Polish surnames: Origin and Meaning?

Polonius3Threads: 1,005 Posts: 4,833 Joined: Apr 11, 08 ♂	Feb 19, 10, 11:40 #31
MIŁKOWSKI: toponymic nick from Miłkowo or Miłków (Niceville, Pleasantville)

gmc	Mar 1, 10, 19:22 #32
my grandparents came to America in 1895 and then changed thier name to Lucas. I have thier last name as Lokaschun on the Hamburg Passerger list, Lucassan, Luchassan, Lucassen on the USA census. The passenger list says he came from Vilinus. I cannot find Lockaschun or anything like it in any telephone directory. Can anyone tell me the correct spelling of this name and the origin? Thanks so much!

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Edited by: marqoz Mar 2, 10, 12:02 #33

gmc:

Lockaschun

Maybe it was Łukaszun:
I've found in google: Augustyn Łukaszun in matrimonial and death certificates for St. John's parish in Wilno in 1876: http://www.stankiewicze.com/index.php?kat=41&sub=615 and Anna Łukaszun: http://www.stankiewicze.com/index.php?kat=41&sub=623

Google knows!

And you have 70 people who have this family name in Poland now:
http://www.moikrewni.pl/mapa/kompletny/łukaszun.html. They dispersed after WW2, but probably all were from Wilno and its surroundings. The name is probably of Lithuanian origin...
or even Latvian: Lukašunas

niedzwiedzThreads: - Posts: 1 Joined: Mar 4, 10 ♂	Mar 4, 10, 06:29 #34
Hello, I am wondering if the name Dzarnowski is researchable. I have not found anything yet. If the name does mean something, I will seriously consider paying for a more in depth explanation.

Polonius3Threads: 1,005 Posts: 4,833 Joined: Apr 11, 08 ♂	Mar 4, 10, 08:50 #35
DŻARNOWSKI/DZIARNOWSKI: arhcaic root-word dziarno (variant forms: dżarno, dziarń, drząstwo, etc.) = kind of fine gravel; or archaic adj. dziarny (hard-working). Several hundred bearers of Dziarnowski spelling in Poland.

gmc	Mar 9, 10, 14:40 #36
OMGOSH Thank you so much!! I will look into it. I am so glad I remembered to check back here so my emai is Aceg1402@aol.com

sennes0071	Jun 10, 10, 12:38 #37
I heard there is a Polish surname Pakula. I'm Finnish and have this surname, and I most definitely have no relations to Poland. I am interested, if this name has some meaning in Polish? It would be great if somebody helped a bit.

Polonius3Threads: 1,005 Posts: 4,833 Joined: Apr 11, 08 ♂	Jun 10, 10, 16:26 #38
PAKUŁA: pakuł or pakuła are Polish terms for oakum (strands of old rope pulled into loose hemp and used for caulking windows and ship’s seams). Probably only a DNA test could rule out any Polish blood flowing in your veins. Who knows if some Polish trader, traveller or adventurer didn’t travel north to Finland to sow his wild oats generations ago and decided to put down roots and stay.

Jan OzimkowskiThreads: - Posts: 1 Joined: Jun 21, 10 ♂	Jun 21, 10, 11:06 #39
Hi Polonius3 - you are very well informed. Perhaps you will be able to help me? I've been looking for information on my surname "Ozimkowski" - I have been told it's not very common even in Poland. Do you have any more information? Thanks Jan

Polonius3Threads: 1,005 Posts: 4,833 Joined: Apr 11, 08 ♂	Jun 21, 10, 11:14 #40
OZIMKOWSKI: basic-root ozimek - (literally near winter) means an animal born before winter, ie out of season, because most farm animals are born in spring. The -owski is a toponymic indicator, so it probably originated as a nickname for someone from the village of Ozimek.

polishchicago	Edited by: Moderator Jun 26, 10, 15:07 #41
My last name is Guminski.. My grandparents Joseph & Josephine Guminski I believe emigrated from Poland in the late 1890's or very early 1900-03. My grandfather told me he was born in or near Krakov.. Please use the thread: THE MEANING OF YOUR POLISH LAST NAME? when asking for a name check

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Feb 1, 11, 10:34 #42

Polonius i need your help...

This is my history: I was born in argentina my surname is COMARNISKY
This surname comes from my great grand parents the came to argentina escaping from the war in poland... when they got here they did not get ID so our goverment give them argentinians ID but the problem is that they speak diferent language so the couldn't understand eachothers and they spell it all wrong...

I would like to know if anyone can help me to spell it the right way and whats the meaning... So i can change my Name...

Thanks

Genesearch	Feb 11, 11, 19:33 #43
Have found Spoczynek - a village in Poland. Am looking for meaning of name Spoczynski. Understand ski - ska may mean son of daughter of. Am only family in UK with this surname and in the process of trying to confirm family connections in USA, so am eager to pass on any information pertaining to the name. First family connections known to come from Warsaw, but difficult to trace. Can anyone help?

Polonius3Threads: 1,005 Posts: 4,833 Joined: Apr 11, 08 ♂	Feb 13, 11, 00:24 #44
About 180 Spoczyńskis in Poland, half of them living in the Warsaw-Radom area of Mazowsze

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Aug 1, 11, 15:05 #45

Hi,

My partner and myself will be changing our surname to her families traditional name of Petrzywalski. Having researched a bit we can only find this name in England and nothing relating back to Poland. My thoughts on this is that in their emigration to England it was perhaps misspelt in the translation. Anyone have any ideas as to the origins and perhaps the original spelling?

Very much appreciated.
P.

Polonius3Threads: 1,005 Posts: 4,833 Joined: Apr 11, 08 ♂	Aug 1, 11, 16:56 #46
Petrzywalski couldn't find this name in any Polish database. The closest are Petrzycki, Petrzyk, Petrzykowski and similar. They all are traceable to the first name Piotr.

PetrzywalskiThreads: - Posts: 3 Joined: Aug 1, 11 ♀	Aug 1, 11, 17:46 #47
Thank you very much for your reply. I have a sneaking suspicion that the spelling really got changed, or perhaps it is from a different area. I guess we will have to keep searching. They are pretty definite that it is Polish.

tpennThreads: - Posts: 2 Joined: Aug 1, 11 ♂	Aug 1, 11, 18:44 #48
Didn't know about it before. Thanks for the information.

Polonius3Threads: 1,005 Posts: 4,833 Joined: Apr 11, 08 ♂	Aug 1, 11, 23:18 #49
Indeed. Esp. the 'trz' combination is typically Polish.

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Aug 1, 11, 23:33 #50

It seems rather likely that the name could have been derived from the village of Pietrzwałd (German: Peterswalde) in the Masuria reigon's Ostróda area. In German it means Peterswood, whilst Pietrzwałd is a translation with no meaning in Polish.
The adjectival form would be Pietrzwałdzki in Polish, but considering that was an area of mixed Germanic and Polish interaction, many spelling variants could have been possible. Since things got recopied in centuries past by generations of semi-literate priests and village scribes, letters could have been added (the 'y' for instance), whilst the 'dz' could have got dropped with '-wałdzki' ending up as
'-walski'.

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Aug 2, 11, 16:01 #51

Polonius3 you have been so helpful. Thank you so very much for all the information. I feel like I'm not going crazy now with not being able to find any reference for the surname outside of England. I'm glad that you have suggested that it is still indeed Polish, but misspelt in translation. I was very excited to pass on your ideas for adjectival form Pietrzwaldzki to my partner. I'm very impressed with your knowledge. xx

P.

Des EssientesThreads: 11 Posts: 2,318 Joined: Feb 6, 10 ♂ [Suspended]	Aug 4, 11, 16:30 #52
Is Kerabatsos a Polish surname?

Polonius3Threads: 1,005 Posts: 4,833 Joined: Apr 11, 08 ♂	Aug 5, 11, 14:59 #53
Doesn't appear so. Nobody in Poland uses this surname which appears maybe Baltic (Lithuanian or Latvian) or Greek (???).

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Aug 5, 11, 17:55 #54

this surname which appears maybe Baltic

Thats what I think it is supposed to be. It is the surname of Donny the friend of the Polish-American characters Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski and Walter Sobchak in the Cohen brothers' comedy film which pays tribute to the attitudinal diversity of Polonia in California titled The Big Lebowski. I suppose they had Donny be a Lithuanian in reference to the Polish-Lithuanian alliance of years gone by, thus also making their battle with the German nihilists, in which Donny loses his life, a sort of Battle of Grunewald in an LA bowling alley parking lot.

suzie	Oct 12, 11, 23:58 #55
my father was german.his mother. my paternal grandmother was born in east prussia which today is either bylorussia i believe. her surname was zaplo. is this russian polish or gypsy ?

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Oct 13, 11, 00:22 #56

suzie:

is this russian polish or gypsy ?

Gypsies haven't mixed with the nations they used to live among that much (they still don't mix very much) - so unless your grandmother was actually a Gypsy he couldn't bear a Gypsy surname

then East Prussia is not Byelarus - what was East Prussia is now in half in Poland and in half the Kaliningrad enclave of Russia

only a handful of nations inhabited East Prussia - Germans, Poles (Mazurzy/Masuren), Lithuanians and Russian religious emigrees (raskolnitsy - starowiercy/ Old Believers) - the surname of your grandmom may sounds Polish or Russian (or Ruthenian) - if it is spelled as it is written

using the German spelling (were 'z' stands for 'ts') - then it's pretty obviously Masurian (dialectal Polish) surname - it means heron - and in standard Polish is written 'Czapla' and pronounced 'Chahplah'

my1sandra	Jan 12, 12, 20:37 #57
Does anybody know of the orgin of Mroguschewski or Wasserfurt is? These are my great grandparents last name and I believe it is Polish.

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Jan 12, 12, 22:03 #58

my1sandra:

Does anybody know of the orgin of Mroguschewski or Wasserfurt is? These are my great grandparents last name and I believe it is Polish.

the name is indeed of Polish origin but your great grandfather may not have actually considered himself Polish - Wasserfurt is a German place name - I look up if it perhaps is a German name to a place in Poland (Germany occupied large chunk of Poland before the WWI)

my1sandra	Jan 13, 12, 23:07 #59
Thank you so much for the reply. Looking through their old records, seems like my grand parents may have been born in Poland or Russia but but later lived in Germany and had their childen before they moved to America and changed their last name to Meinke.

Polonius3Threads: 1,005 Posts: 4,833 Joined: Apr 11, 08 ♂	Jan 15, 12, 10:33 #60
MROGUSZEWSKI(?): As far as I know, no-one in Poland uses this name at present. About the only surnames with the mrog- syllable are Mrogaś, Mrogenda, Mrogiel, Mrogowski and Mrogulec. Most likely they derive from the verb mrugać (wink, bat one’s eyelid) or Old Polish mrygać or mergać (to look at, eyeball something). WASSERFURT: German/Yiddish for Waterford.

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