THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME?

There are 9 people in Poland named Minnich at present, and all live in or around the SE city of Tarnów, up till 1918 part of Austrian-ruled Galicja. There are about 800 Minnichs in today's Germany.

The etymology seems obscure -- could it have been a pet form of the Jewish first name Menachem?
With what little you have to go on, probably only a professional genealogist could help you.

Yes ,Menachem is one of the names, that is correct and there are 3 more, i don't quite remember. Yes, my family is pretty complicated isn't it.. i don't know what i am. Polish, Polish-Jew, German, German-Jew. 800 Minnichs, quite interesting. and 9 in Poland, even more. G-ma keeps telling me my g-pa was more of Russian than Polish, but i tell her he couldn't have been, not with that last name. HE came from Poland too. But like u said, it is Lithuanian based. They all mixed back then though. Even with the Germans.

Does anyone know if this surname means anything 'Skwara'?
Doesn't seem like a Polish name to me, especially when people ask me where that name comes from, and when I ask them to have a guess, they just say that they have no idea lol.

As far as I know, I come from a long line of relatives born in Poland, I happen to be the only one born outside of it's borders (Australia). The knowledge I have of my family tree is actually little to non. Everything I know I've pretty much already mentioned.

There is a town in Ukraine called Skwyra, which is pronounced "Skver" in Yiddish. Maybe your family was from there. It was the seat of a well-known hassidic dynasty, the Twersky family. They relocated to New York State after the war and established a town called New Square. Here's a link: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skvyra

SKWARA - archaic Polish fem. noun skwara once meant scorching heat; in modern Polish it is skwar. The diminutive of skwara is skwarka and means a crunchy pork crackling.

Not all Polish surnames end in -ski, -wicz or -ak!


KONECKI – Typonymic nick from the village of Koneck. Konetski is an attempt at a German or English phonetic respelling.

There are other synomyms such as upał, żar, etc. but we are dealing with a given surname, not the concept of heat, and Skwara is etymologically not related to Gorąc.

So Kaizerski is either a scion of the hassidic Twerskys or he is eating crunchy pork. Hmmm...

The original Kajzerski (Polish spelling) might have been called that because he was in the employ of the German imerial court (even as a gardener or stable hand) or because he hailed from some locality such as Kaiserhof, Kaiserdorf, Kaiserfeld, etc. Or maybe he was a baker who produced the best kajzerki (kaiser rolls) in his shtetel?


SUSZKO - from such~susz root meaning aridity, dryness. Probably a toponymic nick for someone from such places as Suszki or Suszewo (Dryton, Aridville).

MI£EK - probably derived from a pet form of the old first name Miłosław. The mił- root itsellf suggests someone nice, kind, pleasant and appears in such words as miłość (love) and miłosierdzie (mercy, literally: kind heartedness).

Would anyone know the meaning for the surnames: Moronczyk, Kroczak, Konderowicz, Filipowicz, Lodzinski, Jankiaza, Demianowicz.

Although the little that I know of the area, my father was born in Lwow and my mother was born within the Sonok County. I am trying to do the connecting dots with all these names.

Thanks

Hi. I have been searching for the origins of my polish grandfather and his family but am finding it really tough. If anybody knows anything of the surname SZALOMSKI I'd love to hear what you know. I have been able to trace the middle part of his life within the UK but don't even know his date of birth. He may have been from the Warsaw area but I really don't know.

I am fascinated by the information that you all have about the Polish surnames. I think Szalomski is really beautiful and would love to know it's origins.

Any advice or even just information about the surname would be wonderful!

Thank you

Morończyk - toponymic nick for some from Moroń

Kroczak - patronymic nick for son of Krocz (inhabitant of Kroczów)
Konderowicz - possibly a variant from of Kondratowicz (son of Kondrat); Konderatek was once a hypocoristic form of Kondrat

Filipowicz - patronymic nick meaning "son of Philip"

£odziński - toponymic nick from £odzina

Jankiaza - ??? (some exotic derivative of Jan) ???

Demianowicz - patronymic nick for the son of Demian (Ukrainian equiv. of Damian).

Hello, my name is Annetta. My maiden name is KOLODZIEJCZAK.
Can anyone tell me what the meaning is for this name? And what is the best site for looking up polish genealogy?

thanks,

SZA£OMSKI - possibly linked to szałomaje (a rustic shepherd's pipe) known throughout Europe as a shawm (Eng.), Schalmei (Ger.), chalemie (Fr.), originally from Latin calamus.

There is also a locality in Poland caleld Szałamaje.

That's really interesting! I have two acquaintances (both Jews) with those names. One, Lopata, is a lawyer in New York, and Wrubel (which I assume comes from Wróbel) is a teacher and a rabbi in Israel. I guess their ancestors lived in small villages.

KO£ODZIEJCZAK - patronymic nick meaning "the wheelwright's son"

That's very interesting - thank you. I understand that my great-grandfather in Poland was a farmer of some sort. I have found it really difficult to find anything information about the name or even anyone with it. It doesn't seem to be a bery common name at all.

So were family names often derived from the places where they originated from then?

Only 10 people in Poland are now surnamed Szałomski. The vast majority of surnames ending in -ski (including -cki and -dzki) accounting for over one-third of all Polish sruanmes are of toponymic (place-name) origin.

Oh my word! That's amazing. Maybe we're related then. I'm seriously impressed with your knowledge and am so glad I found this forum. Thank you SO much for that information. How do you know about the number of people with the name in Poland by the way?

Can anyone tell me the meaning of the name Kozanecki? I know that "koza" means goat, but I'm not sure how that plays into the whole meaning of the name. Any ideas?

(I married into the name, and I just hope it doesn't mean something like "smells like a goat"!)

As noted above, names ending in -ski, -cki or -dzki are usually of toponymic origin. Kozanecki comes from the locality of Kozanki in Wielkopolska voivodship. But you're right about the goat connection. The locality might be tanslated into English as Goatville, Goatman, Goatwood, Goatboro, etc.

Thanks so much for your reply, Polonius. Having the name mean "Goatville" or the like is much better than what my imagination was coming up with..."hairy like a goat", "goat-breath", etc. I still may tease my husband by calling him "goat boy", though.

It's funny, my maiden name means "of the sea", and my first name means "beautiful lady". So, I've gone from being "beautiful lady of the sea" to "beautiful lady of goat town". Hmm...not exactly a trade up. Ah well, good thing the hubby's worth it!

As long as you don't call him an "old goat"!!! (ha-ha)
BTW is your maiden name Polish?

what about "scesniak" or "szczezniak" (as i believe it was spelled before my ancestors came to america.)???

thanks!

Szczęściarz - the lucky one

Nope, my maiden name is Maris, which is English.

Amazingly enough, people in our area seem to have an easier time pronouncing and spelling Kozanecki than Maris, mainly due to the large Polish population near us.

I've always been surprised at how many ways people can misspell and mispronounce a short name like Maris (rhymes with Paris): Marris, Morris, Marsis, etc. I figured that I was in for even more trouble with a long name like Kozanecki, but it's been so nice not to have to teach everyone how to say it or spell it. Who would've thought?

And yeah, I'd better not call my husband an old goat...he's younger than me!

Probably originally Szczęśniak - patronymic nick meaning "son of Szczęsny" (Felix).

Nadolna ??

Nadolna is the name of a village in Radom district of Mazowsze voivodship south of Warsaw. (Eng. equiv.: Downville, Lowerton???) It is also a surname used by more than 2,500 people in Poland.

tobolkiewicz

99% of the time a -wicz ending indicates a patronymic nick. Someone could have been nicknamed Tobolek because he came from Tobolice or Tobolowo, and when he fathered a son... presto! - TOBOLKIEWICZ

i don't think i am ever going to find out because noone can find my grandfather's last name anywhere.... Sad to say, someone said to check Auschwitz.. can that be?