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

KURAŚ: root probably kur (cock) or kura (hen); possibly originated as a topo tag from Kuraszew or similar.

GULCZYŃSKI: most likely a topo nick from the village of Gulcz in Wielkopolska.

Wolkiewicz... Thanks in advance

WO£KIEWICZ: The root here is wołk (Ruthenian for wolf; in Polish it's wilk), and the -wicz is a patronymic ending, so it emerged to describe the son of someone nicknamed Wołk; English equivalent Wolfson.

Gawroriski ???

Indeed "???". But let me guess:

Gawroriski
Gawroński

Do these two words look similar to you? The accent above letter "n" in the second name, which converts "n" to "ń" (spelled "n-acute"), could have been mistaken by the dot in an "i" character, thus implying combination of two letters "ri", rather than the single "ń". Such mistake could have been even easier made with a handwritten script.

GAWROŃSKI : from "gawron" => a rook (in a sense of a black bird)

boletus
Gawroriski
Gawroński

Looks to be a clever piece of onomastic detective work. I don't think I would have thought of it. The way you juxtaposed the two spellings makes your hypothesis sound very plausible indeed. I wonder if the name was handnwritten or machine-printed.

Does anyone know the history of the name Walkowiak?

Thanks, pure luck and illumination. :-)


This we may never know. :-(

Hello, I am new to this forum!

My last name is Repczynski. I have seen on the wikipedia pages Kownia_coat_of_arms and List_of_Surnames_That_May_Use_The_Jastrz%C4%99biec_Coat_Of_Arms (I cannot post links as of yet) that the name Repczyński is mentioned, but since I have not grown with my polish grandparents, I have never asked whether the accent matters or not. Do any of you know what my name may mean?

Repczynski vs. Repczyński. I am just making it up, but this seems to me like the obvious and logical explanation. The ending -NSKI contains three consonants in row, and this is hard to pronounce as it is. For this reason the consonant N become palatalized (softened) in pronunciation, and the spelling reflects it. Consequently, the actual ending is spelled as -ŃSKI. Any Pole in Poland would not hesitate for a moment that there must be "n-acute", rather than the regular "n" letter. Living abroad with -ŃSKI name is another matter though. :-)

Try for example look up the distribution of Repczyński in Poland, in database "Moi krewni". The map shows 145 persons of this name in Poland, with the biggest concentration in Wielkopolska (Great Poland) and its regional capital Poznań. Mind you, there must many more Repczyńskis there - just treat this database as a subset under construction.

Next, try the same experiment with Repczynski instead and you will come with nothing.

According to: stankiewicz.e.pl/index.php?kat=44&sub=778, the name Repczyński comes either from "rzepa" (turnip), or from "rap, rapa" - a dark-coloured horse. Some forms of it come from the name of Raphael, specifically from the German personal name Rap.

Jastrzębiec coat of arms - I have not realized how widespread it was: 1740 names all-together! ,
pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jastrzębiec_(herb_szlachecki)


They must have made a fortune on adoptions. :-)

My last name is Bartkiewicz, and my Grandfather was from Karkow, and my Grandmother was from Vilnius.

What is the actual surname of Dziunka without the femanine ending? What would the masculine version of Dziunka be as well?

BARTKIEWICZ: patronymic nick from Bartek (Bart), short for Bartłomiej (Bartholomew).

DZIUNKA: Dziunka, Dziunia and Gunia are some of the numerous hypocoristic (pet) forms of the first name Magdalena. That would make this a metronymic nickname -- probably originally given to an unwed mother's bastard son. Feminine names and nouns often serve as surnames. Their feminine version usually has the ending -owa, hence Dziunkowa.

Merged: Two names

What does Dombrowski mean?

What does Kowalski mean?

Hi. Could someone please tell me the meaning of Hajdukiewicz? It was my Grandads surname which has been passed on to me.
Thanks
Dave

DOMBROWSKI**KOWALSKI**HAJDUKIEWICZ

DOMBROWSKI: variant spelling of Dąbrowski; either topographic (for someone living in or near an oak grove) or toponymic (for someone hailing from a locality called Dąbrów. Dąbrowa, Dąbrowo or similar.

KOWALSKI: root-word kowal (blacksmith); either patronymic for the blacksmith's son or helper or toponymic for someone from Kowale.

HAJDUKIEWICZ: possibly a double patronymic from hajda (mountain herdsman); the son could have been called Hajduk and the grandson --Hajdukiewicz.

what does the last name Sanetra mean seems to be a rare Polish last name does anybody no the meaning of it??

According to stankiewicz.e.pl/index.php?kat=44&sub=550 the following names: Sanetra, Sanetrnik, Sanetrznik, Salatera, Salatarski, Salaterski - are derived from the Polish word "saletra", a corrupted form of Latin "sal petrae" - saltpetre, rock salt.

[It is a common name of several nitrates, but it originally meant the Indian saltpetre, niter, potassium nitrate, KNO3. It is used in food industry (preservation of meat colour) and as fertilizer. It was also the main ingredient in production of black gunpowder (75%), alongside with sulphur (12%) and charcoal (13%). It appears as a mineral but mostly in hot dry locations (India, South America, North Africa ...), otherwise is quickly dissolves in water and then sometimes leeches out of soil and rocks in form of efflorescence - hence its name: the "the rock salt".

Apparently the Old Poland was an exporter of saltpetre, most probably extracted from soil containing high concentration of saltpetre. In that time (13th-15th c.) England was producing it from ammonia contained in soil from under the royal stables. It is also naturally occurring in caves due to ammonium producing bacteria. It must have been quite an expensive product before the modern day chemists invented other methods: production of ammonia directly from air or chemical reactions of KCl with more easily accessible NaNO3 (Chilean saltpetre)]

According to "Moi Krewni" database, there are 850 people in Poland with the name Sanetra. Most of them live in Żywiec - 313.

So if the '-ko' ending in Teresko is more likely Ruthenian, and seeing as Piotr is closely related to Pyotr (Russian spelling I believe) and Greek philosophical names (Plato) were common amongst Russians...taking all that into account, in this day and age, what would that make me? Thanks :)

Confused? :-)

Little Lady, your question has no sense, unless one remembers your little story from your earlier posts. I did not remember it, but I know how to use the search function. With so little data given (grandfather Platon, father Piotr - born or having been lived in Mława, the last name Teresko and no specific dates) there is very little we can help, but offer some vague suggestions.

One such suggestion is to extend your search, admitting similarly spelled names - Tereško. The grapheme š (s with caron), roughly pronounced "sh" in English, might have been dropped off during migration, leading to simple Teresko. Slovakian or Latvian Tereško would be transliterated to Polish as Tereszko. On the other hand, Belarusian or Ukrainian names of this sort would be transliterated following either Polish rules (Tereszko) or English one (Tereshko). So here you go: Teresko, Tereško, Tereszko and Tereshko may refer to the same surname.

The American white pages (whitepages.com) show: 70 Tereshko, 46 Teresko and 4 Tereszko surnames.
Polish database "Moi Krewni" shows only 12 Teresko people in Poland, but 215 Tereszko. They are either located close to the eastern Polish border with Belarus and Ukraine, or in some "recovered (former German) territories" - suggesting resettlement of Tereszkos from the East.

MyHeritage.com has quite a few pages devoted to Teresko/Tereško family trees.

Google shows many Tereško hits originating from Latvia, Lithuania, few from Czech Republic and Slovakia, and plenty Tereshko hits - from Belarus and Ukraine.

By reading some wikipedia entry, I have learned that Tereshko is also a diminutive form of the first name Terentiy: Terentiy (Tereshko) Makarovych Parkhomenko (1872-1910) (or as he was known Tereshko) was one of the most respected kobzars of the late 19th and early 20th century. He would be considered an Ukrainian today. This brought to my attention the wikipedia transliteration rules from Russian first names to English ones (similar rules must exist for Ukrainian and Belarusian names). Here is the one of interest:

Russian name: Терентий;
Transliteration: Terenty;
Conventional/Anglicized forms: Terentiy, Terence;
Diminutive forms: Tereshko
Origin: Latin (male Terentius, female Terentia)

This suggests that the origin of your last name, is in the Roman family name Terentius/Terentia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terentius_(gens)

This was followed by conversion to the first name Terentiy, diminution to one of these forms: Tereshko, Tereszko, Tereško and finally by making them back into the surnames.

A big number of Tereško Google hits originating from Latvia still puzzles me.

I haven't read all 92 pages of this thread, but I'm interested in finding out the meanings of the Polish last names in my family: Potrepka, Niemiec, Szalankiewicz, Burka, Przygodzka. If anyone can be of any help, that would be great. :)

If it helps I think some of my family was from the area of Świebodzin.

How about:

Krajiński

£apkowski

Federowicz

Rogowski

Figlewski

gadeborski

POTREPKA: Only Potrebka is used in Poland today. Origin obscure. Could it have been deriver from the Ruthenian version of potrzeba? Or maybe it had something to do with bugling if the main syllable was 'tręb'? Or maybe 'trepka' (wooden-soled slipper)? There is also a village in Serbia called Potreb!?

NIEMIEC: German; at times applied to indigenous Poles 'spod Niemca' (from the Prussian partition)

SZALANKIEWICZ: From Szalanek, possibly a variant form of szalunek (formwork, temporary wooden encasement for poured concrete); when the formwork-maker nicknamed Szalanek fathered a son - presto - instant Szalankiewicz!

BURKA: diminutive of bura (scolding, brow-beating)?

PRZYGODZKI: from przygoda (adventure); nickname for an adventurous soul or topo tag for someone from Przygody.

KRAJIŃSKI: Probably a toponymic tag from Krajno, Poland or Kraj, Belarus.

£APKOWSKI: root-word łapa (paw); topo nick from £apków or £apkowo (Pawville)

FEDEROWICZ: patronymic nick from Feder (eastern variant of Teodor)

ROGOWSKI: root-word róg (horn); topo nick from Rogowo or Rogów (Hornville).
Rogowski

FIGLEWSKI: root-word figiel (prank, trick); '-ewski' endings are usually for toponyms but maybe some practical jokers got humorously dubbed Figlewski.

For more info please contact me

Hi, My surname is Dambok and my Grandfather was Polish.
There are still a few family's in Poland with this surname but it becoming less common.
My family have done some research into the surname and discovered that it original came from Cambodia, as there is a mountain there by the same name.

We are still looking into how it came to be in Poland.
Hope this is of some help to you.

There is also a mountain peak called Kuh-e Dambok in Iran.

Damböck is also a German name, something to consider in your search.

The fact that two mountains bear your last name might not mean that's where you are from, it might mean that someone from your family tree named that mountain for whatever reason. Climbed it, claimed it, bought it for mining, etc.


There are several Polish Americans in Baltimore area with that name as well and I believe they were from Belarus (formerly Polish territory).

Perhaps Dambok was simply a dialectal regional verison of Dąbek!? There is a place in Iran called Kovalov but that doesn’t mean the Kowalskis or Kowalewskis are from there. Coincidentał and wholly unrelated place-names and surnames can occur anywhere in the world.

That's what I thought too. The probability of Dambok being a corrupted form of "Dąbek" seems much higher than the chance of any possible material contacts between Cambodia and Poland in the past. "Moi Krewni" database reports the following number of those surnames in Poland, which seem close to "Dambok":

Dambok 22
Dambek 84
Dombek 1140
Dembek 1814
Dębek 2592
Dąbek 9459

The Iranian words for "smith" and the Slavic words for "smith" are cognates and thus one cannot say that they are wholly unrelated.

Another shot at Dambok:


Other than that Dambok seems to be a Silesian name, as supported by "Moi Krewni" database (22 persons of that name in Poland, most of them in Świętochłowice), and this collection from gazeta.pl reporting Silesian names from 12 districts around Katowice:

....
Dambok: 90 names, source forum.gazeta.pl/forum/w,29088,103508558,103508870,Re_NAZWISKA_S LASKA_KATOWICE.html

I still have no clue what "dambok" really means in Polish - aside from guessing its relation to "dąbek", a little oak tree - but there is a Silesian adjective "damboki" or "dymboki" - meaning "głęboki" in Polish, "deep" in English.

I know however that dambock in German means a male fallow deer (a buck)

The German equivalent of the service "Moi Krewni", [verwandt.de/karten/absolut/dambok.html, summarizes the search on three surnames Dambok, Dambock, Damböck as follows:

In Germany there are 18 phone book entries with the surname Dambok and approximately 48 people with this name, (19, 50) correspondingly for the surname Dambock and (192,512) - for Damböck .

Dumböck, Dumbeck, Dumbach: pl.n. Dumbach (Baden, Aust.); -beck, -böck for -bach [creek] is Bav.-Aust., cf. Meichelbeck (Bav.), Aspöck (Asbach in Aust.). Dumbach is derived from Tun-bach, found in old documents, just as Dombach in Bav. is derived from Tun-bach and Dambach, Damböck are derived from Tan-bach: tun, tan are very old words for mud, bog (Bahlow ON, p. 473, 485).

Anyone shed any light on the last name Szenk?