Female endings in surnames~ what should I think about this?

A woman in Poland said to me some years ago that she wasn't going to take the female ending -ska when she married her boyfriend (his name was Zielinski). She said this to me in a way that implied she was being daring, rebellious or maybe avant-garde.

Not wanting to sound stupid, I didn't ask her to explain her reasons, but now I want to know, and I don't mind sounding stupid on here LOL.

So what point was she making, do you think? Was it an act of feminism, or anti-feminism? Was she trying to be modern and Western?

Does anyone know what it signifies? Have you ever heard of women keeping the masculine ending of their father's or husband's names? If so, why?

Looking forward to being enlightened!

Helena

The woman doesn't have to take husband's name or may have both but masculine ending ? I don't even know If that's legal but that's definately simply stupid.

I never knew until I began my genealogy that the surname spellings changed in Poland according to masculine, feminine and group name. i.e. Laskowscy.

And the other endings. When I got my grandmother's birth certificate I was asking everybody...just what is the last name? This or that?

Eventually everyone of Polish ancestry in the USA just uses the masculine ending, male or female. Maybe she was just attempting to imitate that? Just trying to help OP understand what could have motivated her stated choice.

The lady in question has never been outside of Poland and has no relations or anything in the USA, so she was not picking up a trend of Americans, unless as I said before, that in the West we don't have female endings to our surnames.

I guess I will just have to ask her myself, I wanted to avoid that because she might think it's obvious and think me foolish!

To anyone in Poland: have you heard of women marrying and taking the husband's surname - ski ending? Is this a trend? Is my lady friend unique?

I've never heard of any case like this, and actually I don't think it's even possible. In Polish law names must predetermine the gender, that is why all female names finish with -a. I think it is the same with surnames ending with -ski/-ska.

I've never heard of anyone doing so. Frankly, it sounds rather contrived and pretentious, as if someone was trying to give their name a foreign-y feel, because a name and a surname mismatched in gender usually indicate an (at least second-generation) emigrant.