It is used by 12 people: Bydgoszcz and environs (German Bromberg) 8, Elbląg (Elbing) 1, Gdańsk (Danzig) 3. New armies marching in, new rulers setting up shop, border shifts, partitions, occupations, etc. have made the de-ethnicisation and re-ethnicisation of surnames fairly common in this part of Europe. Someone named Góra found it expedient at some point to become a Berg. Another time, a Schultz may have changed his surname to Szulc or even Sołtys.

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Edited by: ShockTroop Sep 21, 10, 15:02 #1,287

Polonius3:

Polish armorial resourcers list Gryf as the clan to which nobles of the Bober family belonged.
Scroll down on the link for a glimpse of the Gryf heraldic device

now, i'm not completely sure what this means, but i know it gives me so much more to go on! by that, i mean that i'm aware that this doesnt necessarily mean that is MY crest, but what do i know, it'll take some more digging ;)

i'm recently become interested in Polish history in general, and the Gryf clan mentions the RTC, so perhaps Bobers were once peasants, who fought for Poland against the Teutons, and gained some sort of noble title?

regardless, this is very interesting, i'm overjoyed.

you're a Godsend, thank you.

♀

Sep 23, 10, 01:13 #1,288

Any information on my surname JARASZKIEWICZ. My father was born in the Poznan area but where did the name originate? I've heard it could have come from further east, towards Russia. Taking off the ending ,kiewicz/son of, what is the nearest meaning of JARASZ? My Polish grandmother's surname was KAPOLA. Are there any clues to where this may have originated. It sounds foreign to Poland! All help greatly appreciated. Thank you. Catherine /Kasia from Scotland.

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Edited by: Polonius3 Sep 23, 10, 02:21 #1,289

JARASZKIEWICZ: Jarosz, Jarasz, Jarek, Jarko, Jaruś, Jaruszko, etc. are all hypocoristic (pet) forms of such old Slavonic first names as Jaromir, Jarosław or Jarogniew. When someone known by those endearing names fathered a son... presto - you got Jaroszkiewicz or Jaraszkiewicz. In modern Polish jarosz means vegetarian, but the surname probably emerged long before that meaning went into use.
Incidentally, Jaroszkiewicz is at least five times more comon in Poland than Jaraszkiewicz, but Jaraszkiewicz is the more prebvalent version in and around Wielkopolska which includes the Poznań and Sieradz areas.

BOBER: To ShockTroop: This means that the unfamilair coat of arms you showed is not found in Polish armorials (compendia showing different coats of arms). The only heraldic device to which the sole noble line of the Bober family was entitled to use was Gryf. That branch of the Bober family somehow got ennobled probably by adoption or marriage into the Gryf clan and thereby acquired the right to identify themselves with that clan's heraldic emblem.
Incidentailly, Bober is peasant dialect for both beaver (bóbr) and the broad bean (bób).

plumpelump	Sep 23, 10, 07:03 #1,290
Can someone please help me shed some light on my last name? (Horodecki) Is the origin Polish, or Ukrainian? Any meaning to the name? I know nothing of the history of the surname. Thanks for any help.

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