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

The surnames ZEHALUK, ŻEHALUK, ŻEHALAK, ŻEHA£KOWICZ, as well as related ZAHALAK, ZAHALIK, ZAHALUK are extremely rare in Poland. The surname ZAHALKA is present among surnames of Czech Republic.

My interpretation of those surnames , which can be completely faulty, is as follows:
The prefix ZE, same as Z, means from. The prefix ZA, means beyond.

Suffixes -AK, -IK, and -UK refer to an offspring of somebody. The first two suffixes are more typical to Polish lands, the last one - to Ukrainian.

The core of the name is HAL or HALA, which in modern Polish means a mountain meadow, or in older times - the bare empty spaces between peaks, high mountains

So ZE-HAL-UK would mean FROM-MOUNTAIN_MEADOW-OFFSPRING - an offspring of somebody living in a mountain meadow (or high mountains).

Etymology of HALA:
From the Old Slavic root GOL, meaning naked, bare; from there comes GOLIZNA, bareness. It means a naked mountain, a bare space between peaks. In Old Polish GOLA would correspond to HALA, a mountain meadow. The presence of H, instead of G, indicates Czech, Slovakian or Ruthenian origin. However there is no word HOLA, HALA in Ruthenian, so this leaves us with southern influence.

In Czech HOLA, HOLE means an open space, a clearing. In Upper-Sorbian HOLA, diminutive HÓLKA, means empty space, not overgrown space, but also woods. Slovenians and Serbians use GOL in the same meaning. Poles and Belarusians living in Lithuania used the words HALE, HALIZNA, PRZEHALINA.

PODHALE: A geographical region in southern Poland, a piedmont of high Tatras. The names means "under the mountain meadows", or "under the bare mountains, high mountains" - known as TATRY, TATRAS, The Tatra Mountains

Thanks, that's more progress than I've been able to make researching. I do happen to know my ancestors came from Srebrna Gora and retkowo in Prussian Poland and then also from bydgoszcz if that's any indication for what our last name originally was.

Also got another last name for you, my moms maiden name was Domansky, and we know that my great grandfather said he was born on the "Russian side of Poland."

There is some correlation between Chosiński surname and those two villages. Today they belong to two different administrative provinces, yet they are only 19 km appart:

Retkowo, (municipality) Gmina Szubin, Nakło County, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, 33 km SE of Bydgoszcz.
Srebrna Góra, Gmina Wapno, Wągrowiec County, Greater Poland Voivodship, 55 km SE of Bydgoszcz.

The biggest concentration of people named Chosiński (male) and Chosińska (female) is in Wągrowiec County - 14 and 22, correspondingly (out of total 95).
See the red areas in those two maps: moikrewni.pl/mapa/kompletny/chosi%25C5%2584ski.html, moikrewni.pl/mapa/kompletny/chosi%25C5%2584ska.html. That's Wągrowiec County. Coincidence? [Move your pointer around and the county names will show up. Summaries are shown at the bottom and in in right lower corner]

The Poznan Project database has 22 exact matches for marriages of grooms Chosiński or brides Chosińska between the years 1834-1874 (scanned 1800-1950), from various catholic parishes, including Srebrnagóra (alternate spelling of Srebrna Góra). I'll just post the exact matches from Srebrnagóra and Wągrowiec.

Srebrnagóra, 1853, Jacobus Knoch (28), Catharina Chosinska (19)
Srebrnagóra, 1860, Andreas Chosinski (28), Marianna Horka (30)
Srebrnagóra, 1861, Andreas Sobecki (22), Francisca Chosinska (19)
Srebrnagóra, 1864, Telesphorus Radaj (23), Antonina Chosinska (20)
Srebrnagóra, 1865, Franciscus Chosinski (27), Marianna Szaskowska (20)
Srebrnagóra, 1867, Andreas Chosinski (36), Margaretha Ryback (45), Additional information: viduus/vidua
Srebrnagóra, 1873, Michael Crzech (24), Helena Chosinska (26)
Wągrowiec [Wongrowitz], 1859, Thomas Chosinski (29), Marianna Rexmer (31)
There are also approximate matches listing Choysińska , Chozińska, Chocińska alias Choczyńska, Chozinski, etc. You can get it from this page: poznan-project.psnc.pl/search.php

Just select the date period and use the simple surname search in the right upper corner.

There are five exact matches for Hosiński? and Hosińska/Hosinska in Gostyń and Kletno parishes. Inexact matches involve Hoziński, Hozińska, Hasiński, Hasińska. Most of them from catholic parish in Gostyń, none of them from Srebrnagóra.


Domanski, Domański - since 1436, from village names Domanin, Domanice (several in Poland); directly from the given name Doman (= Damian). In Old Polish it was known as Damijan since 1178, Demijan 1405, Doman 1250. It derives from from Latin nickname Damianus. It came to Latin from Greek, and to there from Egyptian goddess Damia.

There is a bunch of related surnames, having the same root, ranging from Doman, Domanek, Domanczuk, Domanicz, Domańczyk, Domanowicz, to Domańszczyński, etc.

The surname Domański (with N acute) is quite popular in Poland: 10944 + 11336 (Domańska). It is fairly well distributed all over the country, but the biggest concentration is east of Warsaw, in Podlasie historical region.

Domanski/Domanska - only 15/14 persons of this name. A little acute sign and such a difference! :-)

Domansky - 0 people of this name in contemporary Poland; this is according to "Moi Krewni" database.

Thanks so much boletus, you've given me much to research further!! :)

What does the surname Slawik/Slawick or even Slavik/Slavick mean?

S£AWIK: root-word probably sława (glory, fame, renown). However most likely it originated either as the diminutive form of such first names as Sławomir, Sławko and similar or as a toponymic tag from places such as Sławica or Sławice. But surnames have evolved in so many meandering ways that this might have even arisen as a Belorussian pronunciation of słowik (nightingale), where the Polish letter 'o' is often replaced by an 'a'.I don't mean the word for nightingale in Belorussian which is cалавей, but the pronunciation.

Slavik or Slavick would be an attempt at an English phonetic respelling.

Thank you!!

My Grandfather Josef Guzek left Tarnow, Poland around 1908 and immigrated to the USA. He left the port of Hamburg, Germany and arrived in New York City. He settled in the Philadelphia area . Do you have any way of tracing his Father and Grandfather and whether the family was noble.

GUZEK: diminutive of guz (bump, lump, tumour); any deformity or unusual feature often become the basis of a nickname centuries ago. Guzek may have been the way someone with a visible protrusion on his forehead or other prominent place would have been nicknamed.

The Austrian partition zone known as Galicja (Rzeszów, Tarnów, Krosno, Przemyśl, etc.) appears to be the Guzek stronghold, although there are concentrations throughout the country including Greater Warsaw and the £ódź region. No Guzek was ever known to have been admitted to a gentry clan, but there were nobles amongst the bearers of the Guz surname. They were entitled to use the Guzkowski heraldic emblem, a modified version of Lubicz.

dukowitz or dutkowitz

DUKOWICZ: maybe from dukać (to stutter, stammer); someone who stuttered might have been nicknamed Duk or Dukacz and his son would have been dubbed Dukowicz. The ending -wicz is nearly always a patronymic ending. Just a guess, but the English equivalent might have been Stammerson which doesn't sound half bad in English..

A part of this isn't true. The last name Wikaryasz is used. I know firsthand because this my last name. It definitely is in use because we have an extremely large family. I don't know about the rest of this text but I wanted you to know that this part is incorrect. I hope this was helpful.

It's probably a question of spelling. I have found Wikariusz, and an older spelling -- Wikarjusz, which means a vicar or the head priest's assistant. This is highly speculative but it has occurred at times. If some manual recopier of the in the murky pre-typewriter and computer era brought the two prongs of the letter 'u' a tad too close together, the next recopier down the line may have taken it for an 'a'

-- hence Wikaryasz. Only a thought!

The older spelling yet was "wikaryusz", as you can easily check now since many old documents have been scanned and digitized by google: books, heraldries, memoirs, annuals of Towarzystwo Przyjaciól Nauk (Society of Friends of Science), etc. One good example is "Liber Beneficiorum" Jan £askiego (1456-1531), edited by Jan £ukowski and published in 1881: archive.org/details/joannisdelascol00asgoog

One advice though: digitizing (optical character recognition) Polish text is often very crude so when searching through digitized plain text always compare the results with the original scanned material (PDF). In this particular context of "Liber Beneficiorum" the word "wikaryasz" appears only as a scanning error of the original "wikaryusz".

Thanks..... what about Dutk? The "T" was brought from Noland and dropped around 1850. the name has remained "Dukowitz" since. I have seen many spelling variations, but not really any root meaning. What does the "T" in Dutk mean?

Could someone tell me the meaning of the surname KUŚMIEREK? "Furrier" is the closest word that I can find.
TY

I have no idea what mental state of your ancestor was when he was making the T dropping decision:
+ he did it because he had no affiliation with the meaning of the name; he did not understand the name to start with; it felt foreign to it anyway.

+ he did it because he thought it would be easier to assimilate to the German culture; -itz sounds more German than -icz.
+ he did it because he felt ashamed of his possible Slavic association
+ he did it because he was just sloppy
+ he did it because ... of hundreds other reasons

Any real Pole can easily understands what T actually mean in the Dutkowicz. The surname Dutkowicz derives from one of the several words:
+ from a German personal name Dut(t), and this in turn from the personal names staring with Theud-
+ from the Polish name dutka, a handbag

The roots Dutka- and Duka- are really miles apart.

Dukowicz derives
+ from the verb dukać 'mówić niewyraźnie', to speak in a fuzzy way
+ from the dialectal "duk" meaning 'dziupla, dół' - a hollow in a tree, a bottom


^^
That's correct. The Polish word comes from "kuśnierz", a furrier. Kuśnierek is a diminutive of kuśnierz, like a little furrier, a son of furrier.

ciurczynski ? this was a misspelling according to JaJa he shortened it to Cuzynski...as far as i know everyone with this shortened version in the US is a member of our family.

The census taken in the 1990s showed a single female named Ciurczyńska living in Katowice. If it was not borne by a sole male of reproductive age, presumably by now the name has become extinct.

Ciurczyński, as well as about 30 other such names - Ciur, Ciura, Ciuraczek, Ciurakowski, Ciurkiewicz, Ciurko ... - derive from Old Polish "ciura" - a camp-follower.

This word "ciura" is so described in the Old Polish Encyclopedia by Zygmunt Gloger:
Polish nobility going to war, especially militia, more properly known as "pospolite ruszenie" (mass movement), took with them carts filled with arms, food, and fodder - accompanying by the bravest of their servants. For this reason the armies were followed by numerous caravans with apprentices, servants, attendants; which were much feared by the rural population, as they stole whatever and whenever they could. For this reason peasants called them maliciously "ciury" (plural) - "ciur, ciura" being originally just an onomatopoeic sound. Wacław Potocki composed in his "Jovialitates" the following satirical tombstone inscription:

"Ciura leży w tym grobie, radujcie się kury!
Ale o cóż na świecie łatwiej jak o ciury?"
(Here lies a "ciura", rejoice chicken! But what in the world is easiest to find than "ciury"?)

In the parliamentary debates, concerning wars, there were provisions regarding "ciuras". Many commanders successfully used them during the war. Stefan Czarniecki took Warsaw back from the Swedes with the help of "ciury". They distinguished themselves with courage in the battle of Chocim 1673. Later, however, the word has gained only disdained meaning of an incompetent and a fool.

boletus Thankyou also boletus ;) maybe not the best meanings et all, but i have been a fool in my time, as most of us can be ;) and it might also explain why JaJa disliked the spelling ;)

i might add i have always felt the warrior in my blood and as a Vet in America i have traveled and lived in a variety of places ....though i can't call myself a thief, for lack of reason to....the rest of it is a fairly good meaning for a peasant.

Hope you'll not be offended if i explain to my brother we might rather have been peasants with purpose, he has more ego than i do... ;)

Polonius3
Thankyou Polonius, i also have found only one woman with the name, in Florida. :) gracious of you to respond to me at all.

Cassandra, cheer up, don't try to take it too seriously. I am only reporting some historical tidbits. Things have no real meaning over the ages. One of my favourite characters from the novel "The Three Musketeers" were the clever servants, such as Mousqueton or Picard, who actually saved their master's skins more than ones.

anyone know the origins of the surname '' Weinar '' ? also sometimes spell as '' Vejnar ''

Thanks :)

Weinar: From German personal name Woiner, and this from Wagner

Wagner: from Middle- and High- German wagener; or from Middle-German wainer, or weiner. It means a craftsman involved in making wagons, or the wagon driver (in southern Germany). In the North-East and the South-West Germany it means a wheelwright, cartwright; here and there it also means a smith making wheel rims or even a saddler making harnesses.

Thank you. that is very helpful. I found my grandfathers Nazi documents regarding his mothers family. They came from the Border region of Poland/Lower Silesia and Bohemia/Czech.

What ethnicity would these surnames suggest my grandfathers mother is.

Nadwornik / Nadvornik
Weinar/Vejnar
Haman
Burda
Petera
Jansa

Thank you :)

What are the origins of these surnames

Nadwornik / Nadvornik
Haman
Burda
Petera
Jansa

^^
Nadworna, Nadworny, Nadworniak - from "nadworny", belonging to "dwór", a manor house

Jansa - from a given name Jan (Jan is used in Poland since XIII c.)

Burda - from "burda", a brawl; or from "burdać się" ("przewracać się, rozrzucać"), to fall over, to scatter

Haman - from German personal name Hamann, this from Hann or Hanne (Johann); same as Jan in Polish (Han was used instead of Jan in Old Polish)

Peter, Petera - from a given name (German: Peter, Petir, Piter), (Polish: Piotr, Piotro, Pietr, Pioter, Piotyr, Pietyr). All those names come from the Greek word "petra", meaning rock.

Thank you for that :)

do you think someone from Bohemia (then Austrian Empire) near the border with Silesia (then German empire) with the first name ''Johann'' and surname '' Petera '' would be of German origin?

and someone called '' Franz Burda'' ?

what are your thoughts ?

If you ask me, I am not getting into such speculations since everything is possible in border areas: surname Polish, given name German - nothing particularly strange. National allegiances change too. People with Polish surnames became very German and vice versa. General Anders, a commander of Polish Second Corps in Italy, a great Polish patriot, was born to his Baltic-German father Albert Anders and his mother Elizabeth, born Tauchert. Even one branch of the Habsburgs became proud Polish patriots. See for example this:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archduke_Wilhelm_of_Austria

boletus

Thanks for the link. very interesting :)
I guess no point in guessing.
Thanks again.