Wojtczak SURNAME - question for native Polish speakers

(English daughter b1958 of a Pole b1922. )

In England there are a lot of names like Carter, Cooper, Smith etc which all have their roots in a profession; other names relate to a town or area.

I used to ask my Dad - what does our name mean? He always said "nothing".

I asked him - "is it common?" No.

Does it sound nice or ugly in Polish? Is it an embarrassing name. 'No'.

My Dad didn't say a lot, as you can see.

I looked up our name in the London phone book, there were two - us and one other family. When we went to Warsaw 1973 I looked it up and there were also two! So, not a common name.

Now, having found this site, I have my big chance to find out The Truth about my surname.

Remember, to me it's just a list of letters without meaning, so please can you give me any thoughts you have on my surname? I;d be very grateful!

Helena Wojtczak

It doesn't really have a meaning but it sounds like composed of a root word "wojtek", or "wójt". The former is a common Polish given name, the latter means town's mayor, leader, but it also may carry a slight hint of Old Polish "wój" (warrior)


In Polish it sounds well and neutral. The "czak" ending hints a little of more Easterly part of Poland.

I'm grateful Darius to be given some information on my name. I didn't know that -czak was more of an Eastern Polish ending. So is the -ski more of a westerly ending?

So it might be derived from the first name Wojtek? Like son of Wojtek or something?

I quite like being derived from a mayor or a warrior, gives me nice delusions of grandeur!

I used to ask my Dad what is the feminine form (I had a friend called Dabrowska you see) but he said there is none, is that true? He said maybe the wife of a Wojtczak could be a Wojtczakowna or something, does that mean anything to you?

Also, my aunties used to call me Helenka (I loved that!)

HW

By easterly I mean Ukrainina/Byeloruss influence. Doesn't necessarilly meant ethinc, but certainly linguistic. I'm unawae of geographic distribution of "-ski". There were way to many migrations within Poland to pin this down.


Wojtczakowna - daughter of Wojtczak
Wojtczakowa - wife of Wojtczak

"Wojtczakowna - daughter of Wojtczak"

Gosh. That's me. But that would not be my surname, would it, just something people might call me, as in "Who's that girl? Oh she's Wojtczakowna - assuming they both knew who Wojtczak was - am I right?

The -ka ending is a diminutive, you know, like John -> Johnny ;)

At the beginning the -ski ending was for the noblemen...some centuries ago, people wanted to look like noblemen (LoL) so they took names with -ski ending too...

Yes I know. I still want to be Helenka. I feel I was deprived as a child, having never been called that. Want to make up for itnow, wish I had someone in my life to call me Helenka!

My grandmother had a friend with that last name - she never married. I don't know if it was spelled the same way, but it was pronounced like it. She died about 10 years ago and lived in Calumet City, IL.

Yes, that's exactly how these are used.
You would not have Wojtczakowna in your passport or any official documents.

I also come from the Wojtczak family! My grandfather's surname was Wojtczak, as was my mother's until she was married! I have not found any others until now!

annabanbee!

I don't know another Wojtczak in the whole world! So please be my Polish "cousin" ?

By the way, I forgot my log-in and re-registered. I used to be paniwojtczak now Helena, my real name.