Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

SUPIŃSKI: couldn't find any De Supiński in Poland. The Supiński nick probably originated as a toponymic tag from Supy or Supieiie in the Podlasie region.

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

JARZYŃSKI: root-word jarzyna (vegetable, spring grain); possibly topo nick from Jarzeń or several localities in Russia called Yarino (polonised into Jarzyno).

RUTKOWSKI: root-word rue (a herb); most likely a topo nick from Rutków or Rutkowo (Rueville, Rueton).

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

BURDA: actually traceable to two different sources: burda (brawl) from French bourde (tournament); burda (heavy load) from German Bürde (burden)

JANSA: may trace back to some Germanic surname such as Jansen

LEDWINA: ??? onomastician Ewa Szczodruch claims it is connected with the Polish word ledwo (barely), but I've got my doubts; could be of unspecified foreign origin.

PETERA: from Christian name Peter, but its meanders would be hard to trace; the Latin name Petrus (rock) has taken on such forms as Peter (English, German and Hunagrian Péter), Piotr and dialectal Pieter (Polish), Piotr (Russian), Petro (Ukrainian and Petras (Lithuanian).

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

WEJNAR: Possibly a variantm orm of Bejnar which was dervied from German adjective beinern (bony)

JANSA: One of a myriad of naems dervied from the Christian name Jan (John) and including Janda, Janik,. Janas, Jańczyk, Janota, Janisz, Janic, Janc and dozens of others.

BURDA: brawl; possibly a tag appleid to a local brawler; or toponymic nick for someone from Buzdze, Burdajny ior similar.

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

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

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

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/).

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

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.

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

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.

Genealogy / Last name History or help please: BREJ surname [20]

BREJ: from breja (mush, porridge, thick soup); also known as bryja.

NIEŻYJE: not living, dead, not alive

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

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

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

KOZIARSKI: root-word koziarz (goatherd); Koziarski could be a patronymic tag indicating the goatherd's son. The spelling is certainly Polish.
In other Slavonic tongues koziarz is not as widely used for goatherd -- instead they use things like pastuch or pasak koz.

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

I don't feel competent to answer that question. I can only point out that both in Polish and Czech dudy means bagpipes, and Belarusian also uses that term. Maybe Boletus will know.

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

Ethnicities sare not always clearly defined, esp. in borderland areas. I recall shortly after the Soviet bloc collapsed a Polish TV reporter was asking an older woman in a Belarusian village what language she spoke. The reply: 'Our tongue (po naszemu or po tutejszemu).' When pinned down to identify it and asked why she was beating about the bush she replied: 'The Poles were here, then it was Russians, then the Germans marched in, then the Russians again.. Who knows who'll be next in our area, so it's better to be on the safe side.'

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

It can be both. If there are (the number is just a speculation) 37 localities called Sobolewo or Sobolevo acrosss Slavdom, then each of them has generated Sobolewskis/Sobolevskys to describe people from there.

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

SOBOLEWSKI: a typical toponymic tag from places as as Sobolew or Sobolewo. These can also be found in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus. The Sobolevsky spelling you gave is a traditonal transliteration of the Cyrillic as well as the Czech and Slovak way of spelling it. The root-word is soból (sable - a fur-bearing animal). The name of the village could therefore be roughly translated as Sableton or Sableville.

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

MAĆKOWIAK: a typical patronymic nickname meaning 'son of Maciek' (Eng. equiavlent: Mattheson).
Its ancestral stronghold appears to be Wielkopolska.

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

TALKO: possibly dervied from talka (spinning-wheel spindle) or topo nick from Talki or Talkowszczyzna.

KOWAL: occupational nick (blacksmith); Eng. equivalent: Smith.

PAWLUK: eastern patronymic nick for son of Paweł (more Polish would be Pawlak); Eng. equivalent: Paulson.

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

TERESKO: Possibly a patronymic nick from Terencjusz, a first name of Latin origin (rare in Poland); or a metronymic one from Teresa (bastard children were sometimes named after their mother); a toponmyic source might be traced to such localtieis as Teresin, Teresew; Teresa, Teresów or Teresina.

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

Mikelis is one Lithuanian equivalent of the first name Michael. Maybe Michaelis is a respelt version??

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

BARASIŃSKI: Also possibly a toponymic tag from Бараші (Baraszy), now in Ukrainian-occupied Eastern Poland.

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

PACHLA: This is one of those surnames traceable to a variety of different sources including:. 1. First names Paweł or Pakosław/Pachosław; 2. The Old Polish verb pachać: to perform back-breaking work, plough the soil or commit (pachać grzechy = to commit sins); 3. Toponymic sources Pach, Pachów or similar.

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

He also missed -yga and probably a few more. What then might a Pole of yesteryear say to pejoratively refer to a Romanian: Rumidło, Rumunidło, Rumunisko, Rumocha, Rumunocha, Rumucha, Rumunucha and somewhere along the line Romuzga might have slipped out. There is a whole highly variable grey area of endearing nicknames, pet names for people and things, baby talk, sweet nothings, in-jokes, etc. often confined not even to one village or a single family, but at times to a single branch of the same family. And within that context I maintain that Romuzga or Rumuzga cannot be entirely ruled out whether or not any linguist or statistician has bothered to codify them.

Possible toponymic sources for Romuzga migth include Romualdów in today’s truncated Poland and Romuti in Belarusuian-occupied eastern Poland. Maybe even Ромушково in Putinland.

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

I have never conducted an in-depth study the way Jagodziński has, but was guided more by a certain intuitive "Sprachgefühl" rather than any cut-and-dried linguistic norms. I purposely used the word 'possible', so as not to suggest that this was the one true explanation. On the other hand, I believe that the once highly dialectal, regional and local natuire of Polish often defied atttemtps to force it into any

analytical framework. The word and name creators were not grammarians but usually simple, illiterate peasants who blurted out whatevr they found clever or catchy without regard to word-formation norms, grammar, spelling or whatever. It others found it appropriate it often caught on and stuck. But then again neither can the foreign option you mentioned be ruled out. It migth have even originated as a pejorative term for Romanian similar to Niemiaszek, Kacap, Mosiek, etc., although Rumuzga would probably have been more plausible.

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

ROMUZGA: possibly derived from romot (noise, racket) to denote a noisy individual who bumps, bangs and clangs as he goes. The prefixes -ajda - ocha and -uzga are often used in word formation to deride or ridicule. There is also a village called Romoty (Noiseville) as a possible toponmyic tag. I emphasise the word 'possible', because there may be an entirely different source -- perhaps a derisive form of the first name Roman.

As opposed to just Jan (John) Janocha would mean something like big, old nasty John, so maybe Romuzga would be the equiavlent for Roman. Someone might have also said Romocha or Romajda to get the derisive and slighting flavour across.

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

KOKOTKIEWICZ: root-word kokot (cock), diminutive form: kokotek. Someone might have been nicknamed kokotek because he was cocky and always ready for a scrap or maybe a skirt-chaser. But he coiuld have also acquired that tag for purely toponymic reasons like hailing from some such locality as Kokot ro Kokotek. In either case, when the fathered a son, the offspring would have been given a typical patronymic ending -wicz, hence Kokotkiewicz.

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

The surnames are not specifically Jewish, but any name can be used by Jews from Smith to Czarnecki to Schneider and Lomonosov.
Francis is the English version of the Latin name Franciscus which originally referred to the Franks, a Germanic tribe.
Maria is the European (Italian, Polish, Spanish, German, etc.) version of the Hebrew name Miriam.

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

RULKO: used by five dozen people in Poland, the most in the Olsztyn area. Meaning and origin obscure (to me at least).

Genealogy / I am of Polish descent (i am something called kashoop). Kaszub, Kashubian? [19]

AT first I thought the Schawitch part was the whole surname and the intial dave was short for David.
My guess is that whatever the first part, the final syllables were probably -siewicz. Could the two parts combined have initially been something like Dziwisiewicz, Dziewisiewicz, Dziawisiewicz, etc.?

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

SZCZEŚNIAK/SZCZĘŚNIAK: both forms exist and most likely arose as patronymics for the son of Szczesny, Szczestny or Szczęsny (happy, joyful), the Polish equivalent of Felix. In the 15th and 126th century the nasal vowel 'ę' was missing more oftne than not.

CZEŚNIAK: this is a separate name in its own right dervied from Czesny or Czestny -- an archaic word for honest, upright or honourable.. (The greeting cześć means little more than 'hi' today but once meant 'honour to thee').

However, considering the state of illiteracy in old Poland, Cześniak and Szcześniak (similarly pronounced in rapid speech) could have been easily mistaken and miscopied.,