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

In the wake of messages of 2,829-2,832 of this thread, I submit here two alternative explanations of the origin of surname ROMUZGA:

1. Misspelled ROMUNGRO, ROMUNGRI, ROMUNGRA names
ROM-UNGRO => ROM-UZGA
ROMUNGRO comes from the combination of the words ROM (a Gypsy man) + UNGRO (Hungarian), meaning: a Hungarian Gypsy.


See also: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_of_Hungary

Romungro are also known as Carpathian Gypsies; Wyżynni Cyganie in Polish (Highland Gypsies), or Bergitka Gypsies. Of the four groups of Gypsies in Poland they are the only ones that settled down long ago and are partially assimilated. They are Roman Catholics. The other three groups of Roma in Poland, that used to travel until recent years, are:

- Polish Roma, Polish Lowland Gypsies, which migrated from Germany and Russia at the earliest time. The are Roman Catholics.
- Kelderash, Polish Kełderasze, Kałderasze, Romanian Kalderaša - Coppersmiths, Tinkers, came from Valachia and Moldova in 19th c. Orthodox Church.
- Lovari, Polish Lowarzy - Horse Handlers, came from Transylvania in 19th c. Orthodox Church.

The largest ROMUZGA name distribution in Poland is in Nowy Sącz County and Brzesko County - spilling into the surrounding counties: Nowy Targ, Zakopane, Tarnów and Bochnia. This roughly covers the Dunajec and Poprad river valleys, and this is where the Carpathian Gypsies originally settled down and are still present today. moikrewni.pl/mapa/kompletny/romuzga.html

Their largest concentration, numbering a few dozen families, are in Czarny Dunajec, Szaflary, Czarna Góra, Maszkowice, Szczawnica, Krośnica, £ososina Górna, Nowy Sącz. [Quite a few of Polish Roma were also resettled to Limanowa County, just NW of Nowy Sącz.]

However, it appears - by examination of some school records and other sources - that the ROMUZGA surnames are mostly concentrated in other villages and towns of this region: £ososina Dolna, Tropie, Brzesko and Nowy Sącz - so there is no direct connection between this surname and the biggest concentrations of Carpathian Gypsies in this area.

2. Alternative:This name could possibly come to Poland with Sephardic migrations from Spain via Thessaloniki, Belgrad (17th century), Budapest (17th-18th century) to Cracow (18th and later) or via Italy to Cracow (16th -18th century).

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sepharadic_Migrations.jpg
The ethnic origin of the people bearing this surname could be of Sephardic Jews or Gypsies.

This surname could be derived from the ancient Spanish verb REMUZGAR, not used in modern Spanish but appearing in old literature. It means:
+ rezongar => to grumble, growl, gripe
+ gruñir => to growl, grunt, snarl, oink
+ refunfuñar => to grumble, grouch
+ ejecutar de mala gana un mandado => to run an errand reluctantly

From this verb a male noun UN REMUZGO can be formed, according to standard Spanish grammar rules.
UN REMUZGO:
+ un rezongo => a grumbler, a reprimand
+ un refunfuño => a muble, a grumble
+ un gruño => a grunt. It is also a vulgar way of saying "Sweet fu.k all". (Gruño! - which also means "I grunt!" - is a favourite word of anglers when asked if they have caught anything!)

The first name REMUZGO is quite popular in Spain and in Americas. The surname REMUZGO is less popular: According to Spanish equivalent of database "Moi Krewni" (Mi parentela): In Spain there are 33 phone book entries with the surname Remuzgo and about 36 people with this name. It appears most often in these provinces: Sevilla (20) (in Andalucia), Cantabria (7), Madrid (6).

miparentela.com/mapas/detalles/remuzgo.html

But then most Spaniards use two last names, and what appears to most of us as a second given name, is in fact the first surname - inherited from father (The last one is taken from mother's side).

[There are also one or two ROMUZGA surnames in Spain, as well as in France, but they appear coming from the post WWII migration.]

I have no rational explanation for REM => ROM transformation of the part of the surname. But it would seem quite obvious for anyone with Gypsy roots to do so. In the ROMANI language, ROM is a masculine noun, meaning "man, husband", with the plural ROMÁ. ROMANI is the feminine adjective, while ROMANO is the masculine adjective.

It is worth adding that the same areas of Carpathian Foothills are connected with the strong settlements of Sephardic Jews: Nowy Sącz, Brzesko, Tarnów, etc.

Could someone help me? My last name is Klesiewicz, it's far back from Poland, and no one in my family has the slightest clue to what it might mean.

Thanks beforehand.

KLESIEWICZ
Possible derivations:
1. From given name Klemens - source: Stankiewicze.com . I am not that fond of this explanation.
2. From Kleszewo, a village 5km north of Pułtusk, Mazovian Voivodship
3. From Kłecko, a town in Gniezno County, Greater Poland Voivodeship, Poland
4. From Kłaj, a village and gmina, Wieliczka County, Małopolskie Voivodship.
Kłaj lies 18 km east of Wieliczka and 13 km west of Bochnia. Wieliczka and Bochnia are noted for their historical salt mines. Just north of Kłaj there is Niepołomice Primeval Forest. According to one source from 1242, the original name of the forest was "forest Kłaj", brzoza.wzks.uj.edu.pl:8080/~lea29/ck/nazwa.html

Possible derivation: Kłaj => Kłajski (adjective: someone from Kłaj) => Kłajskiewicz, Kłajsiewicz (a son Kłajski) => Klesiewicz (simplification of pronunciation)

Supportive evidence for option #4: There are 44 people with surname Klesiewicz living in Poland, 32 of them in Bochnia county alone, moikrewni.pl/mapa/kompletny/klesiewicz.html

Etymology of Kłaj: Prof. Jan Miodek - when explaining etymology of "klwatka" - stressed the root KL- and KLW-, meaning K£UĆ, to prick, to prickle, to jab, to spear. From this verb the noun KIE£KI, sprouts could be derived. And from this root come the following place names: Kłecko, Kielce, Kielcza, K£AJ, Klwów and Klwatka.

raciborz.com.pl/art18515.html

Merged: Surname: Michaelis

Hi,
My 8th great grandmother was Katharina Von Essen. She was married to Michaelis.
Can anybody tell me if Michaelis is German, or Jewish?

Regards,
Rob

Could be Lithuanian or maybe even Greek.

Mikelis is one Lithuanian equivalent of the first name Michael. Maybe Michaelis is a respelt version??

If you are referring to this family tree:
gedbas.genealogy.net/person/show/1084819975
then the answer is obvious because: his father was a Doctor of Theology in Greifswald, and he was a Provost to the town of Demmin - both Mecklenburg, Western Pomerania, Germany.

Knowing that: why do you ask such questions on Polish forum? Why didn't you ask it on some German forum instead? Mecklemburg was never part of Poland.

TERESKO: Possibly a patronymic nick from Terencjusz, a first name of Latin origin (rare in Poland); or a metronymic one from Teresa (bastard children were sometimes named after their mother); a toponmyic source might be traced to such localtieis as Teresin, Teresew; Teresa, Teresów or Teresina.

origin and meaning of the family name 'Talko' , Koval/Kowal, 'Pavluk/Pawluk' ?

cheers

TALKO: possibly dervied from talka (spinning-wheel spindle) or topo nick from Talki or Talkowszczyzna.

KOWAL: occupational nick (blacksmith); Eng. equivalent: Smith.

PAWLUK: eastern patronymic nick for son of Paweł (more Polish would be Pawlak); Eng. equivalent: Paulson.

Does anyone know anything about the last name Aurzadniczek?
It was my birth mother's last name, and my last name also, before I was adopted. I was born in Rzeszów but was told I may also have relatives in Tyczyn, if this helps any.

I have been having a hard time finding any information.
Thank you.

Aurzadniczek:

Standard Polish language is not known by diphthongs, such as AU- at the beginning of your former last name. However, such diphthongs appear in Czech language. During Partitions of Poland, large part of southern Poland was taken by Austria. Consequently, there was a significant influx of Austrian administration and military into former Poland's lands. Many Austrian bureaucrats sand soldiers were of Czech extraction, some of them Germanized.

The surname Aurzadniczek seems to be a polonized version of Czech surname Auředníèek - with diacritic ř replaced by digraph rz, and diacritic è by digraph cz. Somehow, sometime the prefix Aurze- was later transformed into Aurza- . There are many google references to the Czech surname Auředníèek.

Polish noun "urzędnik" (English: an official) translates to Czech as "úředník". Notice the accent over the first character - it signifies a so-called "long u". I believe that the words "úředník" and "auředník" (possibly an old form?) are closely related. The next step is to change Auředník into Auředníèek - a lesser official, or a son of an official.

There are about 30 people in Poland with surname Aurzadniczek, mostly in Rzeszów (13), Ustrzyki Dolne (11) and Kłodzko (6). There are also 20 surnames Urzędniczek in Poland. The latter could stem from further polonization of Aurzadniczek, or it could be formed independently from a Polish root "urzędnik".

What part of Poland does the family name ' Maćkowiak ' originate from? What does it mean? Is there a long history associated with that surname?

Thank you!

MAĆKOWIAK: a typical patronymic nickname meaning 'son of Maciek' (Eng. equiavlent: Mattheson).
Its ancestral stronghold appears to be Wielkopolska.

Hi, Im from Sweden and I have a ancestor born round year 1690 and probably a prisoner of war (Charles XII of Sweden), known as a man from sachsen and his namne, estimated, some thing like Martin Mitski or Mitzki. Anybody who have som ideas is welcome whith his/hers thoughts.

Mind you, these are just some speculations. When in 1706, General Carl Gustaf Rehnskiöld defeated Russian-Saxon army under Wschowa (Fraustadt), at the western border of Poland in those times, Charles XII entered the Saxony and forced Augustus II the Strong to abdicate in favour of Stanisław Leszczyński, a Polish ally of Charles XII (Treaty of Altranstadt, Saxony, near Leipzig). [Augustus II the Strong was Elector of Saxony and also King of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth]

Russians and Saxons lost 7300 KIA and 7600 POW in Wschowa (Fraustadt) battle. One of these prisoners of war could be your "man from Sachsen (Saxony)". So young, 16 years old? Could he possibly be a servant or a page of some sort? Mind you, a part of Saxony, Upper Lusatia, has been home of Upper Sorbians (Lusatian) people, the westernmost Slavs. Names like Mitzki, Mitski should not be a surprise there.

His surname could have come, for example, from the name of town of Mišno (Sorbian spelling), or Meißen (German), Miśnia (Polish), Meissen (English), famous for Meissen porcelain.

In my mind, there is no connection to Poland in this story, other than Slavic sounding surname. The Sorbian connection seems like the one of the few promising directions to follow. Another possibility is that he could have been one of those Russians POWs from the Fraustadt battle.

Boletus, thanks for your answer, yes I do my self spekulate about the war aginst August, yes he might be 16 but the birthdate is not the strongest side of swedish clerks then so he might be older. A fact that he like many others POW during this ages was enroled in the swedish army, cavallary to be exact and when he shows up in Sweden he is 1th corpral (higer rankt then). The tip about Sorbians is interesting and the town to. I was thinking about Poland becouse August was also the king of Poland.

Polonius3

Thank you

anyone know anything about the last name ''Sobolevsky''

SOBOLEWSKI: a typical toponymic tag from places as as Sobolew or Sobolewo. These can also be found in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus. The Sobolevsky spelling you gave is a traditonal transliteration of the Cyrillic as well as the Czech and Slovak way of spelling it. The root-word is soból (sable - a fur-bearing animal). The name of the village could therefore be roughly translated as Sableton or Sableville.

thanks a lot ! your very helpful :)

is it originally a Polish surname? or East Slavic?

It can be both. If there are (the number is just a speculation) 37 localities called Sobolewo or Sobolevo acrosss Slavdom, then each of them has generated Sobolewskis/Sobolevskys to describe people from there.

my great grandmother who had that last name was from Poland (now West Ukraine/Galicia) looks like we still will not know what ethnicity she belonged to.

thanks again for your help :)

thanks for all the help btw great site !
My family don't know much about this surname at all... Koziarski/Koziarsky ???
Can anyone shed some light !

Ethnicities sare not always clearly defined, esp. in borderland areas. I recall shortly after the Soviet bloc collapsed a Polish TV reporter was asking an older woman in a Belarusian village what language she spoke. The reply: 'Our tongue (po naszemu or po tutejszemu).' When pinned down to identify it and asked why she was beating about the bush she replied: 'The Poles were here, then it was Russians, then the Germans marched in, then the Russians again.. Who knows who'll be next in our area, so it's better to be on the safe side.'

Did the surname Duda orignate in Poland?

I don't feel competent to answer that question. I can only point out that both in Polish and Czech dudy means bagpipes, and Belarusian also uses that term. Maybe Boletus will know.

Ok thank you

does anyone know the meaning/origin of Koziarski ? is it Polish?

KOZIARSKI: root-word koziarz (goatherd); Koziarski could be a patronymic tag indicating the goatherd's son. The spelling is certainly Polish.
In other Slavonic tongues koziarz is not as widely used for goatherd -- instead they use things like pastuch or pasak koz.

I recently came across some records from the parish of Grylewo, near Poznan. In one the bride is listed as Barbara Kurzawianka. I later found her birth/christening record and it appears her parents are listed with the surname Kurzawa. I had not seen the -ianka ending on a surname before. What is the significance of this ending? The records are from circa 1815, some are in Latin and others in Polish.