The surname Kupaj ...

Hi there
I am the granddaughter of polish immigrants to australia. i was also adopted, so i know very little about my polish roots ...

I was told there were 500 or so people in poland with the surname kupaj (is it pronounced like COO- pie?) and that they were mostly concentrated around the west-central province of Kalisz?

Any info you guys could share would be greatly appreciated.

I was also told that the name derived from "pile" or "heap", which kid of sounds like it was originally derogatory??

Thanks in advance

Kupaj may be derived from kupić/kupiec (to buy/merchant) but kupa indeed means a heap, żpile, lot of something or colloquially a pile of excrement. But is may also be derived from Kupajło, a now obsolete Ukrainian term for St John the Baptist, whose feast day (24 June) is celerbated by Slavs as mid-summer night. "Kupajło" (also "Kupała") was also the name of a straw effigy burnt in the bonfires lit on that occasion.

Chudka probably from root "chud-" meaning lean, thin, meagre, poor. Possibly of toponymic origin derived from such localities as Chudek, Chudowo, Chudzyno et al.

Name has been recorded but currently no-one uses it. There are 7 people named Chudko and 17 named Chudkiewicz (son of Chudka or Chudko).

Thank you for the info. How nice that it means a pile of excrement ... lol