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

Marqoz - You'll probably know this. When someone got a coat of arms from the king, was it confirmed by some royal urząd. If so, which one. What about those in later centuries who were adopted into a clan or entered via marriage, did they go somewhere to have their noble status officially confirmed. Was it some urząd grodzki, as you mentioned? What about changes made in coat of arms which were renamed. Were these arbitrarily made by the crest-bearers themselves and simply confirmed by some urząd. Or was there some heraldic official who suggested elements of the c-o-a?

BUT WHAT ABOUT WITH MY LAST NAMES? , I WANNA KNOW THE MEANING OF THEM.

DOLOVITZ PIEKAKIN

Dołowicz or Dolovitz looks to be a patronymic, so the question remains: is there a first name something like Dol in Yiddish/Hebrew? If so, it would mean son of Dol. Piekanin sounds Russian. Perhaps as in Polish the piek (pyek) root has to do with baking or maybe with some locality incorporating that root. I ran across a place in Russia called Pikany. could that have been it?

Dolovitz could originate from Dołowicz - 106 persons in Poland have this surname:
The name looks like patronymic from Dołow or toponymic from Dołów, Dołowice, Dołowicze, Dół or Doły.

Piekakin looks like Russian name: Пекакин or in old Russian ortography: Пѣкакінъ, what - I guesstimate - could mean: 'someone who used to bake'. Good moniker for a baker.


Old Poland had no heraldic authority.
It was royal prerogative to grant Polish nobility (nobilitatio) or to acknowledge foreign nobility (indigenatus). Polish noble families could also make a private adoption to their surname and coat of arms.

However the King or JKM (which is Polish abbreviation for His Majesty) could do it at his own discretion only to 1578.
The Constitutio of the Sejm (Polish Diet) limited these powers. Since then JKM could grant nobility only during the Sejm proceedings or in case of war. It was further restricted in 1613 when all grants were made possible only during the Sejm proceeding and only after the instruction of deputies or a hetman.

The grants were written in the [i]Metri
administered by The Royal Chancellor.

These inscriptiones are still there in
The Old Records Archives
agad.archiwa.gov.pl/pomoce/MK_inw.xml
in Warsaw and everybody can dig in this immense set of documents from 1414 - 1820. However Swedes, Russians and Saxons had stolen them, they were recovered.

My impression was that the King's representative went about the countryside assigning names for the obvious tax collection purposes.

I was told by my Godfather that the wicz ending was indicative of the middle class in Poland and all the rest, with the exception of ski, were peasants.

Golanski anyone?

GOLAŃSKI: toponymic nick from the village of Golany in the Mazowsze region.

There were no wandering Royal clerk of such kind. People used to have a head, so they were paying pogłówne (head tax), if they had a hut or house with a chimney, they were paying podymne (chimney tax). No need for surnames just pay and go away.


It isn't quite true in fact. In Old Poland there were indeed custom to get names with -ski endings only by noblemen. But as it was considered to be better name than other, many people from other estates started to use it: burghers and from XIX century even peasants. But there were some decent nobleman Walerian Nekanda Trepka who traced such cases. He wrote in 1624 Liber chamorum or Book of louts where he put all peasants and burghers who tried to pretend noblemen.

-icz ending is a patronymic form while -ski is a toponymic one. Firstly -icz was limited to Eastern Borderland as it is phonologically Ruthenian version of Polish -ic/-yc. Later it became more popular in all territories of the Commonwealth. And indeed it looks like -wicz was more 'democratic' and was widely used by burghers - especially of Ruthenian ancestry.

Mar 1, 10, 01:32 - Thread attached on merging:
Olszanowski

Has anyone heard of my surname, Olszanowski? What is the meaning of it? Which area of Poland, if any, are my ancestors from?

how about GINA?

OLSZANOWSKI: root-word olcha (alder tree); toponymic nick from Olszanowo or Olszany (Alderton); biggest concentration in SE Poland around Przemyśl and surrounds.

GINA: origin obscure; possibly from ginąć (to perish or get lost) or zginać (to bend)???

my grandparents came to America in 1895 and then changed thier name to Lucas.

I have thier last name as Lokaschun on the Hamburg Passerger list, Lucassan, Luchassan, Lucassen on the USA census. The passenger list says he came from Vilinus. I cannot find Lockaschun or anything like it in any telephone directory.

Can anyone tell me the correct spelling of this name and the origin?
Thanks so much!

There few people with this name now: /mapa/kompletny/gina.

The etymology of it is obscure, but Polonius found some plausible clues.

[Moved from]: Source of Tananis - or Tenanis - surname

My grandfather grew up in the farming village Borzymy, northeastern Poland in the late 1800s. His name was Antoni Tenanis. Does anyone know the source of this surname?

I was wondering what my surname "Tutak" means. Any help is appreciated!

Zybczynski or Rybczynski, Zymowski, Kozlowski, Muszynski

Quite many guys now in Poland with Tutak surname. 1863 in total:

Most probably the name has origin in words: Tutaj, Tuta, Tutka = here; so we may interpret the name as 'a man of this place'.


All the names sound like toponymic from different village names. However they could also be a little bit made up to sound more noble. Potential place names are in turn from common nouns:

RYBCZYŃSKI: from small FISH
ZYMOWSKI: from WINTER
KOZ£OWSKI: from a BILLY-GOAT
MUSZYŃSKI: from a FLY

ŻYBCZYŃSKI is more problematic but could be changed form of ŻABCZYŃSKI: from FROG


Maybe it was £ukaszun:
I've found in google: Augustyn £ukaszun in matrimonial and death certificates for St. John's parish in Wilno in 1876: stankiewicze.com/index.php?kat=41&sub=615 and Anna £ukaszun: stankiewicze.com/index.php?kat=41&sub=623

Google knows!

And you have 70 people who have this family name in Poland now: moikrewni.pl/mapa/kompletny/łukaszun.html. They dispersed after WW2, but probably all were from Wilno and its surroundings. The name is probably of Lithuanian origin...

or even Latvian: Lukašunas

Which Borzymy?

17-322 Borzymy, siemiatycki, Podlaskie, Polska
18-411 Borzymy, łomżyński, Podlaskie, Polska
18-507 Borzymy, kolneński, Podlaskie, Polska
05-281 Borzymy, wołomiński, Mazowieckie, Polska

And the family name Tananis... You can find 20 persons with such a name in Poland now: moikrewni.pl/mapa/kompletny/tananis.html.

It could be of Lithuanian origin, as you may find in:

lithuaniangenealogy.org/databases/pa/st_george/index.html?letter=T
lithuaniangenealogy.org/databases/pa/stfrancis/index2.html?letter=T

Hello, I am wondering if the name Dzarnowski is researchable. I have not found anything yet. If the name does mean something, I will seriously consider paying for a more in depth explanation.

DŻARNOWSKI/DZIARNOWSKI: arhcaic root-word dziarno (variant forms: dżarno, dziarń, drząstwo, etc.) = kind of fine gravel; or archaic adj. dziarny (hard-working). Several hundred bearers of Dziarnowski spelling in Poland.

Can you possibly give me any information of the surname "Laniewski" means and what region of Poland it may be assoiciated with? Any help would be greatly appriaciated. Thanks.

It could be £aniewski [waa-nyef-skee]. There is 370 men and 429 women with this last name in Poland now: moikrewni.pl/mapa/kompletny/łaniewski.html.

The name could be a toponymic one from village name £aniewo, £anowo, £ania.
The village name could be from either łan or łania:
£an - measure of area used in agriculture until XIX century, equaled 18-24 ha
£ania - a hind

There were 4 noble lines amongst the £aniewskis, entitled to use: Korczak, Wieże, Odrowąż and Znin c-o-a (the latter quite obscure). Mazowsze appears to be the main £aniewski stronghold, esp. Greater Warsaw as well as the Ciechanów and Płock areas. But there are scattered clusters in and around Białystok, Olsztyn, £ódź, Sieradz, Bydgoszcz, Gdańsk, Szczecin and Zielona Góra.

There are 147 men and 165 women having last name Pudelski/Pudelska.
Here you have distribution where they are today:
It's difficult to decide from where they were.

Pudelski - probably toponymic from Pudłów; some 300 users in Poland, about one-third (the single largest concentration) from Wielkopolska's Kalisz and Poznań areas.

[Moved from]: surname CZERWINSKY

HI , I am looking for the origin of my surname mother CZERWINSKY which I have been told is polish ... is this surname polish?

Yes it is, the correct way to spell it is Czerwiński, but your mother would spell it Czerwińska. I have a friend by that name in WI

Polonius, can you help me please? My great, great grandmother's surname was Kobelke, nee Kauschke, family from Bunzlau (Boleslavia) post-1945 and pre-12th century Bolesławiec, on the Bober (Bobr) river. Yes, my ancestors considered themselves German however, look at their surnames, which hint of a Slavic origin! They migrated to Australia in around 1840 due to religious persecution, but I would now like to know a little about this hidden aspect of their German names...that there is a Slavic or Polish aspect to consider. Can you tell me anything please? For example what meaning could the names have, and do Polish people have similar names?

BTW thanks. Any ideas as to where to search for more information on exact origins?

CZERWIŃSKI: root-word czerw (red larva, maggot); -ski names are usually topopnymic, eg from Czerwińsk.

Hello, don’t know if this is the right forum but at least you might be able to point me in right direction.

To start with – my maiden name is KLUT – have you ever heard of such surname in Poland. From the look of it is not a typical polish name, wonder where it originated.

The rest of my ancestor have a “typical” polish names as well – LAFERY, SCHOUNBAUM (that should be a German O with double comas on top of it) and, finally, which is puzzling me the most, on my grandparents marriage certificate there is a name of my grandmother’s mother simply put as TEKLA from TRASZKÓW (Tekla z Trzasków) so she does not even have a surname as such. The certificate was issued in 1932 in Warsaw, so I presume that they all were living in or around Warsaw in the early 1900’s

Any help appreciated

Thanks in advance