POLISH NAMES JEWISH CONVERTS ADOPTED

Did you know that going back to the Jagiellonian period certain Polish names were frequently given to neophytes, Jews who converted to Catholicism. Often these contained the roots of days of the week or months of the year in which the conversion took place. Such names included Majewski, Lipiński, Niedzielski, Poniedzielski, Piątkowski, Wrzesiński, Kwiatkowski, Kwieciński, Styczyński , Czerwińskimi, Sierpińsk, Grudziński, etc. Others included Nowopolski, Nowakowski , Nowicki and Dobrowolski, the latter suggesitng the conversion had been voluntary (by free will). Sometimes it was shortened to Wolski. None of this means that every bearer of the above surnames is of Jewish ancetsry, only that those names were commonly used by converts. Unconveretd Jews often used toponymic surnames such as Krakowski, Lubartowski, Lubelski, Gdański, Poznański, etc. which in Yiddish were Krakower, Lubartower, Lubliner, Danziger, Posener, etc.

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