CIESIO£KA: root-word verb ciosać: to cut, chop, carve esp. wood; spin-offs include cieśla (carpenter) and ciesiołka (carpentry). BTW the well-known US Chase banking family were originally Polish Jews named Cieśla.
SO£TYS: borrowing from German Schultheiß (village mayor) whcih in German has evolved into the well-known surname Schultz, also spelt Schultz and inPolish Szulc. In Polish spin-offs from Sołtys include Sołtysik and Sołtysiak (patronymic nicks).
POWA£OWSKI: yes, powała is an old word for ceiling, but most -owski surnames are of topo origin so places named Powałów or Powałowo seem the more likely source.
GRYGLAK: patronymic nick from Grygiel (eastern form of Grzegorz - Gregory) = Gregson
MAŚ: short hypocoristic form of Masiek, Maszek from Maciej, Marcin, Mateusz.
STYGA: root-word probably verb stygnąć (to cool off); possibly from styg (cold water used by blacksmiths to temper hot iron)
BĄK: multiple possible sources including top (spinning toy), horsefly, toddler, or fart; topo sources: Bąki, Bąków, Bąkowo, etc.
KICIŃSKI: topo nick from Kicin or Kinicy (kicia = kitty-cat, hence Kittyville)
my great grandparents came over on the queen mary. They may have changed their last name I believe it was BLENDOWSKI and was canged to BLEDOWSKI. I hope you can help me find the meaning of it. I am doing a report on Poland for my school final. Thank you
YAVOREK? I have been told that the original spelling was JAWOREK, but it was changed during immigration. Also, could you help me and tell me how to say little mushroom in Polish. I want to get a tattoo of that word or phrase in memory of my uncle. He always said phenetically like, po pink ee. Thank you!
Podpieńka or podpieniek (in peasant dialect pronounced like podpinka) is the honey mushroom or stumper (Armillaria mellea). The Polish name literally means 'under the stump', because that is where this species grows.
WUKZSTA/WUKSTA: There is no surname, no toponym (place-name) and no word (except for wukrzyżowany = archaic dialectic for crucified) in Polish starting with wuk-. Also the zs combination never appears in Polish but is common in Hungarian. Wuk, I beleive, is south Slavc and Czech for wolf (Polish: wilk). But so many things have happened to names over the ages, esp. various misspellings and respellings that you never know. Besides, one needn't have a Polish surname to be Polish.
Please help me find the origin of "pasek" family name. Hi is there anyway you guys and gals can tell by my last name what part of poland my family is from or if it was changed when my great grandparents immigrated to the US? my uncle mentioned a place krakow but not sure of it as we both have absolutely no clue about where our roots are from.
also i am going to go to school in poland in a couple of years and wounder would i be considered polish from my roots/ heritage or just another outsider?
I've heard about Jan Chryzostom Pasek at high school. He was learning in Rawa in "Collegium Jezuickie'. He was the author of "Pamiętniki" and he lived at the end at XVII century. He was fighting by Stefan Czarniecki's command against Swedes and Rakoczy.
Katarzyna - Catherine Wojciech, Wojtek - a popular polish first name
and the surname is Albert or Adelbert ? I would say that his first name was Wojciech and surname was Adelbert (not a very rare surname, it is most probably from the German language, a lot of Poles have surnames in German or a Polonised version of a German word)
LASKOWSKI: basic root - las (forest), specifically its derivative lasek (wood, grove) or lasak (forest-dweller). However, nearly all surnames ending in -owski are of toponymic origin hence the actual source was most likely one of several localities named Lasków, Laskowo or Laskowszczyzna (Forestville, Woodbury, Groveton).
My grandfather's name was Stanislaus Kostka Gapa, and he traveled from Dembno? Poland/Germany? in 1912 - I have copies of his shipping papers, and his picture. I think he came in through Philadelphia, not sure.
He married Mary (Mittie) Lee Dewveall (Duvall later on)(from Texas) in 1917 and somehow they ended up in Kansas. Unfortunately he died at 50 leaving my grandmother with nine kids! My mom (Elizabeth) was seven of nine, my uncle John being the ninth and a baby at the time.
So when he died in 1939,(heart attack walking home from work as a printer/laborer), I think six or seven went to an orphanage, the older ones already out of school and/or on their own. My mom was eight, so she didn't have much of a childhood.
I so want to find out more about my mom's side of the family. I have no information about his family, siblings, etc. And I also think that Gapa was shortened, you don't see many four-letter Polish surnames! I do know that he lived in Wisconsin for about a year, and how he ended up in Kansas is unknown.
Let me know if you know anything on your end about the Gapa name - it is unusually short, so it will be interesting to dig. I also live near a Mormon "library" that has thousands of names on file, so I can go there or sign up online and see what they have.
on the topic of shortened last names...one guitarist in my favorite band, he's Polish but his last name--Gers--is unusually short for a Polish last name...what could the full last name possibly be?
WOJACKI: It could also have originated as a toponymic nickname for someone from Wojakowa (Warriorville) in south Poland's Małołopolska region. Wojakowski would have been more logical from a linguisitc standpoint, but the original nickanmers were not linguists but usually ordinary, illiterate peasants who twisted things around and blurted out whatever came to mind with no regards for etymology or grammar. The idela match would have been a place called Wojak or Wojaki.
The Polish side of my family has two surnames I am interested in: KROLIK and PALUCH.
Re KROLIK: All immigrated to Wisconsin and Chicago in late 1800's, arriving in Baltimore from Bremen.My grandfather was John James Krolik (Catholic), his father was Ignacz Krolik (Catholic), and his father was Jacob Krolik. All came from "Prussia."
One member of our family feels our Polish ancestors were Jewish. Others in our family do not agree. I know the name Krolik is used by both Jews and Catholics, but am wondering if most Polish Kroliks are Catholic or Jewish.
Jacob Krolik (born about 1830) married Mary Paluch.
Re PALUCH: Is Paluch a Jewish or Catholic name?
Don't get me wrong. I really don't care if my Polish ancestors were Jewish or Catholic; I would simply like to know.
My personal feeling, based on limited research, is that they were always Catholic.
The meaning of my Polish ancestor's last name; Paprocki means fern. Does anyone know the probable region that would eventually end up in? It seems pommeranian to me. Also is this a very common name for Poles to have? I believe it is.
