Ski Or Ska? - Polish surname endings

If I marry a man with the -ski ending in his name, do I follow in the -ski name or do I become a -ska? Is there a difference in what happens depending on whether I live here in the states or in Poland?!

You become a ''-Ska''.

All women are ''-Ska'', all men are ''-Ski''.


I have heard the Polish surname ''-Ska'' and ''-Ski'' being used on the opposite sex in America but it is just an Americanisation.
In Poland, on the other hand, a woman is never ''-Ski'' and a man is never ''-Ska''.

Anywhere outside PL you stay -ski, inside PL you become -ska.

Very true! Ski/Ska is a very noble name to have too. Many people get better jobs with that name ;)

How ridiculously confusing. I think the PL rules should be used outside of PL too. I don't like the way -ski sounds with Polish female names. Especially since my name is Paulina. Poo!

I had a female student called -ski because she was born in USA.

I wonder if you could claim racism for that.

no, they shouldn't. same with Polish letters- they should not be in use in other countries (i.e. in names on passports etc)


you are kidding, aren't you?

In US and Canada you have to keep the name of your father in his passport. The same with your husband. So if he's -ski you are ski, too. Although I meet a guy once who was -ska, probably after his mother.

Why on earth? For example - Sigmund Jähn is Jähn, not Jahn. No reason why they shouldn't be used elsewhere too.

Q doesn't exist in the Polish alphabet, does that mean it should be dropped and replaced with Ku or Koo? Don't be silly.

or his mother was his father...

;)

Nope- in passports etc documents- only letters of alphabet of country issuing it should be used. i.e.- in Poland Jähn Sigmund should be written Jahn. In England, Świętowid should be Swietowid and Miłosz should be Milosz.

and btw, Q V X exist in Polish alphabet- but usually in borrowed words (or obsoletes words, like Xiądz, Xiąże etc).

btw, I hope that you understand fact, that if you want to keep the 'original' written form, you should do it also to cyrillic, greek, hebrew, arabic and few dozens of other scripts :)?

In fact, in some countries they actually do. For instance in Russia, Ukraine etc.

A Polish woman in Poland can also have the -ski ending if her last name is so registered.

it is completely up to you and your hubby.. both my mom and my sis are -ska here in the usa.

Lina19

In the states you can do anything in regards to your married name. You can:

Keep your maiden name

Combine your maiden and married name together with an hyphen

spell your husbands name with a ska

Have you and your husband combine your last names into one.

I've seen all of the above. This is America man.

I am, but I imagine if you tried enforcing names of non-Europeans etc in the same way someone somewhere would cry "racism" and imperialism.


Ah, but in such cases these are not "Polish" rules but Slavonic rules which also apply in those countries.

A friend (female) told me that's a "divorce" backup. Easier to get the paper work rearranged if things don't work out. She should know, she's on her third husband... lol


Although not as common, some men have a last name with a -ska ending as well. Why don't you get it Americanized to -sky -> very asexual. ;)


Maybe in Polish passports but for example in the US "umlauts" are often converted to a "sound letter" instead. So å becomes aa, ä -> ae, and ö -> oe. Ü would be ue. At least my passport uses that solution.

Sure, why not? The biometric passports should allow the ability for it to be transliterated on the border guards screen anyway, so it's no issue.

Incidentally - I can't say for certain, but aren't Polish ID cards containing proper letters?

Do last names ending in sky denote jewish heritage , or are there Polish last names ending in sky?

I don't know but I wonder if it also stems from inheritance laws and female bloodlines.

not jewish but russian or possibly slovak or czech.


polish ones, for sure..

Chances are, certain family names ending in '-ski' or -'sky' may well be "Jewish" surnames, especially in New York City or Boston, such as 'Slominski', 'Bilsky' etc... In Chicago however, the US city with the largest Polish, i.e. Polish Roman Catholic, immigrant population, 'Slominsky', especially 'Slovinski' or 'Malevich' for example, will more than likely be a Polish gentile name.

As Jews tended to adopt as a last name the town near the shtetl where they happened to be living at the time, it's no surprise the preponderance of "Jewish-sounding" families with '-ski' at the end.

Other '-ski' names such as 'Kaczynski' in the US are almost assuredly NOT Jewish.

You can make a generalization that in the US -sky are Polish Jews. It would be very unusual for ethnic Poles to change their name from-ski to -sky but very ususal for Jews to do so.

You may be right about that, 1Jola.

Zresztą często przeznaje się nazwiska polskie żydowskiego pochodzenia z źródł niemieckich, n pr. 'Heller', 'Lautermann', 'Sznajder' > Schneider itd....

Mam tu rację?

poznaje się


ze źródeł


np (na przykład)

Jewish names of German origin have a specific character. Often they have typical root like 'gold' or 'silver' (Silverman, Goldstein), 'berg' (Bergman, Rosenberg), 'stein' (Steinberg), 'feld' (Seinfeld, Feldman)

Tak, to prawda! Dziękuję też za poprawienia:-)

Interesting perhaps though, that numerous gentile Germans also bear names such as 'Steinfeld', 'Bergmann', 'Kaufmann', even 'Rosenbaum' or 'Goldberg'-:)))

Are there large numbers of Christian Poles with 'Jewish-sounding' family names?

Not one Silvermański, but there are many German names.

Not only there. In Western Europe as well. Only if you don't know the name of the father, you can use your mom's maidenname if she doesn't carry her husband's name.

I think the sex-related endings of last names -i and -a are a typical phenomaena in Slavic languaged countries. In Czech they add with every woman -va at her last name, I heard even when it's a foreign celebrity. Jennifer Lopez would become Jennifer Lopezova. :) At least, that's what my Czech and Slovak friends tell me.

I haven't seen it in any of the Germanic languaged countries, with the exception of Iceland where they differenciate between -dottir and -son for a daughter and a son. Can't remember if the last name is also sex-related as where it concerns the composition of it, for example if a girl would take her mom's first name, add "dottir" to it and the son takes his father's first name and add "son" to it, so you would get Peter Svensson, who would be the brother of Ingrid Gudrunsdottier. Indeed, brother and sister can have complete different last names and different from their parents names and even different from their kid's names.

In short: Sven Petersson and Gudrun Monikadottir have two kids, named Peter Svensson and Ingrid Gudrunsdottir and one grandchild: Jacob Petersson. I wouldn't want to be a postman in Iceland :)

As for Jewish names, "Polak", "Cohen" and "Grunberg" are the most common Jewish last names in NL.

>^..^<

M-G (loves Iceland though)

But does Iceland love you, Maregański?

I think it does. I asked for a volcano to disrupt airtraffic in Europe and voila.

>^..^<

M-G (been to Iceland quite a few times)

Jewish names also tend to use one 'n', whereas 'German' names tend to use two. Feldman/Feldmann.