In many cases you can deciphre the meaning of your Polish surname even if you know no Polish. Here are a few hints:
-- Sundry names such as Motyka, Wilk, Serwatka, Koza, Sowa, Kwiatek, Wróbel, Gruszka, £opata, Pasternak, Gwoździk, etc. can be looked up in a hard-copy English-Polish dictionary or online. Usually the names of common objects, animals, foods, etc. originated as peasant nicknames.
-- names ending in -ski, -cki or -dzki are usually of toponymic origin, so try to figure out the basic root by looking through the place-names listed in a Polish atlas. Such names (also indicating estates or noble-owned villages) were the most common surnames used by Poland's szlachta.
-- patronymics usually end in -ak, -czak or -wicz, so it remains to determine what the first part of the name means; eg Stasiak (son of Staś), Antczak (Tony's boy), Kowalewicz (the blacksmith's kid).
POWODZENIA - GOOD LUCK!
BERNING: ethnicity obscure and meaning uncertain; possibly from German Bär (bear, the animal) or Yiddish name Berko?
PARMONIK: looks like a patroynmic nick from Paramon, a name used in the Eastern Orthodox Church (originally from the Greek paramonos meaning faithful).
-- Sundry names such as Motyka, Wilk, Serwatka, Koza, Sowa, Kwiatek, Wróbel, Gruszka, £opata, Pasternak, Gwoździk, etc. can be looked up in a hard-copy English-Polish dictionary or online. Usually the names of common objects, animals, foods, etc. originated as peasant nicknames.
-- names ending in -ski, -cki or -dzki are usually of toponymic origin, so try to figure out the basic root by looking through the place-names listed in a Polish atlas. Such names (also indicating estates or noble-owned villages) were the most common surnames used by Poland's szlachta.
-- patronymics usually end in -ak, -czak or -wicz, so it remains to determine what the first part of the name means; eg Stasiak (son of Staś), Antczak (Tony's boy), Kowalewicz (the blacksmith's kid).
POWODZENIA - GOOD LUCK!
BERNING: ethnicity obscure and meaning uncertain; possibly from German Bär (bear, the animal) or Yiddish name Berko?
PARMONIK: looks like a patroynmic nick from Paramon, a name used in the Eastern Orthodox Church (originally from the Greek paramonos meaning faithful).