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

What does my last name Olszewski mean i was told alder tree.

The root is from olch~olsz which indeed means alder, however nearly all surnames ending in -ewski and -owski originated as toponymic nicknames. In this case Olszewski would mean the bloke from Olszew or Olszewo (Alderbury, Alderton).


Sochacki -- basic root = socha (primitive plough); perhaps also toponymically from the locality of Socha in £ódź region

Jagielski -- from jagła (millet groats); toponymically from Jagiele, Jagielno, Jagłowo, etc.

Marek derives from Mark. Means "dedicated to Mars".

Goralczyk - you'd need to break the name up. Goral and Czyk. Goral means someone from the mountains of southern Poland, from góral(e). Czyk means small.

Purzycki - from polishroots.org
Purzycki might come ultimately from a term purzyca, "thigh," but the immediate source would be a place name Purzyce or something like it. There is, for instance, a Purzyce-Trojany in Ciechanow province, and the surname probably referred to a family's coming from that or some other village with a similar name (there are probably others, too small to show up on my maps). As of 1990 there were 1,243 Poles named Purzycki, with the largest numbers in the provinces of Warsaw (227), Ciechanow (247), and Olsztyn (136). Probably quite a few of those took their name from that village I mentioned, but there are enough people by this name, in enough different parts of the country, to suggest more than one place gave rise to this surname. So the name means basically "person or family associated with, coming from, working at Purzyca or Purzyce."

This info may not be a lot of help pinpointing a particular area your ancestors came from, but that's generally true of most names. There are just too many different words, and places with similar names, to point unambiguously at a place of origin or clear-cut meaning. The origin of a place-derived surname usually is the most help if your research has established an area your ancestors came from, and if you find a village nearby with the right name. So if you learn where the Purzycki's lived in Poland before coming over, and you find a Purzyce or Purzyca nearby, that's probably the right place!

Zalewska or Zalewski
Polish: topographic name for someone who lived by a flood plain or a bay, Polish zalew, or a habitational name for someone from a place named with this word, in particular Zalew in Sieradz voivodeship or Zalewo in Olsztyn voivodeship. There has been considerable confusion with Zaleski.

For Dankowski, you'd need to break the name down to Dankow and ski. Dankow is a village (Dankow, Lubuskie, Poland.) and ski means "son of"... so the name is "son of Dankow".

Andrezywski might also be spelt without the y, and with an e instead. It might be made up the first name Andrez (or Andreas). ewski is a name-tag, meaning associated with name of place. ski is "son of" (initially a sign of nobility).

Góralczyk = son of the highlander (patronymic nickname).
Maybe the city was Katowice -- the capital of Śląsk (Silesia).

Can anybody help me with my last name?
Kłos

The word kłos in Polish means an ear of grain (usually rye or wheat), so it could have arisen as a nickname for someone associated wtih grain, a miller for instance.

But it could have likewise as a toponymic nickname from some locality containing the "kłos" root.

Thanks Polonius3 also can you help me with the last name Fornek?

Many thanks

Fornek -- probably originated as a patronynmic nickname for the son of the "fornal" (stable hand). For a complete custom-researched analysis please contact me.

Belarussian version of Gawronik; Gawron = rook, large bird of the crow family. When someone nicknamed Gawron fathered a son, the offspring would have been called Gawronik or (in the eastern broderlands) Hawranik.

No-one named Kiełbaski in Poland at present, but there are quite a few with the Kiełbaska.
surname. Yes, the sausage connection is obvious.

Dudarz = piper (someone playing Polish-style goatskin bagpipes).

Frances would be Franciszka in Polish.
Kapustka is also of a Polish origin.
Meaning "small cabbage".
Hope this helps!
I was also adopted from Poland at 12 years old
but I was in an open adoption and have contact
with my Polish family :)
Greetings from Arizona,
Adela & Szymon
Polish Translators/Genealogists

Dobosiewicz, root = dobosz (army drummer), -wicz = patronymic suffix (son of), hence Dobosiewicz originated to indicate "the drummer's boy".


'Twas probably Jurzak which originated as a patronymic nickname for the "son of Jur or Jura" (eastern-bordelrland forms of the first name Jerzy/George).

What does Stachowski mean? That's my name but have no idea what it means. contact at--- livingwaterchurch2003@yahoo

DEPTA: In dialectic peasant Polish depta was a dawdler. It may also derive from the verb deptać (to tread upon, stamp with one's feet).

STACHOWSKI: Stach is the diminutive of Stanisław and the -owski ending is usually toponymic (place-name-derived), so the English equiavlent might be something like Stanton or Stanleyville.

Hey!
Can anyone tell me what NIKONIUK means??
Cheers

Nikoniuk = son of Nikon (Ukranian first name).

SURNAMES JADCZAK AND HODAR

Jadczak appears to have originated as a patronymic nickname for the son of someone named Jadam (as in Jadam i Jewa -- a dialectic peasant pronunciation).

Hodar was probably originally Chodar either from chodzić (to walk) (Jaś Chodar would be something like Johnny Walker!) or a variant spelling of Chodor (one of several different Slavonic forms of the first name Teodor which also included Todor and Fiodor).

Walczyszyn

Chorążyczewski (if you are stuck with this surname in America I truly smypathise!!!)
Etymologically the root is chorąży (standard-bearer) and the source of this tioponmyic nickanme would be some locality such as Chorążyczew or Chorążyczewo.

Walczyszyn -- a Ukrainian-influenced metronymic nicknamde which worked in a rather strange way. The wife of someone named Walek (from Walenty or Walerian) was called Walczyszyna and when she Walek's son he was known as Walczyszyn (which means the son of the wife of Walek). Polish prefers straightforward patronymic nicknames such as (in this case) Walkowiak, Walczak or (in the east) Walczuk.

My surname is Maka, my father came from Limanowa

"Mak" is a poppy or "Mąka" - flour

There are 24 people named Maka in Poland and more than 3,000 using the Mąka surname. Perhaps some Austrian official igmoredf the little squiggle under the "ą", and the illiterate Polish peasant got it written that way in his documents.

What is the meaning of my surname Rydlewicz?

WILPISZEWSKI toponymic from Wilpiszewo. Since more than half of Poland's some 30 Wilpiszewskis live in the Szczecin area, their ancestral nest must have originally been east of the River Bug.

KWIECIEŃ - April -- either the month someone was born in or converted (usually to Catholicism)

RYDLEWICZ patronymic nickname (son of a bloke nicknamed Rydel -- shovel, spade, or hailing from Rydlewo).

meaning of the last Polish name Popielinsky?

It's probably related to the name Popiel, just with insky added to the end.

Here is info on Popiel
kingpopiel.tripod.com/english/frames1.htm

There is has been a great deal of German-Yiddish-Polish and other-Slavonic interaction in the name field over the centuries with an added sprinkling of Lithuanian, Hungarian and Turkish elements thrown in...

SPANKE - none in Poland more than 500 in Germany. There are 19 Spankowskis in Poland (son of Spanke or Spanek?) and 1 peson named Spanek. Spanek suggest a spanie (sleep) related etymology. Wygodne spanko is colloquial for a comfy sack.


ŚCIORA - from the verb now archaic ściorać or ściarać (to sully, besmirch, dirty, blacken). In a physical sense possibly applicable to a soot-stained chimneysweep, morally to someone with a sullied reputation.

DATA - obviously an Italian import. Means the same (calendar date not rendez-vous!) in both languages.

SZEJWA -Polonised respelling of German/Yiddish Schewe from the adj. schief meaning lopsided, crooked, bent-over.

Popieliński probably arose as a toponymic nikcname to describe an inhabitant of Popielin or Popielno.

What is the meaning of Zarzeczny?
That was my great grandparents last name.

For me it sounds like it's somebody who lives "za rzeka" - literally beyond the river, across the river, on other side of the river. It's a popular last name in Russia. Although I'd recommend you to wait for more reliable responses as I don't speak Polish.

Indeed, either a descriptive toponym for someone who lives "za rzeką" (Russian: за рекой) or a geographic one -- hailing from the village of Zarzecze (Riverville, Riverton, Riverburg).

Kozlowiski- Koziol + ski
Koziol means male roe dear:P

The meaning of mysliwy,please?

Paul Myslivy

Czech or Americanised spelling of Myśliwy (hunter).