My family migrated to another continent from "Poland" (so they say). During their time they lived in europe and my grandfather also had lived in poland. However, they do not resemble polish people at all. They have extremely olive skin, the blackest hair and the darkest eyes. The grandmother was born in ukraine whilst my grandfather was born in poland. Their names are not the slightest bit polish. They do not speak about their past nor share any of the family history with us because they are too "suspicious". they suffered from the war badly and lost basically everything but their lives.
Growing up in the polish community, i always questioned their polish-ness due to we don't look anything like the other pol's.
The last name is Krzywoszyja.
Can anyone please explain this?! Why does the last name end in A and not ski? Why are we so dark? Could their be other heritage in their mix like turkish or middle eastern etc because thats how we look.
1) do I have a natural tendency to complain? 2) do I have a natural tendency to blame everybody else except myself? 3) do I have a natural disliking towards Jews? 4) am I rabiately Catholic? 5) am I inclined to keep on whinging and whining about the past?
If you can answer "yes" to at least three of the above questions, there is a very big chance that you are indeed Polish.
>^..^<
M-G (if I were Catholic or Protestant, I would have made a cross sign for you now)
Not every Polish last name ends with ski.Your last name really points to Polish roots.As for the rest I don't know.Maybe there's really some other nation in your heritage.
It's definitely a Polish last name. It means ~crooked neck (hope I got it right?).
As far as the "a" at the end - Polish names often have a male and a female version; for example Kowalski and Kowalska
In this case however it's simply because szyja (neck) ends with an a.
There are blond, light-skinned Poles and there are olive-skinned and dark-haired Poles. Throughout the history the Polish territory has been moved many times and also many people from other lands have settled in Poland in the past.
Your name definitely sounds Polish to us - congratulations and we're glad to have you here in our club. :)
PS. Lots of strange posts here, just disregard them. If you have any questions about Poland, traditions, etc., just bring it on...
About dark features - not all of us are fair skinned. This is a land without natural borders, we mix a lot. You can have Jewish, Tatar, Gypsy ancestors. Ormian, Bulgarian even. They like to call us bigoted racists, but looking at the gene pool, it's a land where anything goes. That's why people are so handsome in this land - mongrels usually mendel out very well.
Really? I've never heard that. I found this explanation online which corresponds to what I always heard:
"Not every Polish surname ends in "-ski". Siudek, for example, is Polish, but there's no "-ski" involved. Jankowicz is Polish as well. Lots of Polish surnames don't end in "-ski", but a lot of them to. It's very common.
It indicates where you're from, or "who" you're from - or at least it did, back in the olden days, when they were coming up with surnames. In Polish names, the "-ski" serves that purpose. It means "of", or "connected with," or "from". So, for example, the surname Piekarski means "of the baker (piekarz)". Lipinski means "one from the place of the lindens," as lipa means linden, lipiny means "place of the lindens", and add the "-ski" to the end, and it means "a person from..." or "a person somehow connected to the place with the linden trees."
Racist is an often misused term on this board. Racist means that a person believes that he or she is superior to another solely due to their race. A Caucasian cannot be racist towards another Caucasian.
Sort of unrelated but I've also heard numerous times that blacks cannot be racist simply because of their past as being oppressed. One person who said that was a university professor.. Yeah, right...
The OP - as you can tell this forum is overflowing with sarcasm. Your last name is unusual but there's nothing wrong with it. It reminds me of the way the Native Americans (Indians) used to have very descriptive names:
CATORI: Hopi: "Spirit."
CHA'KWAINA: Hopi : "One Who Cries."
CHA'RISA: Hopi : "Elk."
CHAPAWEE: Sioux: "Industrious, Busy"
INOLA: Cherokee: "Black Fox"
ISI: Choctaw : "Deer."
ITUHA: "Sturdy Oak or White Stone"
KACHINA: Hopi : "Spirit, Sacred Dancer."
KAI: Navajo : "Willow Tree."
KAKAWANGWA: Hopi : "Bitter."
KALISKA: Miwok : " Coyote Chasing Deer."
KOLENYA: Miwok : " Coughing Fish."
KOSA: Cheyenne: "Sheep"
NITA: Choctaw : "Bear."
NITTAWOSEW: Algonquin : "She Is Not Sterile."
NITUNA: "Daughter"
NIYOL: Navajo: "Wind"
OHCUMGACHE: Cheyenne: "Little Wolf"
TSIISHCH'ILI: Navajo: "Curly Haired"
TACI: Zuni: "Washtub"
At least your name isn't Coughing Fish, or She Is Not Sterile! LOL
So be proud of being Polish and having an unusual name.
Ps. That's a very long name though, I'm sure you see all kind of spelling errors? You could always shorten it to Krzywo or Szyja ;)
You could even "correct" it to Prostoszyja - Straight Neck... LOL
Your last name is unusual but there's nothing wrong with it.
Exactly, some poster's mind works in a mysterious ways and it might be because their brain being contaminated with all the additives in the food...please forgive them. There is nothing wrong with your last name. It means a 'skewed-neck'. Is it so bad? Not really.
It sounds to me like a classic Ukrainian (Ruthenian) Cossack name -- Kryvoshyia. Western Ukrainian territories were under Polish (and Austro-Hungarian) rule at the time your family emigrated, and so their identity and travel documents would have been issued with the Polish transcription. The Ukrainian churches follow the Byzantine rite, so if your Krzywoszyja family in previous generations was Orthodox or Greek-Catholic, that would confirm a Ukrainian rather than Polish nationality -- or possibly a converted identity ... there are known and respected long-standing Armenian, Greek, and Italian minorities in Ukraine. Good on you for being curious about your heritage, and your family story, though undoubtedly frustrating to you, is not surprising.
This is a very logical and a possible explanation. So you're either Polish or Ukrainian. Both are great nationalities with very rich histories - congrats.
Hi !! I'm 100% sure You are my family. My name Grzegorz Krzywoszyja I'm 56. My father Zygmunt Krzywoszyja My grand father Bronislaw Krzywoszyja -> his brather by Germany pest WW2 was emigrate to Australia. Hi has like Bronislaw sons with same name ->Kazimierz, Zygmunt, mey be Michal. Zygi Krzywoszyja some times mailing me. All the best for You and Your Family. Grzegorz sp3jgv@op.pl
KRZYWOSZYJA: This is a Polish name in terms of spelling and word formation and means crooked or bent neck. There are a number of such descriptive nicknames-turned-surnames in Poland including Krzywonos (crooked nose), Nosal (big nose), Paluch (big finger), Paluszek (little finger), Kuternoga (clubfoot), £okietek (pint-sized), etc. Sometimes body parts are without a qualifier such as Głowa, Oko, Noga and Ręka but they probably emerged because of someone's prominent or unusual features.
There are a couple dozen Krzywoszyjas in Poland, the most living in southern Poland's Beskid Mt area near Bielsko-Biała bordering Slovakia. The swarthiness and raven hair you have described may suggest Wallachian or Gypsy roots.
Merged: Surname Krzywoszyja; any alternate spellings?
Greetings,
My great-grandmother's first husband was Stephen Horwath (on his American papers). However, the few family members of mine who were old enough to know my great-grandmother say that he changed his name when he immigrated, because his original name meant "crooked neck".
Now I know that his name must have been Krzywoszyja or some close variant thereof. But I cannot find any naturalization papers for him under this name (or Horwath). His draft card indicated that he was in fact naturalized before 1917.
My question is how the name might have been written, if it was misspelled or "Americanized". Maybe searching under a different spelling would give me better results.
CHORWAT/HORWAT: This is the Polish word for Croatian and is one of many nationality-rooted surnames. Others include Niemiec, Liwtin, Prus, Czech, Węgrzyn, Żydek, Szwed, Szot et al.
The correct spelling is Chorwat, but Poles have always had problems with the letters ch or h in many names and words. Horwath looks to be an anglicised spelling.
KRZYWOSZYJA: Yes, it means crooked neck. It exists in Poland as a surname but is on the rare side.
Yes, your landlords gave you that surname behind your back, while you were toiling in the fields like slaves, doing mandatory pańszczyzna service. Fortunately, we got rid of those leeches who sucked your precious blood - there are no more wicked landlords in Poland and all people are equal. God bless democratic Poland.
Home / Genealogy / The last name is Krzywoszyja. Help? Am I Polish?
