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

Kurzawianka is an old fashioned form of a surname indicating an unmarried woman. It stems from the male name Kurzawa.

In the Polish linguistic tradition surnames of married and unmarried women are slightly different from the surnames of their husbands and fathers. Currently, state law does not recognize the traditional variety of female names - with the exception of the names with adjective origin, where male names ending in: -dzki, -cki, -ski are converted to the female forms ending in: -dzka, -cka, -ska, correspondingly.

In the past, female names - other than those with the adjective origin - were formed as follows:
For married women the suffix -owa was added to the root of the male name:
Marek => Markowa, Kuraś => Kurasiowa, Linde => Lindowa, Bańko => Bańkowa, Piętka => Piętkowa, Pług => Pługowa, Skarga => Skargowa

Maiden names used to be created by adding the following suffixes:
1. -ówna - to the male names ending in a consonant (except g) or vowel -e, -o:
Marek => Markówna, Kuraś => Kurasiówna, Linde => Lindówna, Bańko => Bańkówna

2. -anka - to the male names ending in -a, -g, -ga, -ge, -go:
Piętka => Piętczanka, Pług => Płużanka, Skarga => Skarżanka
[Otherwise using -ówna with some roots, such as Skarga, would produce offensive sounding results: Skar-gówna (gówna is plural form corresponding to "excrements" in English)].

These distinct forms of the female names are no longer used in the Polish language, unless the intention of the speaker is styling or a joke.

What a wonderful thread!
If someone could help me shed some light on my last name which is Broszkiewicz, it would be greatly appreciated :)

Thank you boletus. A very informative lesson on name variations and very helpful.

What does Cetera mean?

Does anyone know the meaning of Kliber? I'm sure its German?

KLIBER: from German Kleiber (plasterer); in Poland it has also been respelt Klajber nad Klejber.

Merged: meaning of last name

Gerasimowicz/ Gudzikowski both from Poland i believe thank you

GERASIMOWICZ: patronymic nick derived from Gerasim, variant of Harasym (Ukrainian first name)

GUDZIKOWSKIi: probably toponymic nick from village of Gudziki; incidentally guda and gudza was once a name for a pig, and gudzi-gudzi-gudzi was a way of calling pigs.

Do you have any ideas about the origins of the last name: Bugaczawicz? I know that the "wicz" ending probably means 'son of'. What I am most curious about is the beginning part. My 2nd Great-Grandparents came from Bielsk, Poland to the U.S. in 1912. Any ideas will be appreciated. Thanks!

BUGACZAWICZ (?): Althougganything can be a surname, there is somehing not quite right about Bugaczawicz. First of all no-one in Poland uses it. If it were Bogaczewicz it could have suggested 'the rich guy's kid'. I suspect the name got inadvertently misspelt somewhere down the line.

Could you please help me finding the origins of the surname MATIČAK? I don't think it would be Polish, more like Slovak or Southern Slavic.

Hello PF,

I am looking for the meaning of the surname Rzyszczewski. The only thing related I found on the internet is a Polish village named Rzyszczewo which was previously called Ristow.

Also, is the surname Woronowski considered more Russian in origin but with a Polish spelling?

Thanks for any help.

RZYSZCZEWSKI: Root RZYSZCZ from RŻYSKO: a stubble field, after corn has been mowed


Rzyszczewo, Gmina Sławno, Sławno County, West Pomeranian Voivodeship (former German Ristow, Kreis Schlawe) - Not this one!
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rzyszczewo,_S%C5%82awno_County
pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rzyszczewo_(powiat_s%C5%82awie%C5%84ski
Rzyszczewo, Gmina Białogard, Białogard County, West Pomeranian Voivodeship (formerly German Ristow) - Neither this one.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rzyszczewo,_Bia%C5%82ogard_County
pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rzyszczewo_(powiat_bia%C5%82ogardzki)

Rzyszczew (Rzyszczów, ukr. Ржищів, Rżyszcziw, Rzhyschiv), a village in Kijów (Kyiv) region, on Dnieper river (76 km south from Kyiv), Ukraine, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rzhyschiv

pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rzyszcz%C3%B3w
- Not this one either.

Rzyszczew, old (Polish) gmina Brany, (Rzhyshchiv), £uck district (76 km SW from £uck). It consisted of: farm Rudka, village Rzyszczów, farm Rzyszczów, gamekeeper's cottage Stara Rudka.

But this one!

Rzyszczewski - Pobóg coat of arms, vel Ryszczewski, old Wolhynian family, derived from Rusyn boyars, mentioned already in 1528 r. in Wolhynian Metrics. It took its name from estate Rzyszczew in £uck (Luts'k, ukr. Луцьк) district. One Rzyszczewski branch received an Austrian hereditary count title. Two castellans came from this family: 1774 -- 1792.

The Rzyszczewskis owned estates in £uck and Krzemieniec districts of Wolhynia: Rzyszczew, Koźlaki, Pańkowce, Wyżgrodek, Rydoml, Żukowce, Uwin, Iwanie, Buszaki, Rokitno, Oleksiniec Nowy an Stary; Powołoczysk in Galicia; former royal estates Rawicz w Sandomierz Voivodship; village Giełczyn in Mazowsze Voivodship; Żelazne, Rososze and Rososzki Czersk land; Wielkie i Małe Krzycko in Wschowa district w in Wielkopolska.

polishgenealogy.blogspot.ca/2008/08/rzyszczewski.html

Woronowski:
There are 85 Woronowski men and 69 Woronowska women registered in Poland. The name derives from "worona" - Polish: wrona, Belarusian: варона, Ukrainian: ворона, English: crow. Yes, it sounds more Ukrainian or Belarusian than Polish Wroński (4625 men) and Wrońska (4950 women), or Wronowski (784 men) and Wronowska (785).

The name distribution, with large concentration of Wronowskis in Przemyśl, Lesko, Sanok, and Ustrzyki Dolne suggest Ruthenian roots of the Wronowskis (=Woronowskis).
moikrewni.pl/mapa/kompletny/wronowski.html

Thank you boletus!

That was really helpful and kind of you to post all that information. I don't think I could have found all that out on my own.

Hi. My maternal grandfather's surname was Grzesiukiewicz. My mother has told me that there are only about five families with this surname in Poland and that we are all related. She also gave me some hints that her father might have been of jewish origin but had hidden it very well due to the persecution of the jews during WW2. (I think my grandfather was born in 1903.) Was his last name perhaps fabricated to hide his origin? This might explain why there's very little documentation of our ancestors and why there are so few families named Grzesiukiewicz in the world. Now, this is only my own little theory. If someone could help me find out more it would be very much appriciated!

Have a look at moikrewni.pl/mapa to see where they are living now. You'll see that there are only 45. A Jewish connection is possible - so is a Belarussian or Ukrainian There a far more people called Grzesiuk.

Adding to what Jon357 said...


There are 45 people with surname Grzesiukiewicz currently living in Poland. Your mother might as well be right on this one single point: these people could be all related. Look at this surname distribution map: /mapa/kompletny/grzesiukiewicz.html. Most of them live in NE Poland, Podlaskie Voivodship - Augustów district (19) and Ełk district (16) - where their indigenous ancestry probably lived for ages there. I'll explain it in a while. The remaining 10 people are located in areas formerly governed by Prussia/Germany.

That's the only valid point of your post.

Jewishness has nothing to do with rarity of the name. So forget this trail - it would lead you nowhere. Any Polish surname could be assumed by a Jew, provided that he could provide some paperwork - either authentic or forged. And actually it is easier to hide in a crowd, not among just a few.

Your surname is in fact a part of extremely popular family of surnames. They are all stemming from the Greek name Grêgorikós - meaning vigilant, wakeful. From there it spread as Gregorius (Latin), Gregory (English), Gregorius, Gregor (German), Grégoire (French), Gregorio (Spanish, Italian), Grigorij, Grisza (Russian), Grzegorz (Polish). Polish diminutives of Grzegorz are Grzech, Grzesiek, Grzesio, Grzesiu, Grześ, Grzela.

There are following distribution of surnames GRZEŚ, GRZECH and GRZELA currently in Poland:
GRZEŚ - 1212
GRZECH - 1168
GRZELA - 1010

In early ages, when the surnames were slowly forming, the sons of GRZEŚ or GRZELA would be named by adding the suffix -AK, -EK or -UK. The latter is more typical to Ruthenian people, the former - to Polish.

So let us try some more statistics in Poland:
GRZESIAK - 10,097
GRZESIUK - 1497
GRZESIEK - 714

GRZELAK - 16,763
GRZELUK - 101
GRZELEK - 0

One way of etending of this scheme of the patronymic surname generation was to append suffix -ICZ, -WICZ, -EWICZ, -IEWICZ, etc. (or similar suffixes in other Slavic languages) - meaning again "son of". Let us try this now:

GRZEŚKIEWICZ - 1410 (-SIAK- and -SIEK- compressed to -ŚK-) but GRZESIAKIEWICZ - 0 (the economy of expression)
GRZESIUKIEWICZ - 45 (sticking to -SIUK might have being a sign of allegiance to Eastern religion and culture.

And as Jon357 said - The proportions between -ŚK- and -SIUK- would be reversed in Ukraine and Belarus.

Merged: GRASELA POLISH SURNAME?

ATT: BOELTUS ET AL!
Would you happen to know the etymology of Poland's Grasela surname? To me it's a real stumper. It looks to be of foreign origin, probably from one of the Romance languages. (eg Graselle /FR/, GRASSELLI /IT/).

Well, for a start, take a look at the distribution of surname Grasela in Poland:

Its biggest concentration in Jasło district(96) + Krosno(4) + Gorlice(6) + Ustrzyki Dolne(13)=125 (out of 195) would suggest Walddeutsche connection: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walddeutsche

Kłodzko(13) and Słubice (7) again point out to German connection. Following this trail:

Gras in German means grass.

Meaning of surname GRASS: In both English and German this is a topographic name for someone who owned or lived by a meadow, or a metonymic occupational name for someone who made or sold hay, from Middle English gras, Middle High German gras 'grass', 'pasture', 'grazing'. [By the way, Uplander Sachsen (Saxon Highlanders) was another nickname for the German settlers in Beskid Piedmont in SE Poland. They obviously dealt a lot with pasturing.]

Also, in South German: a nickname for an irascible man, from Middle High German graz 'intense', 'angry'.

Grasela surname may have come from Grässel, which is a South German diminutive of Grass.
South German Grässel is also a nickname for a greedy person, from Old High German grātag 'greedy'.

As a curiosity: the word grázl in Czech is a common term for rascal or villain. It came from surname of Johan Georg Grasel, a leader of robber's gang, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Georg_Grasel.

What about the Austrian town of Grasel as a possible toponymic source? Jasło was part of the Austrian occupation zone during the partitions.

Very possible. The only one things against it is that a potential influx of Grasels from Austria would have to have bureaucratic or military character. I am led to believe that Grasels from Jasło region were predominantly farmers/peasants.

One Polish source, describing a village of Gliniczek (about 6 km east of center of Jasło) mentions natural gas and oil resources discovered in Gliniczek in 1920s. The first oil wells there were built on properties of Roztocki and Grasela families in 1925 -1930s. This new found wealth could have been a reason for slowing down the emigration of Graselas to USA in 1930s. There is some evidence than some Graselas returned back from USA to Jasło.

tarnowiec.eu/strona/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=16&Itemid=13

A very preliminary search through some American genealogical services (I have no their membership so I cannot dive too deeply into the details) reveals these examples, where a specific birthplace is listed. I ignored other entries, that mentioned only Galicia, Poland or Austria.

Anna Grasela (1882-1934), born in Gliniczek, Podkarpackie
Bronisław Grasela(1893-1971), born Gliniczek
Maria Grasela(1889-1989), born Gliniczek
Kazimierz Grasela(1916-1970), born Gliniczek
Jozef Grasella(1871-?), born Gliniczek [see spelling]
Jozef Grasela, Niepla, Galicia(1883-?). Niepla is a village 12 km east of Jasło.

A funny thing about these records is that they mostly come from Pennsylvania, a home state of hundreds of Grassels (various spellings), imigrants from Germany.

Thank you for your quick response back. I have recently found my ancestor's petition for naturalization upon arrival in US in 1912. On this document his name is listed both as Bugaczawicz and Bahazewicz. Does this name: BAHAZEWICZ mean anything to you? I'm very curious now at what his actual last name was. Perhaps this is a missing piece to the puzzle. Thanks for your help.

There is very little mystery here but a lot of mis-transliteration. The telling tails are: G=>H transition, suffix -awicz, vowel transitions.
I assume that your ancestor was from East of Poland, where they use Cyrillic in their documents. His original documents has been probably transliterated from Cyrilic to Latin, using Polish transliteration rules. Here is the first problem:

The Cyrillic letter (Г г), stemming from Greek Gamma (Г) is used in Russian and Belarusian, Ukrainian, Rusyn (BUR) and some Balkan languages (of no interest here). But this letter represents two different sounds:

In Russian, this is G sound, as in garlic. Russian language have no H sound, only guttural CH (or KH in other representations) - like Bach in German or loch in Scottish).

In BUR languages, Г represents H sound, as in hundred (more or less, but breathly voiced). Ukrainians has some G-words but they are rare and spelled with different character than Г.

Polish has both sounds: G and H, pronounced G (garlic) and H (hundred). However, most Poles mispronounce H as CH (as in loch and Bach).

There are many transliteration methods from Cyrillic to Latin. I will use the Polish one, as this is how your surname is written.
Example: English GOD, Cyrillic БOГ.
Russian transliteration: BOG
BUR transliteration: BOH, Polish (incorrect) pronunciation BOCH

So Bugaczawicz and Buhaczawicz are actually the same names, but transliterated differently: in Russian fashion vs. BUR fashion.

The ending -awicz is not typical to Polish, which would rather use -ewicz or -owicz. But this is not an error, it only suggests that the surname has originated in the East.

The single "Z" in the middle of BAHAZEWICZ (the second version of your surname) seems to be a typing error. It should be CZ, SZ or RZ. Assuming the first choice the corrected version would be:

BAHACZ-EWICZ vs.
BUGACZ-AWICZ

The -EWICZ vs, -AWICZ suffix is not an issue here, because they mean the same: son of.

But we still have some A => U vowel shift to deal with. I am not a linguistic expert, but I know many examples where Polish "O" would be spelled "A" in Belarusian, as in LUKASZENKO vs. LUKASZENKA. However, I am not sure what is the proper root of this surname:

BOGACZ (BOHACZ) => a wealthy man
BUGACZ (BUHACZ) => a man living on BUG (turn, bend of a river).

By the way, there are two rivers, named BUG:
+ The Bug River (Polish: Bug; Ukrainian: Західний Буг, Zaxidnyj Buh or Western Bug; Belarusian: Захо́дні Буг, Zaxodni Buh; Russian: Западный Буг, Zapadnyj Bug) is a left tributary of the Narew river. It flows from central Ukraine to the west, passing along the Ukraine-Polish and Polish-Belarusian border and into Poland, where it empties into the Narew river near Serock.

+ The Southern Bug, also called Southern Buh, (Ukrainian: Південний Буг, Pivdennyj Buh: Russian: Yużny Bug, Polish: Boh)), rises in the west of Ukraine, in the Volyn-Podillia Upland, about 145 km from the Polish border, and flows southeasterly into the Bug Estuary at Black Sea basin

Anyone think they can help me out with mine? (Walichiewicz) I’ve had a surprisingly difficult time finding anything useful. :\

Derives:
+ either from the "Wal" type given names, such as Walentyn, Walerian
+ or from the verb "WALIĆ" - to destroy, to smash, to hit.
source: stankiewicze.com/index.php?kat=44&sub=555

I forgot to add that there is etymological connection between BÓG (God) and BOGACZ (a rich man):

BÓG = God, originally meaning 'luck', 'success' (Hindu: bhagas, bhadżati 'giving'); hence: rich.
The opposite is NIEBOGI, not wealthy, poor (NIE stands for NO, NOT in Polish). From that root come words NIE-BOŻ-EC, NIE-BOŻ-CZYK (misspelled nieboszczyk, dead), NIE-BOŻ-AK (a poor bastard).

ZBOŻE, meant in biblical times wealth (now corn), ZBOŻNY - rich, happy.

From the root BÓG- come BOGACZ (a rich man), BOGACIĆ (to enrich), BOGACTWO (wealth), also BOZIA, BOŻEK (idol), BÓŻNICA (now - a synagogue, before - any church), BOGINI (goddess), BOGINKA (nymph), BOGINIAK (odmieniec, freak), BÓSTWO (deity),

In compound words:
BOGOBOJNY (godly, devout), BOGURODZICA (mother of God).

Given names:
BOGUS£AW (Praising God), BOGUMI£ (Loved by God), BOGUCHWA£A (She who glorifies God),
...
More in here:
etymologia.org/wiki/S%C5%82ownik+etymologiczny/b%C3%B3g

I am writing in search of some answers to the origins of my great-grandparents' Polish surnames. My great-grandfather's surname was Litwin, but I have seen it written as Litvin on some documents. We think the spelling of the name with a V instead of a W was an error. Does anyone know the origin of the name Litwin and where in Poland it may have originated from?

My other question regards the origins of my great-grandmother's maiden name of Longawa. We are not sure if it started with an L or a £, but I have always heard it pronounced with the L as in "Long" instead of the W sound that the £ makes. Any information would be greatly appreciated on the origins of either spelling of this surname.

Thank you!

LITWIN: Polish word for a Lithuanian male, plural Litwini. A Lithuanian female is called Litwinka, plural Litwinki.

LONGAWA: The root LONG- could derive from Latin word Longinus, long. There are 163 people of this name recorded in Poland. There are also about 20 other Polish surnames beginning with LONG- root.

Other possible root of this surname could be a native Polish £ĘG, £ĄG meaning swampy meadow. Also, the adjective £ĘGI means nimble, agile.

The suffix -AWA indicates possessiveness, as in WARSZ-AWA - a village belonging to a man named Warsz. (This village is now known in English as Warsaw).

I have always been curious about my last name.

Now its Gelnick, I know at one point it was egelnick.

I hope you can help! thanks.

Most likely IGIELNIK, not Egelnick, if it came from Poland. Approximate pronunciation: igaelneek
IGIELNIK stands for a pincushion, comes from the word IG£A - a needle.

US naturalization records show this entry:
Surname: GELNICK
Given Name: Kalman (Igielnik)

Birth Year: 1923
Admission Year: 1955
Kálmán is a Hungarian surname and male given name, also current among Jews in other countries. Outside Hungary, the name occurs sometimes in the form Kalman.

Cool,
Thanks a lot!