Wladyslaw and the English equivalent

I've been working on the genealogies for families in my local hometown in Western New York and I am curious about the name Wladyslaw. I know that the accepted English equivalent is Ladislaus, but it seems that the name always became James. Is this an accepted translation in other areas or was it something that became common in certain communities? I've also heard that Walter is an accepted equivalent as well.

The choice of a English equivalents of Polish names will always be arbitrary. Władysław, actually, is not too difficult to propose an equivalent for. How about 'Vlad'? :)

My fathers name was Wladyslaw and everyone used to call him Walter except my mother who called him Vlad.

It's a Slavic name.
Wlad from władać -to rule
Slaw from sława -fame.

That`s strange, I thought they are two different names..


Exactly. Walter sounds German.

I've known people called Wladyslaw - who were called Walter. Also people with the Polish name of Wlodzimierz were also called Walter.

I guess that's because the names sound similar but they're not equivalents just like Stanisław /Stanley or Stanisława /Stella.

I have never witnessed such a situation in my long life in Poland. Władysław is almost always shortened to Władek so there is no need to call him Walter. :):)

Aaaah, you are talking about the UK/US, right? What about Ladislau?

I have seen Ladislaus only in church records written in Latin.
As for people who moved to the UK /US they'd rather have chosen to use a name like Walter indeed.

Might Wallace be an equivalent? Wladek = Wally?

I shall perhaps remind everyone that an old-fashioned, slightly ironic, Polish name for the penis is "wacek". I have recently seen the word in this context in "LALKA" by Bolesław Prus, a novel first published in Warsaw in 1890. At the same time 'Wacek' is a male name.

Wacek = Wally ?



Krakowskie Przedmieście Street in Warsaw in the times of Bolesław Prus

My grandfather was from Poland. He fought in world War 1 on the American side, which is how he immigrated here. I believe he arrived in 1919.

In Poland his name was "Wladyslaw Zielinski".
In the military they called him "Walter Zielinski", which is what he was always called once in the United States.
I wish I knew more about him. He died in 1963, in Stratford, Connecticut, a couple years before I was born.

He wasn't from Poland. Poland didn't exist at the beginning of World War I.

But he was from Poland by 1919 ...

True, but I'm wondering how an ethnic Pole ended up fighting for the Americans in the first place if he was from this part of Europe.

He may have been a conscript in the German army and perhaps deserted to the US army on the western front because he did not want to die for the Keiser?

This is only a loose hypothesis as I really don't know about the locations of the Americans in Europe during the WW !. On my reading list there's a book on the sacrifice of American soldiers in this conflict.

1. My grandfather also was from Poland and fought in WWI. He emigrated to the US from Poland, lived in the US for a short time, then fought in France. Upon his return to the US he was approved for US citizenship. So that scenario is totally real.

2. My grandmother was born in Poland. Several of her papers said her name was Wladyslaw. Later, everyone called her "Lottie." How Wladyslaw became Lottie always confused me. Anyone have a clue?

A man's name, the female version is Władysława (now very rare). In old-fashioned pronunciation you can hear a sequence that sounds a bit like Lotty -łady- (in the modern pronunciation it would sound like 'wotty')

What is the english name of Ladislaus?

IINM that's the Latin version of Władysław

delphiandomine: Poland existed way before then. In the mid-1500s, united Poland was the largest state in Europe and perhaps the continent's most powerful nation. It disappeared during the Partitions of Poland (1772-1918). Restored as a nation in 1918.

@WladyslawGrand
At least in Chicago's Polonia, the feminine name Władysława was regularly translated to Charlotte - I don't know why - which then became Lottie for short.