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Origin of most popular Polish surnames


posts: 3

Polonius3Threads: 1,005
Posts: 4,833
Joined: Apr 11, 08 ♂ 		Edited by: Moderator  Sep 26, 10, 22:39    #1
These are Poland's top 10 surnames and approximate no. of users:
NOWAK: new guy in town - 200,000
KOWALSKI: patronymic from kowal (blacksmith) or topo nick from Kowale (Smithville) - 140,000
WI¦NIEWSKI: topo nick from Wi¶niewo (Cherryville) - 110,000
WÓJCIK: patronymic from wójt (rural mayor) - 99,000
KOWALCZYK: patronymic from kowal - 97,000
KAMIŃSKI: topo nick from Kamień (Rockville, Stonebury) - 94,000
LEWANDOWSKI: topo nick from Lewandów or Lewandowszczyzna (Lavenderville) - 92,000
ZIELIŃSKI: topo nick from Zielin (Greenville) 91,000
SZYMAŃSKI: topo nick from Szymany (Simonville) - 89,000
WO¬NIAK: patronymic from wo¼ny (court crier) - 88,000.

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ZedThreads: -
Posts: 304
Joined: May 25, 10 ♂ 		 Sep 26, 10, 23:00    #2
I would say Wo¼niak most definitely comes from wo¼nica. There were plenty of those in the old times wherease wo¼ny was a rare "animal".
Polonius3Threads: 1,005
Posts: 4,833
Joined: Apr 11, 08 ♂ 		 Sep 27, 10, 12:33    #3
Yes, indeed, especially in view of its popularity. Except that linguistically Wo¼niak is a closer derivative from wo¼ny than wo¼nica. Incidentally there are at least 3,500 people named Wo¼nicki and more than 4,000 using the Wo¼niczak surnames which would be the ideal patronymics from wo¼nica. Besides, this was only a thumb-nail sketch, not a full-blown analysis.

ATTENTION MODERATOR: Kindly correct WO¬NAIK to WO¬NIAK in the heading of the original post. Many dziźks!


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