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

BABIAK exists in Polish, as I'm sure it does under one spelling or another in all the Slavic countries. its root is the word baba, also unviersa and meaning woman, old woman or hag. Babiak may have originated as a variant form of babiarz (womaniser, skirt-chaser). Alternatively, it may have been a matronymic tag for the bastard son of some unwedded lass.

what might glinkowski mean?

Clayman.

eeeh - you make it so lowly while it can be so noble : CLAYMORE

GLINKOWSKI: it would have mroe likely originated to identify 'the guy from Clayton'; it bears repeating that the overwhelming majority of Polish suirnames ending in -owski are of toponymic origin. There are numerous places in Poland called Glinka and Glinki, of which the toponymic adjective would be Glinkowski.

SOWIŃSKI: root-word sowa (owl), but most likely originated as a toponymic tag for someone from Sowiny (Owlton, Owlville).

Are you crazy? How can Claymore be a noble surname?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M18_Claymore_mine

Would you like to be called Gumishu Panzerfaust?

Wilkowski or Afinowicz

[Moved from]: Last names: Wilkowski, Afinowicz, Nowak

Looking for info on the following family last names
Wilkowski
Afinowicz
Nowak

Would love to go to Poland to meet any relatives

From ancestry.com:
Polish: habitational name for someone from any of the many places in Poland called Wilkowo or Wilków, named with Polish wilk ‘wolf’. This name is also well established in German-speaking countries.

Not sure about Afinowicz?

Would Szczerbacki ever be considered a Russian, Belarussian or Ukrainian surname ? I know Shcherbatsky is similar to Szczerbacki and its found in Russia, Ukraine, etc...

AFINOWICZ: probably patronymic tag from a variant form of the Russian first name
Анфим/Anfim (originally from Greek Anthemon).

SZCZERBACKI: Szczerbacki and Shcherbatsky are different spellings of the same name, something widespread when Cyrillic enters the picture. It can be Polish, Russian, Belarussian and Ukrainian.

Sorry I misunderstood, Gora as in the surname.

A hill, mountain

Hey, my family moved to America from Poland and our last name got shortened. Now it is Watola, but I heard my father say it used to be (and I don't know how to spell this) "Watolowski" or something a long that. I am having trouble finding its meaning, please help.

Both WATO£A and WĄTO£A exist in Poland, but Watołowski and Wątołowski do not. Wądołowski is used however. Considering the numerous misspellings back when most people were illiterate, somewhere along the line the 'd' could have got repalced with a 't'.

Origin uncertain. Possible Polish sources wądół (ravine), wątły (weak) or German/Yiddish: Wat (archaic for garment), Wate (drag-net), Watt (shallows, mud flats) and Watte (cotton-wool), whence Polish wata was derived.

Thank you, I really appreciate your help. I have researched this for a while and I am eager to know what my last name really means. All of this is so helpful, and like I said, I only heard my father say that once, so I had no idea what the spelling could be. I have before, looking up my name, came across that it could possibly mean "Men of the water" do you think this is at all possible? I am no professional at this, but that is what I could dig up.

IS your speculation as to 'man of the water' based on the German word 'Watt' (shallows, sandbar, mud flats) I mentioned?

Well, yes, I feel that could have something to do with it, but what I meant to say was, when I was researching a while back, I found the translation to part of my name could mean water, and that ski added to it could mean 'of the' or 'from the', but looking at what you have said regarding to "ski" my assumptions probably aren't correct are they? Also, why is it so difficult to find records of my family name? I know it is Polish, but the furthest I can trace my family is the late 1800's when they came to America.

my father was german.his mother. my paternal grandmother was born in east prussia which today is either bylorussia i believe. her surname was zaplo. is this russian polish or gypsy ?

Gypsies haven't mixed with the nations they used to live among that much (they still don't mix very much) - so unless your grandmother was actually a Gypsy he couldn't bear a Gypsy surname

then East Prussia is not Belarus - what was East Prussia is now in half in Poland and in half the Kaliningrad enclave of Russia

only a handful of nations inhabited East Prussia - Germans, Poles (Mazurzy/Masuren), Lithuanians and Russian religious emigrates (raskolnitsy - starowiercy/ Old Believers) - the surname of your grandmom may sounds Polish or Russian (or Ruthenian) - if it is spelled as it is written

using the German spelling (were 'z' stands for 'ts') - then it's pretty obviously Masurian (dialectal Polish) surname - it means heron - and in standard Polish is written 'Czapla' and pronounced 'Chahplah'

Anything on Skicewicz? I haven't been able to find out anything about it...

I have some nowak's in my family tree.s. what part of Poland. Nowak is a popular name need more information

you would think that when one seeks info on a family search, they would a least acknowledge that the info was received and was either helpful or not

SKICEWICZ: from peasant dialectal skic or skica (jumper leaper, someone constantly on the go); Skicewicz is the patronymic form identifying the 'son of Skic'.

Would like to know what the meaning of one of my family names is.
KUPSCH.... I have been looking for my great grandfather, Johann Freidrich
Kupsch, born in Klein Blumberg, Crossen Prussia, which I believe is part
of Poland back then, he was born in 1835approximately, left Hamburg for
Tasmania, Australia in 1870, once he arrived in Tasmania, he never left.
Would love to find a family connection, as all of his records were destroyed
in world war 2, so I cannot trace my great grandfather or his family.
Can anyone please please help..........

KUPSCH: In Poland also spelt Kupsz and Kupś is a menaignless German name beleived to have been derived from a Slavic root, whose Polish spin-off would be Kupiec (merchant).

Peskunowicz or Piskunowicz? Does anyone know the meaning of this last name?

PISKUNOWICZ: root-word pisk (squeal, sqeuak, scream, screach) from which piskun (squealer, squaeker, screecher, screamer) was derived. Since -wicz is a patronymic ending, Piskunowicz would have been the screecher's son.

Thank you :) Do you happen to know what part of Poland this originates in?

Of the some 180 Piskunowiczes 165 live in the regained territories (ziemie odzyskane) ceded to Poland by the Big Three Allies after the war to partially compensate for the one-half of prewar Poland annexed by Stalin and never returned. Those lands were mostly resettled by repatriates from eastern Poland. That suggests that the Piskunowiczes hailed from the eastern half of prewar Poladn, now in Ukraine and Belarus.

Thank you so much for responding to my post.
You have given me a couple of names I can look
into.
I truly appreciate your comments.
Have a beautiful day.....
Lorraine Ann....