My last name is Czugala. My dad told me since I was young that is pronounced: Chew-ga-lah . Does anyone know of a meaning? We know of no other Czugala's in the USA, but in the past couple years I have found a couple on Facebook that live in Poland.
Hello! I was wondering if you had any information on the last name 'Tabor'. This may be an Anglicized spelling, as as far as I know it's an English name. But, the people that passed the name on to me were immigrants from Poland to the USA.
TABOR: Yes, this is a Polish word. Historically it means a wagon train (horse-drawn military-supply wagons or a Gypsy caravan); nowadays tabor kolejowy means rolling stock.
GONTARSKI: gont is a roof shingle, a gontarz is a shingler and Gontarski would be a nick for his kid or helper.
TARCZYŃSKI: root-word is tarcza (shield), but the direct source is toponymic and comes from localties called Tarczyn or Tarczyny (Shieldville, Shieldton, Shieldborough, etc.); so Tarczyński probably orignated to indicate 'the bloke from Shiieldbury'.
ZOBOROWSKI: Zoboroski does not exist, Zoborowski is almost extinct and most likely it started out as Zaborowski. That originated as a topo nick from the locality of Zaborów. The root-word is zabór meaning loot, something taken by force or pillage, annexed territory, etc., hence perhaps translatable as Lootbury or Pillageville???
another possibility is that the name might come from "za borem" - "behind the pine forest", thus it would be similar in meaning to Zaleski (behind the forest - za lasem).
ZABOROWSKI: None of those speculations can be ruled out, since with names almost anything is possible. Quite plausible is the etymology of Zaborów meaning 'beyond the coniferous forest' and Zaborowski being the topo tag for someone who lived there. With this etymology Zaborów might thus be roughly translatable as Overwood or something in that general spirit.
BRODZIŃSKI: Tracebale to different roots, but the most likely is probably bród (ford, shallow part of river where wading across is possible. There are numerous localites in Poland called Brody (Fords), so this couild be a topo nick. But there was once a first name Brodzisław. So Brodzicki or Bordziński could have originated as a patronymic.
The largest concentration of Brodzińskis is in Upper Silesia's Katowice and Częstochowa areas. Smaller pockets are found up north in Kujawy in and around the ciites of Włocławek and Toruń.
DAHNER: Not a Polish name in terms of etymology, as it originated as topo nick from village of Dahn in western Germany’s Rhineland Palatinate. But it has been recorded in Poland, although no-one uses it at present.
DZIUNKO: possibly from dziuma, archaic form of dżuma (plague); or from Old Slavonic verb degati (to throw, cast, toss).
TURECZEK: diminutive of Turek (Turk), hence little/young Turk or son of someone called Turek, possibly for toponymic reasons.
IWANEJKO: from Iwan, eastern form of Jan (John); patronymic like Johnson or toponymic from some locality incorporating the ‘Iwan’ root.
SYROCHMAN/SIROCHMAN: uncertain??? Perhaps from Old Polish syr (cheese), or Old Polish sirota (orphan), or topo nick from Seroczyn or similar.
KURYLUK: variant of Kiryluk: eastern patronymic for the son of Cyril.
KĘDRA: etymologically the name is Polish; kędry was the hair left on the bride's head after her braid had been shorn away. But Jews have been known to use every possible surnmame including the most Polish of them all: Kowalski, Nowak, Wójcik, When it was good for business, more convenient or expedient they were also known to translate their Yiddish names into Polish equivalents so Stein became Kamiński, Goldmann -- Złotnik, Fiedler -- Skrzypek and so on.
DAJNOWSKI: Dajnowski must be a misspelling; topo nick from Dajnowa in the Wilno region (now under Lithuanian occupation).
CherylM KRAKOW/KRAKÓW/KRAKOWSKI: from the name of Poland's old royal capital -- Kraków. Could have been the Polish version of the Yiddish Krakauer. The name of city reisdents were common surnames amongst Polish Jewry including Warschauer, Lubliner, Bialostocker, Posener, Danziger, Lubartower, etc.
