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

how bout kraszewski or soldyga or i think odmiowski

can any one help i live in us my last name is kraszewski my grandmother was soldyga and i believe my greatgram was odminowski i know my great grand fater came to us in 1906 thats all i know wondering if any living relatives origin of names and anything else helpful would be great

KRASZEWSKI - toponymic nick from one of several localities in Poland named Kraszew or Kraszewo (Beautyville).

ODMINOWSKI - no such name in today's Poland. Could it have been Odmianowski. Possibly a nick identifying an odmieniec (oddball, someone who sticks otu like sore thumb).

Or from a locality called Odmianów or Odmianowo.

Thanks that was real helpfuland im not sure about odmenski but you may be right with the spelling is kraszewski a popular name? how bout soldyga i know my gram was in contact with relatives before she passed but not sure who or where both her parents passed real young

Sołdyga is rather enigmatic. In general the -dyga ending is a pejorative one to cite only dziadyga (clumsy, flea-bitten old f*art) and bałdyga (crooked, gnarled stick or a person who fits that description). Sołgdyga might have been a negative to describe someone from the village of Sołdany in northern Poland. The only other word in Polish starting in sołd- is sołdat (from Russian, pejorative for soldier). But having a choice the toponymic Sołdany option seems more plausible.

Gembala

when the names end in a are those people usually from the South of Poland, Podhale?

Names ending in -ała quite often are concentrated in Poland's southland but not necessarily in the Tatra Mountain region.
The largest concentrations of Poland's 93 Gembałas are encountered in Śląsk in and around Częstochowa (48) and Katowice (27). Only 3 live in the mountainous Nowy Sącz area and a mere 2 make their home in the also hilly neighbouring Bielsko-Biała area. 102 spell their name the original way Gębała, and their ancestral nest is SE Poland's Lublin region (81).

Other -a ending suranmes include: Biga 143 of which Tarnów (90); Przytuła more than 2,500 of which voer 500 in SE Poland's Zamość area.

My surname is Chmurycz. I gather that Chmury means storm or stormy.

My mothers maiden name is Baranski. not sure what that means.

CHMURYCZ: Chmura is the Polish word for cloud. When someone surnamed or nicknamed chmura fatehred a son, local villagers apparently added the now archaic patronymic -ycz ending typical of the eastern borderlands of the old Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. English equivalent: Cloudson.

BARAŃSKI: root word is baran (ram, male sheep). Could have originated as a patronymic nick for the son of someone nicknamed Baran or a toponymic one for someone from such localities as Baran, Baraniec, Baranów, Baranowo, Baranowice, etc. (Eng. Ramville, Ramton).

Anybody know anything about the last name Welecka?

If it was spelled Wełecki (with the slashed 'ł'), then it probably originated as a toponymic nick for someone from Wełecz in the Świętokrzyskie Mountnain region or perhaps Wełcza in Małopolska. Wełecka is the feminine form used by the womenfolk.

OK, here are a few last name questions that I'd like to know about. My grandmother was raised in Wysowa / Blechnarka, near the border with Slovakia. Going up the genealocical line in the family, the oldest records we have of anyone with her last name (Hryckanycz) is a woman who is married to a man with the last name "Kocur" (but their children are named Hryckanycz). So - is there any kind of a relation between the names Kocur and Hryckanycz? Should we assume that the woman's children were from a previous marriage to a (probably deceased) man named Hryckanycz (a common practice)? Would there be any other reason for the children to have the mother's last name instead of the father's? And, lastly, is there a meaning for the name Hryckanycz? (I know that Kocur means "tomcat"). How about the names Truchan and Dancz (these are both in my family)? Diakuju.

Hryckanycz looks to be a Ukrainian patronymic from the word for buckwheat (hryka), however no-one currently uses it in Poland.
Truchan is a Ukrainian first name also appearing as Truchon and Trufan. First names sometimes serve as surnames.
Dancz might possibly have been derivfed from a first name sach as Danisław, Daniel or Danisz. Both Dancz and Turchan are used in today's Poland.

As for your question, children with their mother's surname were either illegitmate (born out of wedlock) or were orphaned and retained their late dad's surname after their mum remarried. Such irregularities always occurred but not as frequently as at present.

So would the name mean "buckwheat-night"? Or something else? Or is it just somewhat connected to the word "buckwheat"?


Do you mean that there is nobody named Hryckanycz in Poland?

Rather than the -nycz being the Ukrainian word for night, the n is part of the hryc- adjective whilst the -ycz is the patronymic ending. My guess is that someone was nicknamed Hrycko, Hrycok, or something like that through some association with buckwheat or because he lived in a village whose name incorporated included the Hryc- root.

No-one in today’s truncatedf Poland uses the Hryckanycz surname. The only surnames incorproating the syllable hryck- are: Hryckiewicz Hrycko Hryckowiak Hryckowian Hryckowiarz Hryckowion and Hrycków. Maybe double-check the spelling. Problems have been known to arise when trasnliterating Cyrillic into Latin script.

Wow. Where do you get all this information? Thanks a lot for answering my questions so thoroughly.
I think most people who were named Hryckanycz changed it to some other spelling - especially those who emigrated. Just about all hits I get when I google that name are postings I've put on the Internet looking for people with that name. So I'm not totally surprised to be informed that it's not used in Poland any longer.

Fortunately for me my efforts bore fruit earlier this year when first cousins to my father (named Dancz and Truchan) found me through a genealogist friend of mine. As luck would have it, they live only 15 minutes away from me. Incredible. Now we are a close family and enjoying one another's company on a regular basis. They are teaching me our native Lemko language and I am helping them to learn English. It's great to have those stary kraju connections.

Thanks again, and happy new year!

Please tell me about the name Filarecki.

Please tell me about the name Fuchshoven.

FILARECKI: from Filaret. a member of a secret university club to which Adam Mickiewicz belonged in Russian-occupied 19th-century Poland-Lithuania. The adjectival Filarecki could have arisen to describe a son of such a member. The name comes from the Greek filaretos (lover of virtue). About 120 users.

FUCHSOVEN: Properly Fuchsofen, literally fox stove in German or Yiddish. No-one in today’s Poland uses this surname at present.

I have the same story in my family history where Ponczko was changed to Panczko to protect those the family members who were not involved in crime. Are your ancestors from the Chicago area? I have traced down my Paczko family to Budylow Poland now Ukraine and have obtained copies of most of the church records from this town.

Laura

More than 200 people in today's truncated Poland share the Pączko surname. Ponczko ahs been recorded but no-one uses that spelling at present.
Etymology: pączek (flower bud -- the doughnut is a secondary meaning). It could have originated as a toponymic nick connected to such places as Pączkowo, Pączek or Pączew (Budville, Buddington).

It definitely is an "eastern" surname. All but about 50 of its current users live in the recovered territories to which Poles stranded to the east of Stalin's redrawn border were repatriated.

What about Langkowski? I just recently married a man from Germany (Zittau, a town on the border of Germany, Poland, Czech Republic) with the last name of Langkowski. Any information on this last name? THANKS!

Cześć! I was wondering if you could possibly give me some more meaning and history of: Styrna, and Kołodziej. I know Koło means wheel but does it really mean I'm a decendent of THE Piast Kołodziej?! Because that would be seriously cool.

I have a Polish friend whose last name is Borejko, any suggestion of meaning? :)

LANGKOWSKI: There is one female in Poland in the Gdańsk area named Langkowska. Name does not look indigenously Polidh (lang is German for long). There are more than 2,200 Langowskis whose toponymic soruce is probably the locality of Langowo.

BOREJKO: Possible root 'bor' (fight, struggle), still exists in the Russian word борба. Or possibly a toponymic nick from some place such as Borki, Boreczek, Boreczno, Borowe, etc. Another possibiltiy is a hypocoristic (pet) form of Borys. The -ko ending is Ruthenian.

STYMA: Archaic form of estyma (esteem, respect).

KO£ODZIEJ: Wheelwright, maker of wagon wheels. Piast the wheelwright is only a legend so it's not likely you could be related to him.

Please...

I have two Polish friends,

WINIARSKA
and
PIEKARCZYK

Kind Regards,
Adam

The meaning of my last name Karczewski

A couple of clicks on google leads to your home town...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karczew

Polonius not here

wniary - it's a brand name in Poland (currently)
probably comes from 'wino' - wine
but there used to be a 'fort' called 'winiary'

didn't look for details

Piekarczyk - baker's apprentice - someone who learns the jobs - bakery
other fromns: Piekarski. Piekarz (Baker)

Karczewski -
verb is 'karczowac' - no idea about exact English word but those guys who cut out the forrest (mostly in Canada now - lumberjacks??)
anyway - karczowac means cutting trees in the forrest

Did a search and didn't find this name at all on the site, but from genealogical search my mother's father's grandfather came from Poland (in 1884) to the USA.

Last name: Nozewnik

NOŻEWIK: variant of Nożownik (knifer, cuthrtoat); nearly 100 Nożewniks in Poland, the largest concetration being in the Poznań area.

KARZCEWSKI: 95% or mroe of all Polish surnames ending in -owski or -ewski are of toponmyic origin. Karczewski probably had nothing to do with felling trees but only happened to live in Karczew or Karczewo.

WINIARSKA: adjectival form from winiarz (wine-maker), hence Winiarska (wine-maker's wife)

Any ideas on the origin of this family name. Spławiński