Polish surname analysis

What does your Polish name mean?
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Most Polish surnames mean something. These include NOWAK (the new guy on the block), PIEKARZ (the baker) KOWALSKI (the blacksmith’s son or helper), WIŚNIEWSKI (the guy from Wiśniewo [Cherryville]), WÓJCIK (the village mayor’s boy) and MAZUR (a native of the forested, lake-studded Mazury region. STASIAK was Stan’s boy and WRÓBEL must have reminded people of a sparrow. Or maybe he came from the village of Wróblewo (Sparrowville).
If you would like a custom-researched analysis of the meaning and derivation of your Polish surname, how many people share it, where they live and whether the name is accompanied by a coat-of-arms, please airmail a $15 personal or bank check (adding $5 for each additional surname) to:
Robert Strybel
ulica Kaniowska 24
01-529 Warsaw, Poland
Learning about your family name can be a good first step towards exploring your family history and heritage. So in addition to the surname analysis you also receive a contact sheet of handy genealogical leads (root-tracing sites, organizations, firms and genealogists) which many Polish Americans have found extremely useful. Speedy service is guaranteed!

true, some names mean something and this is a service people are looking for on this site. Good luck.

sounds good to me.. !!

reasonable too.



um what about money orders? ( like American Express).

I think this will be good thing. especially for this site.

Money orders are fine.

Surnames Kaplon $ Zakrzewski

Kapłon is a young, virgin rooster :)

Kapłon and Zakrzewski are researchable. For detrails conatct research60@gmail.com

"Polonius3" I'm very much interested in this service, but could you please provide an example of what i would receive for my $15 (American)?

Here is the sample several-page analysis you requested someone would get for the nominal $15 fee (with the same research provided for each additional surname at $5) Not included is the two-page contact list of helpful genealogical leads. Please bear in mind that individual surnames differ. Not all have so many people researching them nor so many different coats of arms. Most Polish surnames are not accompanied by even one heraldic device. In many cases, a name’s derivation can be traced back to a variety of possible sources.

POLISH SURNAME ANALYSIS: KOWALSKI

23rd April 2008
Dear Mr Kowalski,
This is to acknowledge receipt of your $15 cheque which arrived in today’s post. Before I get to your family name, first let me provide a bit of general background which may help to show where your surnames and those of others you know fit into the overall scheme of things. In general, Polish surnames originated as nicknames, coined in order to tell people apart. As the population of a given locality grew, more and more people shared such popular baptismal names as Andrzej (or Jędrzej), Stanisław, Jan, Władysław, Józef, Czesław, Maria, Krystyna, Barbara, Katarzyna, Jadwiga or Maria, so there had to be a way of distinguishing them. The most common criteria, according to which such nicknames arose, included:
1. Occupation: Adam Kowal = Adam the blacksmith; Bednarz = the cooper; Krawiec = tailor; Pastuch = shepherd, cowherd; Cieśla = carpenter; Kołodziej = wheelwright; Arendarz = innkeeper; Woźnica = coachman, carter; Piekarz = baker; Kucharz = cook, Stolarz = cabinet-maker, etc.
2. Father’s occupation or first name (patronym): Adam Kowalski or Kowalczyk = Adam the blacksmith’s son; Bednarski or Bednarczyk = the cooper’s boy; Krawczyk = the tailor’s son/helper; Adam Pastusiak = the shepherd’s/cowherd’s son; Woźniak = the coachman’s kid; Jasiak, Janik, Janowicz, Jasiewicz, etc. = John’s boy; Bartosik = son of Bartosz; Stasiak = son of Staś. Common patronymic endings included: -czak, -czyk, -wicz, -ski, -ak, -icz, -ic, -ik, -yk and (in the east) also -uk and -czuk. Sometimes those endings also denoted an apprentice (e.g. Piekarczyk = baker’s helper).
3. First name: A relatively small group of surnames are carbon copies of first names such as Adam, Bogdan, Janusz, Marek and Zygmunt or their diminutives (Łukaszek, Janeczek, Jurek, Wojtek, Staszek); at times they are direct foreign borrowings (Iwan, Wiktor, Urban) or polonized ones (Frydrych, Ignac, Augustyn). They often arose as patronymics (see point 2 - above).
4. Characteristics: Appearance, prominent body part, quirk, trait, habit, etc.: Adam Paluch = big-fingered Adam; Paluszek = little-fingered; Garbaty = humpbacked; Gruby = fat; Chudy = thin; Gwizdała = whistler; Biegała = runner; Głowacki = big-headed; Kolano = knee; Oczko = little-eyed; Posłuszny = obedient; Mały = little; Prędki = swift; Kulawy = limpy; Niziołek = midget; Miły = nice; Nowak = newcomer; Krzywy = crooked, twisted; Ciemięga = clumsy oaf, clod, duffer.
5. Common objects, animals & concepts: Peasants in particular were often named after household and barnyard objects, animals, plants, etc. which with they were associated: Motyka (hoe); Łopata (spade); Baran (ram); Koza (goat); Lis (fox); Jastrząb (hawk); Wróbel (sparrow); Sikora (titmouse); Maślanka (buttermilk) Żyto (rye); Słoma (straw); Serwatka (whey); Mleczko (milk); Zima (winter), Lato (summer); Pogoda (weather); Środa (Wednesday); Piątek (Friday).
6. Place of origin (toponym): Birthplace, place of residence or (in the case of nobility) estate or crest name: Adam Zarzeczny = from across the river or from the village of Zarzecze; Zaleski = living on the other side of the forest or hailing from the village of Zalesie. Most of the many Polish surnames ending in -owski or -ewski were derived from localities ending in -ów, -owo, -owa, -ew or -ewo (such as Dąbrowa, Chmielewo, Piotrów and Wojciechowo).
7. Country, region, religion: Adam Niemiec = Adam the German; Rusin, Rusek = the Ruthenian; Litwin = Lithuanian; Czech = Czech; Węgier = Hungarian; Moskal = Muscovite; Prus = Prussian; Żydek = Jew; Szot = Scot; Szwed: Swede; Duńczyk = Dane; Cygan = Gypsy; Tatar = Tartar; Luter, Luterski = Lutheran; Kalwin; = Calvinist; Nawrot, Nawrocki = convert. Regional names include: Ślązak (Silesian), Mazur (Mazurian), Kaszuba (Kashubian) and Góral (highlander).
8. Miscellaneous, obscure: The origin of some Polish surnames is obscure. Over the centuries, Poland has been invaded and partitioned, foreign names often got polonized, and Polish ones – de-Polonized (Germanized or Russified), later sometimes re-Polonized, misspelled, respelled or otherwise modified by semi-literate priests, who often spoke only their local dialect. During the partitions (1792-1918), names got distorted by German- and Russian-speaking officials. Polish last names often got additionally shortened, respelled or otherwise altered (“Anglo-mangled”) in the New World.
Armed with that background, we are now better equipped to tackle the Polish surname brought over to the New World by your immigrant ancestors.
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KOWALSKI: This is Poland’s second most popular surname, borne by some 140,000 Poles (Nowak is No.1 with more than 203,000 bearers). The root of this surname is “kowal” (blacksmith). Since “-ski” is an adjectival suffix, Kowalski could mean of, about, descended from, pertaining to or associated with the blacksmith. In some cases it arose as a patronymic (see point 2 on page 1 of this report) to mean the blacksmith’s son, but possibly also his apprentice or helper. It might have also referred to someone living in some cubicle attached to the forge in which case it would mean something like the forge-dweller or the forge guy.
Other Kowalskis trace their name to toponymic roots (see point 6 on page 1 of this report). There are numerous localities in Poland that could have produced it including: Kowale (at least 16 such places), Kowala (9) and others called Kowalskie, Kowalów, Kowalowa, Kowalew, Kowalewek, Kowalewice, Kowalewko and Kowalewszczyzna. Just to give you a general idea of the sound and feeling they convey to a native speaker of Polish, on the basis of typical Anglo-Saxon place-naming customs, those localities might be roughly translated into English as Smith’s Corners, Smithville, Smithyburg, Forgeton, Forgeboro or something in that general vein.
According to a widely held rule of thumb suggesting that about one-fourth of all Polish people live abroad, theoretically there may be another 35,000 Kowalskis or so in North America and world-wide. Perhaps over the years you may have occasionally run into unrelated Kowalskis or at least seen the name on store-fronts, billboards or campaign posters as well as in news stories, obituaries or even in movie credits.
In Poland, the largest concentrations of Kowalskis are encountered in the Mazowsze region, notably Greater Warsaw and environs (12,895) and surrounding areas such as Ciechanów to the north (4,348), Płock to the west (4,090) and Radom to the south (3,197). Another major concentration is found in and around the central city of Łódź (6,440). There are significant clusters in northern Poland’s Kujawy region around Toruń (5,131) and the neighboring Bydgoszcz area (5,225) The Kowalskis are also well represented in southern Poland including the areas in and around Katowice (7,986), neighboring Bielsko-Biała (1,253), Kraków (3,430) and Kielce (6,319).
The name was once popular east of today’s border as witnessed by such pockets as Wrocław in the SW (3,838), along the Baltic coast around Gdańsk (4,431) and Szczecin (3,011) and the far-western city of Zielona Góra (1,699) along the German border. Most of the inhabitants of those areas are descended from repatriates brought in after the war from the eastern Polish borderlands annexed by the USSR. Noble lines of the Kowalskis were entitled to use one of several coats of arms including Abdank, Korab, Jasieńczyk and Ostoja (illustrations enclosed).
To give you an idea of the kind of legends that surrounded many Polish heraldic devices, the Ostoja coat of arms (“ostoja” means stronghold, fortress, and mainstay, something steadfast and unconquerable) is believed to have originated in 1069, when a Polish knight captured a pagan scout. The pagan promised to deceive his comrades into thinking the areas was free of Polish troops if his life was spared, and he did precisely that. The unsuspecting pagan force walked right into a trap, the slaughter lasted from one quarter-moon to another, during which time the knights broke many a sword cracking pagan skulls and hacking off their limbs. The knight responsible for the victory received the Ostoja coat of arms as his reward. It depicts a broken sword between two crescent moons on a red shield.
Another Kowalski-linked heraldic device was Jasieńczyk, depicitng a golden key on a blue background. It was awarded by King Casimir the Great to a knight who had proved his prowess in the fight against the pagan Jadvingians. He had served the Holy Roman emperor as chamberlain and at assemblies was the official key-bearer, hence the crest’s symbolism.
But heraldry aside, perhaps you have wondered how your ancestors might have acquired this surname. Some hints have already been provided above, but the actual circumstances could have greatly varied. Here is but one of many possible scenarios. Let’s imagine you suddenly found yourself in a Polish village centuries ago, where everyone knew everybody else and everything about them: where they came from, who their parents were, what they did for a living as well as their appearance, habits, quirks and defects.
“Here comes Adam,” someone may have once said upon seeing him plod down a dusty country lane, trudge through the snow, slog through the mud, arrive by horse cart or sleigh or step into the church or village inn. Someone new to the village or whose vision was impaired by poor eyesight, fog, darkness or some obstacle may have requested confirmation by asking: “Adam Paluch (big-fingered Adam)?” Whereupon the original speaker replied: “No, that’s Adam Kowalski (the blacksmith’s boy or the fellow whose folks moved here from Kowale).”
Back when such nicknames were emerging, geographic mobility was quite rare, since most people were born, lived and died in the same locality. So, apart from one’s parents, occupation, personal characteristics and appearance, someone actually pulling up roots and moving to a new place was something people would have taken notice of and probably coined the appropriate toponymic nickname.
Perhaps that was the way your distant ancestors had been generally known to fellow-villagers for quite some time. On the other hand, the nickname could have got thought up on the spur of the moment. (After all, it had to originate at some point in time!) Whatever the case, at some stage it caught on and became the generally accepted way of identifying a given individual. Over time, what had started out as a nickname eventually evolved into a surname, passed down to future generations and finally brought over to America by your immigrant ancestors.
Enclosed please find a contact list of genealogical sites of Polonian interest, including organizations, institutions, research firms and individual researchers able to search archives, track down your ancestral homestead, photograph and/or videotape family homes, graves and living relatives. Included are contacts to a Polish government agency with the addresses of all living Poles, professional translators able to translate old family documents and sites allowing you to view your coats of arms in full color.
The following individuals have been researching the Kowalski family surname, genealogy and history. Some may be willing to share their findings and that should help save you a lot of preliminary legwork:
Kowalski -- Sejny -- lactomaniacal@yahoo.com -- Feb/05
Kowallek -- Grudziądz -- kowallek@iglou.com -- Aug/04
Kowalski ---- apcamplese@mail.ameritel.net -- Apr/98
Kowalski -- POLAND > Michigan & Wisconsin, USA -- atpratt@discover.net -- Sep/99
Kowalski ---- B71324@aol.com -- Aug/98
Kowalski ---- bdjensen@wi.rr.com -- Jul/04
Kowalski ---- bobc2162@aol.com -- Sep/00
Kowalski -- POLAND > Pennsylvania & Michigan, USA -- BrenBee@aol.com -- May/98
Kowalski -- Sypniewo, Koszalin -- busia@mindspring.com -- Jun/99
Kowalski ---- cjcnlc@hotmail.com -- May/00
Kowalski -- Płock > Delaware, USA -- cwatson288@comcast.net -- Aug/04
Kowalski -- POLAND > Michigan, USA -- cylor@muhlon.com -- Mar/98
Kowalski -- POLAND > Ohio, USA -- David@Mccallister.net -- Nov/98
Kowalski -- Wolaradcicko > USA -- dbeli@dwave.net -- Feb/99
Kowalski -- RUSSIAN-POLAND > Bridgeport, Fairfield, Connecticut, USA -- eirelady99@yahoo.com -- Oct/03
Kowalski -- Kulin & Jenkowice -- famsrch2005@yahoo.com -- Sep/05
Kowalski -- Jarosław > USA -- Franksgram@aol.com -- Sep/00
Kowalski -- Ohio, USA -- jedwards14@neo.rr.com -- Apr/04
Kowalski -- Nowy Targ, GALICIA -- jklimosk@cvn.net -- Jan/98
Kowalski -- Jacochów, Skierniewice, Sadkoweice -- john6@sprint.ca -- Aug/01
Kowalski ---- jonesrw@gwsmtp.nu.com -- Jan/98
Kowalski -- Michigan, USA -- joyce@marshallnet.com -- Apr/99
Kowalski -- Pennsylvania & Michigan, USA -- kowal@net-port.net -- Mar/01
Kowalski -- GALICIA -- laurelwood@adelphia.net -- Aug/99
Kowalski -- Hadle Szklarskie > Michigan, USA -- lreski@pop.isdfa.sei-it.com -- Nov/96
Kowalski ---- malachowo@yoyo.pl -- Apr/01
Kowalski -- Bystra (Gorlice) -- maschoen@earthlink.net -- Mar/97
Kowalski ---- megpie@execpc.com -- Feb/00
Kowalski -- Poznań area > Pennsylvania, USA -- Milz2go@aol.com -- Jun/98
Kowalski -- Chicago, Illinois, USA -- Mooch414@aol.com -- Dec/01
Kowalski -- Michigan, USA -- mstrach@neo.rr.com -- Jun/99
Kowalski -- Lutom, Zagórów -- OrpelCh@aol.com -- Jun/00
Kowalski ---- pottsniedzielski@voyager.net -- Jan/98
Kowalski -- Nienadówka > Michigan & Ohio, USA -- Randy@snakebite.com -- Mar/00
Kowalski -- Pilich? > New York, USA -- redcardphreek@yahoo.com -- Jul/04
Kowalski ---- reinerowna@wp.pl -- Apr/01
Kowalski -- POLAND > Michigan, USA -- RevaAlvis@aol.com -- Jan/03
Kowalski ---- robak666@friko4.onet.pl -- Jan/01
Kowalski -- Niebylec > CANADA -- tanyatheo@aol.com -- Sep/99
Kowalski -- POLAND > Michigan, USA -- teamu@juno.com -- Aug/02
Kowalski ---- tfreitag@great-lakes.net -- Oct/96
Kowalski ---- Totonut25@aol.com -- Mar/01
Kowalski -- Bydgoszcz > New York, USA -- wgmcnm@erols.com -- May/00
Kowalski ---- witkowskiwoods@juno.com -- Jan/00
Kowalski; Kovalchak ---- ljems@pitt.edu -- Oct/96
Kowalski; Kovolski -- Rogienice, Bonisław > USA -- stevev@netdirect.net -- Jun/99
Kowalski; Kowalska ---- LCFrancis@aol.com -- Oct/96
Kowalski; Kowalsky -- POLAND > Illinois, USA -- akropolis@designby.com -- Sep/03
Kowalski; Kowialski ---- DebAOwens@aol.com -- Nov/99
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If you have found the enclosed report informative and interesting, please tell your relatives and friends about this service.

Great list for spammers :)

"Polonius3" that was most informative and much greater in depth than I would have expected. It's too bad you didn't use as an example "Towarnicki, or Kedziora." Now I have to send you a money order. ;~)

Thank You much, I will forward this to my friends.

For starters let me just say that Kędziora is not an uncommon surname in Poland, whilst Towarnicki falls somewhere between uncommon and rare.

I'am trying to find information about the surname Gunka and just cannot find anything anywhere......it was my greatgrandmother's name and she came from sliesia.

Thanks for this posting Polonius ! I've recently gotten into doing geneology research on my families roots in Poland. Hopefully this will help me track down more info. Last check I did on census records shows only around 600 or so Pernal's in Poland, so not a common name.

One question...in write to and requesting the service, is it ok to correspond with them in English? Unfortunately never learned any Polish (I'm trying to find a local univ. or community college that might offer courses in Polish though!).

Yes, English is fine. The custom-researched surname analysis is in English, and the genealogical researchers, firms and institutions, whose contact data are included with the analysis, are all able to communciate in the English language.

This is very helpful. Perhaps I will order this at some point. I am working on finding the location where my great-grandparents were born. They were Lewandowski/Bubacz. Lewandowsi is common, but Bubacz more rare.

From Fred Hoffman, he says mainly in Poznan, Pila and Bydgoszcz. I think it either means scary person or someone who is easily scared. Not sure. LOL

Wondering if the name Czyryt or czyrytkowski is researchable?

Are you sure that is the correct spelling? There is no Czyryt or Czyrytowski currently living in Poland. Do you have any Old World documents to check such as birth/baptismal/marriage certificaties, passport, steamship-ticket stubs, etc.?

Yes, that is what is written on his ship manifesto, from Luchow Gorny, Czyryt, then for some reason it was changed to Czyrytkowski, then to what it is now which is totally different, Cieradkowski (changed by a doctor) But I know it was Czyryt on the manifesto and from knowledge passed down.

You may have one sole surviving relative in Poland. For information please contact research60@gmail.com

My surname has a variant. Would you charge for Balitewicz as well as Balutewicz? Both were used by ancestors when they came over from Poland.

No, variants are considered the same surname.

Will you take a personal check from the USA?

Jadczak or Hodar? just checking......I'm curious to start looking

American personal checks are fine.