What does my Polish name mean?

Thank you kaprys! I have a hard time finding info on this name. Do you know what region in Poland where this surname is most common?

moikrewni.pl/mapa/kompletny/party%25C5%2584ski.html

Have a look at this site. It may give you some idea.

Does anyone know the meaning of 'Wodinski' as a surname? Origin information? Thanks you.

That spelling is not possible in Polish. There are four possible names that could have give rise to it: Wodziński, Wodziński, Włodziński and Włodyński, the last two being rather rare. You will have to do some digging to figure out which was the correct original spelling.

Is this because my family was originally from Pommern? My grandfather was born in Karow, now Karwow near Szczecin? I can go back tot my great-great-great grandfather Peter Wodinski who was born around 1820. And then the name was already Wodinski.

Thank you.

Then that spelling would be German, and not Polish. "I" cannot come after "D" in Polish. To determine what the original Polish name was, you would have to do some research.

This is interesting. It can either be the name of a migrant worker from Greater Poland or West Prussia or a germanized version of a native Slavic name of that area. Another original version of this name can be Wodyński.

There exists a very good German registry of surnames in towns or villages of the territories that have become Polish in 1945 across the years. I once found data of this kind concerning a small village in Upper Silesia there, but I think there may be similar registries concerning places in Vorpommern or Hinterpommern as well. In 1820 there was only a German-speaking population in that area, but traces of the Slavic origin of some of its population can perhaps be found.

All right, thank you very much!

Stay tuned, if I find a registry of this kind for Karow, I'll let you know.

Does anyone know what Gofron means? Does anyone have a Gofron in their family tree (as a last name)

Thank you

Joking around, you could say it derives from the Polish word "gofr", which means "waffle". If that were the case, you could say that it pertained to someone who made waffles or ate a lot of them, or was so pockmarked that his face looked like a waffle.

On a more serious note, though, it looks like an Austrian clerks attempt to write the Polish word "gawron", which is a type of raven-like bird called a "rook" in English.

When Poland was divided between Prussia, Russia and Austria in the late 1700s, most Poles did not have surnames and the occupying authorities made them choose one.

The surname almost certainly started in or near a town called Brzeszko in southeastern Poland, which was in the part occupied by Austria.

moikrewni.pl/mapa/kompletny/gofron.html

It is probable that the Austrian clerk charged with recording surnames spelt it this way in the official record, and the spelling stuck.

Pilarz

From piła-saw.

I'm puzzled by this one.

My Great grandfather never made it to the United States. Both his sons emigrated, then after he died in Poland in the early 1920's, the oldest son returned to Poland and brought his mom back to live with them (tragically the son died shortly after they returned.) When my Great Grandmother died a few years later, her husbands name was listed as: John Niepomocyn Wychocki. or at least that is what Family Search says that it was listed as. I haven't obtained a copy of the actual document from the county yet, because they want $17 apiece for them, and I will very quickly wind up spending a lot of money.

anyway....I tried looking up his middle name and came up with "unhelpful person"

What gives?

First of all, the proper Polish spelling would be Nepomucen.

It's from the name of a Czech saint, John Nepomucene in English. The name comes from the name of a Czech village called Nepomuk. See:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nepomuk

interesting. But as far as I know, they were nowhere near the Czech border. They were from Służewo, or more accurately, the nearby rural area of Aleksandrow

It's the name of a Catholic saint that is popularly venerated all over the world, including in Poland.

And there are lots of statues of Jan Nepomucen all over the Czech Republic. He has these stars around his halo.
If they were devout Catholics, they might have chosen the name to honour the exact patron saint regardless of where they were living.

I'm sorry to say that I'm not familiar with him. Thank you for the information.

As far as I know, they were devout catholics. There is at least one nun and one priest in the various branches of my family.

I recently learned I am a mix of scandinavian and polish and some other things such as ahkenazi and english. Does the name Kalka have any meaning? ( I know there is a river)

Especially near Odolanów, Wielkopolskie, Poland ?

There are about 900 people with that surname in Poland, predominantly in Wielkopolska and Upper Silesia.

My first impression was that this is a Polonified German surname, and this was confirmed by Stankiewicz, who traces it back to the old German personal name "Kalc", which means "chalk" or "limestone". This is further confirmed by the geographical distribution. Both Wielkopolska and Upper Silesia had the highest rates of German settlement in Poland.

moikrewni.pl/mapa/kompletny/kalka.html
stankiewicze.com/index.php?kat=44&sub=541

Thankyou! this is fascinating!

Pilecki?

I am looking for information on the last name Yerka. The artist, Jacek, took it as a pseudonym, and that tends to swamp the searches for the name. Thanks for any help.

It must have been spelled Jerka - pronounced /yerka/ in Polish.
It might have been derived from Jarogniew - an old first name. There is also a village called Jerka.

Hello, I'm looking for the meaning of the Lastname "Jewski".Part of my family comes from East Prussia. Can anybody help me? :)

In some Polish peasant dialects a j-sound prefaces words and names starting with a vowel. A typcial example is Jadam i Jewa for our biblial foreparents. Jewski could have originated as a metronymic nickanme-turned-surname derived from the first name Jewa to indicate the unwed Jewa's bastard son.

Do you think Dieschka could be Polish? Sounds awfully Slavic. My 3x great grandfather has this name he was German and from Brandenburg tho? *shrugs*

It doesn't sound Polish to me. It might be influenced by Polish but derived from a German name like Dieschke or something similar. Like Jeszka/Jeszke from Jeschke or Liedtka from Liedtke.

Perhaps a Pole of German origin.

The "Diesch" sounds German but the "ka" throws it off. There are somewhat similar names in the town like "Duschke", "Duschka", "Dranschke".

His first name was Wilhelm so quite German