What should I end my last name with?

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Mar 7, 07, 23:37 #1

Hello all,
OK, last year when my husband & I got married there was much discussion on if & when I took his last name (I'm going to hyphenate) how it would end. Our daughter's last name ends in CZNA, because she was born into it. So, when I finally get around to officially making the change (I'll do it by the end of this month as it would have been our 1 yr anniv, he passed away in sept) should it end in CZNY or CZNA? The INS has me listed with the CZNY spelling. I have discussed this with his friend & my daughter's Godfather & he said that in Poland it would be CZNA but in the US it is more common to go with the male version of the name.
Any insight would be helpful as I would need to change my passport before we travel to Poland this summer.
Thanks!
KT

TlumThreads: 17 Posts: 136 Joined: Feb 20, 07 ♂	Mar 8, 07, 00:06 #2
If you are a female, the last name should end with -czna; for males it should be -czny; for the family -czni.

krysiaThreads: 26 Posts: 3,604 Joined: Aug 10, 06 ♀	Mar 8, 07, 00:23 #3
They don't have a clue in the US on whether it's female ending or male. I know males ending with czna. It sounds funny to me, because I know it's for female, but they don't know that. They just walk around with czna and have no idea whatsoever. So If you want czna, do it.

Patrycja19Threads: 79 Posts: 3,974 Joined: Oct 31, 06 ♀	Mar 8, 07, 00:28 #4
Quoting: krysia They don't have a clue in the US on whether it's female ending or male. I do mom ska, dad ski

krysiaThreads: 26 Posts: 3,604 Joined: Aug 10, 06 ♀	Mar 8, 07, 00:33 #5
We were all skis. Mom. Dad, brothers, sisters we all were skis because in the US they said ska it was a different name.

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Mar 8, 07, 00:38 #6

Quoting: krysia

We were all skis. Mom. Dad, brothers, sisters we all were skis because in the US they said ska it was a different name.

yes, they just used the male last name in the U.S. but I found out long time ago
the two different meanings for last name female being ska and male ski

I was also told, that the Sky Meant that they were from Russia. <~? scratches
head, and this was a cousin of mine. I didnt think that had anything to do with
it, because during two different time periods my grandma was german pole and
then she was russian pole

but I learned alot thru genealogy searches.

karturnThreads: 11 Posts: 21 Joined: Mar 7, 07 ♀	Mar 8, 07, 13:25 #7
Thank you. So not to add any more confusion I am going with the CZNA ending. It's going to be hard enough to get people to pronounce it right, I don't want to have to explain to people the difference, especially when my daughter starts school. KT

MarekThreads: 4 Posts: 1,120 Joined: Feb 15, 07 ♂	Mar 9, 07, 07:51 #8
Just my two-cents worth, but I learned that male and females names, e.g. "Nowak, i.e. "Pan Nowak vs. "Pani Nowakowa" vary if the family name is of an unmarried woman, for example "Nowakowa" = "Mrs. Nowak", whereas "Nowakówna" would be then "Miss Nowak" (but not "Miss Nowakowa"). Is this correct? I ask because the above is not identical in every Slavic language, such as Czech or Russian. Marek

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Edited by: glowa Mar 9, 07, 07:59 #9

Marek, what you mentioned is correct but applies to spoken language and is also a tad archaic. In a passport you'd write Nowak for both the Ms. and the Mrs.

Karturn, in the 'theory' you'd just go for CZNA indeed, and I say, do simply that .

Sometimes, however and it's only dependent on the history or habits rather of a given family, women use the male form of the last name. It's very rare nowadays. Used to be more common long long time ago.

MarekThreads: 4 Posts: 1,120 Joined: Feb 15, 07 ♂	Edited by: Marek Mar 9, 07, 10:20 #10
Hi, "Head" ! A tad archaic, I suppose, much as "Panna" for "Pani", to indicate an unmarried woman. I've never used "Panna" by the way, even though we learned it in school. Marek

Henri DeToi

May 31, 10, 20:01 #11

I was watching the French Open Tennis and I noticed that a lot of female players from Eastern Europe ended with "a" while men did not. I told that to my better half and she laughed at me...as usual. I can't wait for her to come home from work to tell her that my observation actually made sense. If Sharapova was a man (Impossible…if you know what I mean, Llol), it would be Sharapov; Petrova, Petrov etc... Thanks, I learned something new today.

bpeer88

Jan 15, 12, 21:42 #12

I don't know about all of you guys but when I immigrated from Poland my last name is now ending with a -ski. My Polish passport ends with a -ska. I wouldn't worry too much about this. If anything, when you go to Poland it can be a conversational piece (which is always the case for me). Now things are simplified that I am married, the only problem is that it seems that some people can't get my new last name out of their mouth,.

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