Most famous Polish names?

Hi, sorry if this has been asked before.

But, I'm just curious of the culture and its people.Its kind of odd to ask this question,i don't know if its the same in Poland when you want to find out about the names.


I would like to know what are most respected Polish last name(s)?Like the name that is ancient and has been around a while or a name that was named after a king or queen.

And what are most popular/mostly used last name(s)?

I hope you understand the difference between the two.

are you getting a couple of fake ids before moving to Poland?

go with Nowak as the popular one,

and Potocki (or Leszczynski) as the 'ancient' one

Nowak comes from the word nowy (new) and actually meant "newcomer to village"

other good Polish surnames are ones like Burak and Baran

thanks witek :)

Depending where you live in Poland.
Some areas in smaller villages are famous for Szewczyk, Stolarczyk, Wąsik and other areas are famous for names ending with ski.

Krysia: all these three sound so Wisconsin :)

No, i'm not moving to Poland.I'm just being curious.

Ok i see.

What about just people who come from Warsaw.what surname would be considered most respected?When i say respected, i mean like when people hear their name they go like ''oh...hes Szewczyk so he must be coming from good family''.(good family meaning not necessarily having $, but having great deal of respect,culture).
Another words, do surnames in Poland define or tell who the person is and from what kind of family he is coming from and exc...?Because where i come from it pretty much does.

FLOYD MAYWEATHER !

Would Leszczynski be Leszek?

How is filipowicz looked at?Is it considered common surname?

No...

It's quite... normal.

one of the most popular is Kowalski and it's from "kowal" - "smith", which is also popular in Britain, isn't it?

Kowalski, Wiśniewski and Nowak. :)

389 >
Filipowicz is equal to Philipson, so yes, it should be considered a pretty normal name.

How did you know that? ;)

futrega.org/etc/nazwiska.html - 20 000 the most popular Polish names ;)

Or something like here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_common_surnames#Poland - also great! : ))))

jagiellonian. that was the name of the most powerful polish royal dynasty!

I don't know after looking into these sites.I couldn't find Filipowicz anywhere near the list.I searched first 1200 some names and couldn't find it and than i just didn't bother anymore.lol it hurts eyes looking into this things.

Anyway,i'm surprised there are so many surnames.

Toczynski is the most respected one!!

my mothers maiden name was Kwiatkowska ( which in English means flower). My mother came to the UK (Scotland) after WW2 to marry my dad. I still have relatives in Poland

How about Radziwiłł. It is a royal name. I don't remember who, but one of the royal descendants married the Kennedy clan member in the USA...you know the president Kennedy who got shot...the legend.

Former US First Lady's (Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis) younger sister -Caroline Lee Bouvier Canfield Radziwiłł Ross, married in 1959 a Polish Prince: Stanisław Albrecht Radziwiłł. They had a son Anthony (Antoni) Radziwill (1959-1999) and a daughter Anna Christina (Anna Krystyna) Radziwill (1960)

i don't know how common my last name is, but all i know is i get tired of hearing the jokes about the basketball player! :D

Which basketball player?

Dydek ?

Thats so sad, Im a nowak! Here is SA im so unique. Now when I'll go to Poland I'll be such a simple Jo. Sigh.

Those lists were very interesting. My husband's family name, Lakowski, isn't on the long one (or the short one!), but that's no surprise as there aren't any known Lakowskis living in Poland any longer. One branch of the family moved to the U.S. in the 1880's or so, and the remainder were sent to concentration camps or shot in WWII as they were Catholic intellectuals and business owners, and none survived. The American branch is still around and there has been some contact between the Canadians and the Americans. My father-in-law says it's a totally different name from the common "Laskowski" and was armigerous; apparently some family members had copies of coats-of-arms but those are all lost now. I don't doubt him on the variation - my mother's family name is Schirmacher with an "i", very specific, NOT Schumacher with a "u", which is a numerous name in Germany. Relatives back in the Heidelberg area confirmed our suspicions that "Schirmacher" probably meant "umbrella-maker" - a relatively new name, perhaps early 18th C.

In countries that don't rely heavily on the "patronymic" last name, whatever the local equivalents of "Miller" and "Smith" are will almost always be among the top names. We had an interesting thing happen in the States during the 1stWW - anti-German sentiment became very pronounced in 1916-17, and German communities and people with obvious German last names were harrassed and worse. Most of these people considered themselves Americans first - what could they do to prove this? Well, many anglicized their last names, both to prove their "Americanness" and to avoid further persecution. So, people named, say, Mueller, Schmidt, or Fischer changed their names to Miller, Smith, or Fisher - the English equivalents. That's why "Miller" is even more popular in the U.S. than in the U.K.

P.S. I think the basketball player you're talking about is Dirk Nowitski, the NBA MVP? From Germany, but obviously has Polish heritage! (I'm from Dallas so I've heard aaaall about him!)

of course. You wouldn't believe how many times i get called dirk, which i think its funny cause i'm only 5"6. :D