Wełna means wool in Polish. Perhaps one of your ancestors traded wool - just a guess. As for the latter part of your post, it is probably connected with the partitions of Poland. Prussia was one of the countries that invaded Poland in the late 18th century. Borders moved.
There are 1329 people with that name all over Poland, and judging from the geographical distribution, it is a surname that was adopted by several unrelated families, so you are unlikely to be related with anyone else with that surname unless you can prove it with documentation. The biggest clusters of that name are around Kraków and Lublin, but is is highly unlikely that you are related to anyone there.
@Valinski That would be "Waliński" in Polish. Not a particularly common surname in present-day Poland, with only 360 people with that name. The geographical distribution indicates that most of those migrated after WWII from former Polish territories which now lie either in Lithuania or Belarus. You can probably assume that you ancestors came from there, too. The name would be spelled Valinskas in Lithuanian, and seems to be quite common there.
First of all, it's not a suffix. It's one single word root that can't be split. There is no suffix.
The change from "r" to "l" or "ł" is a most probably sporadic change, and it's not systematic. Both English and Spanish also, coincidentally, have the "r" changed to "l" in this very same word ("marble" and "mármol", respectively).
It's probably not associated with any one particular dialect of Polish. Has nothing at all to do with any other names that may end with "ul".
It is a Polish name, though quite rare with only 39 people with that name in the whole country. It seems to be a variant of the even rarer names "Marmula" "Marmuła", which is restricted to the area around Nowy Targ in southern Poland, which overlaps with the distribution of "Marmul". All of them probably trace back to a single protoplast who probably lived near Nowy Targ in the early to mid 1800s.
WALIŃSKI: most likely originated as a patronymic nickname-turned-surname to identify the son of someone first-named Walerian or Walenty. Possibly (although far less likely) a comical nick for the village brawler who went about bonking people (walił po mordzie).
Thank you. yes indeed my great grandfather came from Lithuania. He spoke both Lithuanian and Polish. I have also seen a name spelled: Wolensky, and Wolenskyi. and seems to be connected to an area in north west Ukraine, east Poland and western Belarus. But have no luck finding the meaning of the word Wolen , or Valin.or Walin... So what does the "ski" mean on the end of the name?
Woliński is a totally different, unrelated name, and is indeed related to Volhynia, the region near where Poland, Belarus and the Ukraine come together.Any similarity to Waliński is purely coincidental.
Waliński comes from a place name (not necessarily a town or village; it could be a family estate) whose own name was probably derived from a personal name like Valentine or Valerian. The -ski in this case means "from".
variant of the even rarer names "Marmula" "Marmuła", ... area around Nowy Targ ... "Marmul". All of them probably trace back to a single protoplast who probably lived near Nowy Targ in the early to mid 1800s.
Can anyone please explain what might be the reason for the different endings, such as Ł rather than L? And why is it speculated that the ancestor lived in the 1800s and not earlier? Thank you.
Is anyone aware of any typical surnames which are usually associated with Łwów? Would the Marmul / Marmuła names possibly derive from emigrants from Łwów?
Would the Marmul / Marmuła names possibly derive from emigrants from Łwów?
Probably not. As I described above, that surname almost certainly originated near Nowy Targ in southern Poland. If someone living in Lwów had that name, they or their ancestors almost certainly originated from the Nowy Targ area. It's theoretically possible that there was someone with that surname who lived in Lwów and emigrated from there. Both Lwów and Nowy Targ were in the Austrian Partition, so it is possible that a person with that surname could have moved to Lwów. But you would need solid documentation to prove that.
In any case, Marmul/Marmuła would be an exceedingly rare surname in Lwów, and chances are very high that no one of that surname has ever set foot in that city. That is a safe assumption unless you have solid documentation that states otherwise.
how about WALUS, a family member said it was originally the Scottish surname Wallace but I'm not believing that for a second. The family comes from the tatra mountain area. Also any info on the name LICHAJ would be appreciated
Walus is probably derived from Walenty or walić, whereas Lichaj probably comes from lichy=mizerny. Both surnames seem quite popular in the Tatra mountains.
@Polonius3 I contacted you on my wife's surname: Iwinski and my surname is Kruszewski. We have since been giving the Title of Baron and Baroness of Pomerania - Livonia through the Dukedom Ludwig, Grand Duke of Pomerania -Livonia. Thank you for encouraging us to find our heritage.
1.) why do we think it is derived from "eel" and not perhaps from worm? 2.) which sort of folk custom or situation might lead to the creation of such a surname?
@Gość1952 1) Because Węgorek sounds like wegorz, not like robak or glista - both are used as surnames, interestingly enough. There are dozens of Polish surnames that come from names of animals like Kot (cat), Kura (hen) or Lis (fox).
2) Surnames are centuries old - it's really hard to state what the origin of a given name is. As for the common folk they may come from names of places like Tarnowski, from professions like Kowal, Kowalczyk, Kowalik (blacksmith), from nicknames coming from body parts like Noga (leg), Oko (eye) or characteristics like Chudzik (from chudy-thin) etc. Some are polonised versions of foreign names, some are misspelled or regional versions of common words. The list goes on.
@mafketis Because one 'dż' is not enough ;) I haven't heard it used as a surname, though. It's probably derived from the old form of deszcz-deżdż. As for Węgorek, we may just guess and it might have been used for someone fishing, trading or smoking eels as you suggested.
How long has smoked eel been a delicacy in northern Poland?
Since the neolithic, when the ice melted and the first humans appear on the scene. Smoking is a very ancient method of food preservation, and eel is a prime candidate for smoking because of its seasonal super-abundance. Without much effort, you could have easily caught hundreds of pounds of eel in a single day at the right time of the year in prehistoric streams all over what is now Poland. Kind of like salmon, another prime candidate for smoking.
The acquisition of nicknames of this sort is impossible to pin down except in those extremely rare cases where the reason for the sobriquet has been documented. The original bearer may have fished for or sold eels, or not. He may have loved eating eel. Or was known for loathing it. He may have been skinny or limber like an eel. Or he may have been fat or clumsy, very unlike an eel. Or he might have had a huge...., um, "eel". Or a really small one, for that matter.
Nicknames had a bizarre logic of their own, and irony was often employed. Think of the nicknames of the kids you grew up with, and the often twisted "logic" behind them.
