Can anyone help me please with teh surname ZAGOWSKI?
This is in connection with a true crime book I am writing. One of the British court witnesses (who was a Polish Jew) claimed to know a man called ZAGOWSKI. Because it is reported in the UK if there are any diacritical marks needed then I dont know what they are.
I have searched the net and Ancestry and moikrewni websites and found nothing. According to moikrewni the name does not even exist. Maybe I need to add a dot over something or other mark?
If anyone can please tell me anything about this surname, like, is it a misspelling, does it exist, is it a Jewish name, anything at all, I'd be so grateful.
According to a 1990s census there were 2 people named Żagowski, both in the Gdańsk area. Moikrewni says there aren't any at present., For a literary character why not selected something without diacritics and more common such as Zaleski, Borkowski, Pietrzak, Krawczyk, Kwiatkowski, Kaczmarek, Kowalik, Nowak, Pawlak, Sikora, Rutklowski, Szewczyk, etc.?
^^ MyHeritage Family Trees, worldvitalrecords.com/SingleIndexListview.aspx?ix=mh_tree&qt=l&zln=Zagowski has several records with Zagowski last name, all of them born in late 1800s, some in Poland, some in Russia. Some of the first names listed there look like Jewish ones: Mowsza Dawid, Dawid, Rachmiel, Rochli.
Stankiewicze.com list Żagowski (with the dot above) in passing as a Polish name.
Google has a bunch of references to Żagowski surname, most of them appearing in the social service apolloqueen.com . Another group is a bunch of registered regular and sworn translators. Their given names are Polish.
However, Żagowski is not listed in Moi Krewni database.
Other than that Żakowski could be considered as well, since both surnames sound close enough. This is quite a popular surname, listed in all major databases.
According to a 1990s census there were 2 people named Żagowski, both in the Gdańsk area. Moikrewni says there aren't any at present.,
Hi Polonius how did you get access to that census?
For a literary character why not selected something without diacritics
I'm thinking now that you don't know what true crime means :-)
I can't just change facts because the name given is causing me problems... :-)
MyHeritage Family Trees, has several records with Zagowski last name, all of them born in late 1800s, some in Poland, some in Russia.
Thank you so much boletus. I will take a look at the link.
The court witness said the man's name was Ludwik Zagowski. As this was spoken testimony which was written down by an English clerk in 1902, no way to tell if there was a dot over the Z. Or indeed if the clerk misheard the name Żakowski. Other clues are, the man was a barber from Warsaw who spoke Polish and some Yiddish. He had a wife and two dependent children, so he must have been between 25 and 40. That he spoke "SOME" Yiddish makes me think he probably wasn't a Jew, or he'd be fluent.
GAJOS <= from GAIĆ - decorating with green twigs, GAJ - a grove, GAIĆ - also opening the court proceedings See Stankiewicze.com, Source: Kazimierz Rymut, "Nazwiska Polaków. Słownik historyczno - etymologiczny", Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN, Kraków 1999
The following is translated from etymologia.org (Based on "Słownik Etymologiczny" Aleksandra Bruecknera) etymologia.org/wiki/S%C5%82ownik+etymologiczny/gaj?viewer=code&showlinenumbers=0
GAJ (noun) - a grove, hurst GAJOWY (noun) - a gamekeeper GAIK - a spring play GAIĆ (verb) domy gałązkami - to decorate houses with twigs, GAISTY (adjective) <= from the root GAĆ, GACIE, common for all old Slavonic languages
Also GAIĆ (verb) - a borrowing by Czechs and Poles from German language, meaning the courts opening. Germans used to decorate the court houses with twigs, hence our GAIĆ has become associated with opening of court proceedings. Following the German custom, since XV c. all courts and later all gatherings were GAJONE (decorated with twigs)
GAĆ (noun) - a fascine, causeway, dike, dam GACIĆ (verb) - to line a road across a river ford, to lay moss around a hut and to caulk it with moss for the winter
By the way: the other and more popular meaning of GACIE (underpants) come from the different old Slavonic word - GACE, GATJE, GACZI - not GACIĆ.
A Kashubian village name Swornegacie has nothing to do with "agreeable underpants" but with a causeway, or more specifically - a tight dam.
Lubin and Lublin are two different towns in Poland. You most likely mean the latter.
By the sight of it you are asking the wrong question, like mixing the concept of THE BROWNS with that of MR BROWN. The most likely word, close to your Pliszczyncy, is PLISZCZYŃSCY - meaning a family of PLISZCZYŃSKI, which includes some Mr Pliszczyński, Mrs Pliszczyńska and possible children of theirs.
"Moi Krewni" database shows the following distribution of the surname PLISZCZYŃSKI in contemporary Poland: moikrewni.pl/mapa/kompletny/pliszczy%25C5%2584ski.html. There are 158 males of this name in Poland. and 175 females. Most of them live in Kuiavian-Pomeranian Voivodship, specifically Toruń. Some of them live in and around the city of Lublin.
The surname derives from the village Pliszczyn, Gmina Wólka, Lubelskie (Lublin) Voivodshop; this in turn from the word PLISZKA, a wagtail. There were noble families Pliszka, Pliszcza and Pliszczyński - all POGONIA coat of arms, pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pogonia Do not mistake it for POGOŃ - a coat of arms of Grand Duchy of Lithuania. POGONIA is a "dented" version of POGOŃ c.o.a., given to newly ennobled gentry by Grand Dukes of Lithuania.
The oldest mention of the surname is in Księga Skarbowa (Treasure Book) of King Kazimierz Jagiellon, year 1485, page 55 : Johanni Guth Pliscinski decem floreni ad Nicolaum de Ostrow capitaneum Lublinensem ad rationem capitaneatus (meaning something like: Jan Gut Pliszczyński, 10 florins to captain Nicholas of Ostrów Lubelski). Ostrów stands for "island", and "Ostrów Lubelski" literally means "Lublin's Island". See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostr%C3%B3w_Lubelski.
1 florin was an Italian coin, 3.5 g of pure gold, worth approximately 200 modern US Dollars.
See: Słownik staropolskich nazw osobowych, pod red. W. Taszyckiego, t. 4, Wrocław 1974-1976.).
On a related note, do you know how to get information about Edward Gibalski's family tree? pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Gibalski
The article says his father was an insurgent, and my great-great-grandfather (Ludwik Gibalski, a cartographer) and his brother (name unknown to me) were insurgents sent to Siberia. Maybe coincidence, maybe Edward is an uncle, and I would like to look into it :-)
Yes, your right I meant Lublin. I will look into the information you gave me. The name I am looking into is my great-grandparents. I asked if there is a ń instead of a n but my mom said no. But, I will try with a ń.
Yes I found out that Pliszczyn is a village in Gmina Wolka, two days ago.
Thank you for the ńcy = family of.
Do you know any information on Staszewska, my grandmom's maiden name. Her dad was a Staszewski.
Thank you for the wealth of knowledge.
I can find information on my mother's paternal side just not her maternal side.
I asked if there is a ń instead of a n but my mom said no. But, I will try with a ń.
I am not sure what name you are referring to here, but if it is "Pliszczyński" then the proper Polish has it with Ń, not N, there. This is because in Polish it it easier to pronounce the combination of the three consonants N-S-K, if the first one is palatized (softened). It comes quite natural in Polish and no native speaker would ever question this. It takes some time to get used to the English prononciation of NSKI. :-)
Thank you for the ńcy = family of.
ŃSCY, not ŃCY :-)
Do you know any information on Staszewska, my grandmom's maiden name. Her dad was a Staszewski.
STASZEWSKI / STASZEWSKA is a popular surname in Poland. There are 4039 males (STASZEWSKI) and 4523 females (STASZEWSKA), living all over Poland. The plural version (family of) is STASZEWSCY.
The surname derives from village name Staszów; this in turn from the first name Stanisław, diminutive Staś, Stasz, Staszek. There are several villages of this name. The most known is the county town Staszów, Świętokrzyskie Voivodship, see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stasz%C3%B3w
Thank you
You are welcome.
The surname I would like to know about is: Gibalski
I am sorry, I do not know much about this surname. Yes, there are many references to Edward Gibalski, pseudo Franek, as he was one of the Józef Piłsudski's comrades, going back to the early PPS train robbing activity. There are also many streets named after him, but I did not find anything about his ancestry.
The only other reference to the surname Gimbalski, of historical significance, comes from a list of veterans of January Uprising: Aleksander Gibalski, second lieut. (1827) Kraków.
Source: sent by Jerzy, after: Rocznik oficerski (Officers' yearbook) 1923, Oficerowie - weterani powstania styczniowego (Officers - veterans of the January Uprising), genealogia.okiem.pl/powstanies/index.php?nazwisko=Gibalski
Other than that: Surname Gibalski is known since 1633. There are many Polish surnames, 100 or so of them, which derive from the root word GIB; this in turn from the verb "gibać" - to bend, to make bending moves. See stankiewicze.com/index.php?kat=44&sub=772
KWIATKOWSKI: root-word kwiatek (little flower), but nearly all -owski names originated as topo nicks so it would have emerged to indetify an inhabituant of Kwiatków or Kwiatkowo (Floralton, Blossomville). Sorry but can't help you with your ancestal tracking. Maybe some other PF-er can. Good luck!
PAW£OWSKI: most likely a toponymic tag for someone from Pawłów or Pawłowo (Paulbury, Paulville, Paulton); less likely a patronymic equivalent of English Paulson or Pauls.
MISIUK: Probably a patronymic nick from Miś or Misio (short for Michał), hence the equivalent of Mike's boy or Michaelson. The -uk ending suggests Ruthenian influence.
Sorry. The lettering is very small and i and l look very similar esp. in foreign words or names..
The family tree is public except for the living family members. Tom was Eaton's son. They didn't specify a birthplace for Eaton, but just that he was born in 1835 and died in Alabama. Back to the surnames subject, though: what does Wyzkiewicz mean? My cousin was Halva Wyzkiewicz--his mom was Roza Foczkova Wykiewiczova. By the way, more on the Foczkos: our branch apparently had a Levite matriarch in it (hence, why we're Ashkenazi Jews and Levites on the Foczko side) and moved from Khazaria to Poland, then Slovakia and Hungary.
The Polish spelling would be Wyżkiewicz (with z with dot above). Derives from dialectal "wyż", "wyża" - "wysokość", "wyżyna", "wzniesienie" - height, altitude, elevation in English.
Interesting. Maybe you ought to contact the family on Ancestry.com and let them know--that's where I was even able to see the tree and the first place.
According to stankiewicze.com, the surname Pacan comes from the complex name Pakosław or Paweł, or from "pac" meaning a kind of a big rat, or just onomatopeic sound; in the north-east part of Poland, from Belarusian Pac, this in turn from Ipatij, an this from Lithuanian Pacas. The form Pacz existed in middle ages.
Family Pac (Polish: Pacowie, Lithuanian: Pacas, Belarusian: Пац) was one of the most influential noble families in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania during the era of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Numerous high-ranking officials of the Commonwealth came from their ranks.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pac_family
Elżbieta Michow in her "Etymologia nazw ludowych w Świętokrzyskich Toponimach" (Etymology of folk names in toponyms of Holy Cross region) writes this about etymology of the name Pacanów, a town famous for its hero, Koziołek Matołek (Matołek the Billy-Goat), en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kozio%C5%82ek_Mato%C5%82ek
Pacanów, see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacan%C3%B3w - a possessive name with a suffix -ów, from personal name Pacon, Pacan, Paczon, Paczan derived from the basis "paku" - strong, healthy. This basis, together with its alternation "pace" - stronger, better, have become the formant of many Slavic personal names, such as Polish Pacz, Paczon, Paczan and Pakosław.
The name of Pacanów, was still written in XVI c. as Paconów. Due to folk etymology, the name has been replaced by the current form, but formed on the basic of folk meaning of the word "pacan" - stupid.
In Russian language the name "pacan" does not have a negative connotation. It just mean an inexperienced boy, urchin, kid, dude, guy.
What about Kohenic surnames of Polish origin and lettering? I know that there'd be obvious names like Kohenecki (Kohenetski--son of Aharon's female descendant), Aharonowicz (son of Aharon), and Kac (Katz--Kohan Tzedek). What about not-so-obvious names?
MOSTEK: diminutive of most (bridge), hence little bridge; could have been the nickname of a rural bridge-builder of yore or a topo tag from such places as Mostek, Mostki, Mostówka, Mostowo or similar.
ĆWIK: this word has a variety of meanings including: battle-scarred old trooper; big old carp; a partially castrated cock or one with a split comb; a card game.
Hi, so my Polish last name is Hosinski, my ancestors came to the U.S in the late 1800s-early 1900s, and I cannot seem to find any information on the meaning of my last name or if there are any Hosinskis in Poland. Does anyone think the spelling might have been changed at Ellis Island, or perhaps someone here has an idea of what Hosinski might mean and where my ancestors might have been from? Thanks!
The question about Hosinski was already asked in this thread on Jun 10, 2011, 22:09, message #1,960.
I am not going to give you any definite answer, but I will open your options a bit.
One possibility is this: in Polish the following two names sound almost the same "Hosiński" and "Chosiński". Note that in the proper Polish both of them use the soft N, N acute, Ń. This is because in Polish it is easier to pronounce the group "ŃSKI" rather than "NSKI".
But that's not the major issue: the major issue is CH vs. H. The first phoneme is voiceless, rough, like in Scottish LOCH NESS, or German Johann Sebastian BACH. This is the basis, and this was the only "h" sound present in Old Polish. With time new words were borrowed from Czech, Ruthenian and Romance languages, which preferred the voiced H . Several generation ago people could easily differentiate between voiced H and voiceless CH, two generation ago only the actors knew the difference, and people from the Borderlands: today's Belarus, Lithuania and Ukraine. Now very few people can hear any difference at all and fewer yet can properly pronounce both phonemes. For a modern Pole, both H and CH sound exactly the same - just like CH.
According to "Moi Krewni" database there are 95 Chosiński/Chosińska people currently living in Poland. This is a very poor record, but on the other hand there are zero Hosiński/Hosińska in the same database. Think about it a bit.
