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

BAMBYNEK: root-word probably bęben (drum; diminutive bębenek means little drum); reveals apparent Lithuanian influence where the bamb- syllable is used in drum-related words.

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

KUBASKA: Most likely either derived from Kuba (hypocoristic form of Jakub) or a topo nick from Kubaczyn. In the latter case it would be from western Poland's Wielkopolska region. But there are several places in parts of Russia that once belonged to Poland called Кубасово which etymologically is an even better source.

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

Gruß Gott!, Georg! Warzilek is impossible in Polish. The original Polish spelling must have been:
WARZYLEK: The root-word is warzyć (to cook, boil, brew [beer]). In Old Polish the term warzylek was used to describe the amount of beer produced in a single brewing. Maybe way, way back (generations or centuries ago) you had some brewmasters amognst your ancestorss.

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

SA£AJ/SALAJ: believed to have been derived from first names such as Salezy and Salomon, possibly also from German name Sal.

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

OBAREWICZ: The -wicz tells us this originated as a patornymic tag, and this form was most common in tne NE area of the old Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (Wilno, Grodno, Białystok, Nowogródek, Kowno, etc.).

Root-word is obara (archaic term for a toppled pine-tree), so Obarewicz would have been the son of someone nicknamed Obara.

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

SOBIERALSKI: Most likely derived from Polish first names Sobiesław or Sobiestian (archaic dialectal form of Sebastian). It is definitely Polish, although it may be used in Germany by people Germanised many generations ago who are unaware of their original Polish or Wendish roots.

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

SNAK (?): The Snak surname has been reocrded in Poland but no-one uses it at present. There are over a hundred Snakowskis, however, about 70 of them living in the Kraków and neighboring Katowice areas. Probable etymology: toponymic nick from the Slovak village of Snakov.

Genealogy / KUKULA ancestry [32]

KUKU£A: the cuckoo (bird); in modern Polish kukułka is the common name for the bird species but Kukuła is more common as a surname.

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

SZCZYGIELSKI: root-word szczygieł (bullfinch, species of songbird); most likely originated as a topo tag for someone from Szczygły (Bullfinchville).

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

As already stated, -ski surnames not only have a classy upscale ring to them in Polish, but are nearly always of toponymic in orign. So it is in this case:

TERESIŃSKI: topo tag for someone from Teresin (Theresaville).)

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

Reckon I'm not alone... When I googled Monterial, the Candian city of Montréal appeared. When I asked a specific surname question: Quelle est la etymologie du surnom Monterial?, the google folks came back with: Did you mean: Quelle est la etymologie du surnom Montréal? If the name is indeed a corruption of Montréal, then it would have meant (in Old French) royal mountain.

KUKU£A: non-diminutive form of kukułka (cuckoo); some 3,000 users in Poland with major concentrations in the Kalisz-Poznań area, Greater Warsaw, £ódź region and Katowice district. Fewer than 2,000 use the Kukułka version.

Genealogy / Chyrow, Dobromil, Pietnice, Rosenberg - Any info on Mazur/Can Lineages [11]

HUN: probably of German origin, possibly related to the word Huhn (hen); only 4 people in Poland as of a previous census named Hun, all living in the Olsztyn area. Unless they included males of reproductive age, the name may be extinct by now or on the brink of extinction.

There was a Hun/Huhn coat of arms, so one line of the family got ennobled somehwere along the way.

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

shaxmaty
That cannot be ruled out. I'm sure many of the Grande Armée conked out or deserted during Napoleon's ragtag retreat from Russia. In soem cases, they might have been may have been nursed back to health by some flaxen-haired Polish lass and decided to stay.

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

MONTERIAL: When I first saw this name I thought it was the Canadian city of Montréal...
I was surprised to find that this name is used by about 3 doz. people in Poland, most of them in western Poland's Poznań area which would include Gniezno.

My initial hunch was that this name came from one of the Romance languages, as the mont- syllable suggests some connection with mountains. For instance, the Italian word for highlander (góral) is montanaro. Or maybe it arose as a foreign toponymic tag. There is a locality in Spain’s Asturia region called Monteril. Some Spaniard centuries ago might have wandered into Poland and been asked: Coś ty za jeden? The person being questioned might have thought he was being asked where he is from, so he said ‘de Monteril’, and someone wrote it down as best he could and it has been that ever since. Just an off-the-wall hypothesis, of course.

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

I didn't know this but the trusty Wikipedia gave her name as Zofia Teofilia Daniłowicz
(Eng. equivalent Danielson or Danson).

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

MISIEIWCZ: Like all -wicz surnames this originated as a patronymic tag for the son of Miś or Misio which can mean either bear (bruin) or be an endearing form Michał.

There is a fair-sized cluster in the Katowice area but the single largest concentration is in and around Biayłstok in Poland's NE corner along the Belarusian frontier.

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

RobertTushinski
TUSZYŃSKI: root-word tusza (torso, corpulence); most likely a topo nick from Tuszyn, Tuszyna or similar (Torsoville, Fatbury???)

ZAKRZEWSKI: za (beyond) + krzew (brush, bushes); another topo nick from numerous places in Poland called Zakrzewo.

GĄSECKI: Root-word gęś (goose); another topo nick, this time from Gąsewo or similar (Gooseville).

NOTE: On average, "blue-bloods" constituted at different times 10-12% of Old Polish society, but the percentage was much higher amongst the bearers of names ending in -ski or

-cki. There were nobles amongst the bearers of all three of the above surnames with a whopping 28 noble lines in the Zakrzewski family!

For additional information on this please contact me.

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

WENCLEWICZ: Patroynmic from the German form of Wacław -- Venzel.

CICHOWSKI: toponymic nick from Cichów or Cichowo (Quietburg, Silentville)

It is impossible to say where they were from. The most Cichowskis (over 300) live in the Katowice area, but there are only 2 Wenclewiczes in all of Poland -- 1 each in £ódź and Katowice. So if you had to speculate, Katowice might be your best bet.

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

HAFIJCZUK: Variant of Gafijczuk; obviously a Ruthenian patronymic nick as indicated by the -czuk ending. The root may have been gafa (gaffe) or the German name Haff (dervied from Hafen = port, etymologically linked to English haven). The h~g alternation was common in the Commonwealth's Polish-Ruthenian transition areas.

HARASYMOW: from first name Harasym~Gerasim, used mainly in the eastern reaches of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

SMALL: MAY BE an anglicized name for Smol, Smoliński, Schmal, Klein, etc? So many different things have happened to surnames -- deliberate and accidental trans- mutations, misspellings and respellings, etc., that all we can do is hypothesis but not pontificate. It's an 'anything goes' area, believe me!

TRACKING IN GALICJA: Here only an experienced genealogical researcher can help you.

For more information please contact me.

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

JURCZAK: patronymic meaning son of Jurek (Georgie); some 5,000 users in Poland.
Concentrations include Mazowsze -- Greater Warsaw and surrounding Radom area as well as in and around Białystok on the Belarussian border, the Krosno area bordering Slovakia and Ukraine and also in Góral country in the Bielsko-Biała and Nowy Sącz areas.

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

£ODZIEWSKI: root-word łodzia (Old Polish for boat; modern Polish = łódź). Probably originated as a onomatopoeic tag to identify someone from the locality of £odzia or similar.

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

HEJNOWSKI: originally from German root hein, derived from such Germanic names as Hagan; or Hain (German for thicket or grove).

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

KIRYLUK: This is probably the correct spelling. It is a patronmynic tag from the Ruthenian version of the first name Cyryl -- Kiryl.

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

Of the some 180 Piskunowiczes 165 live in the regained territories (ziemie odzyskane) ceded to Poland by the Big Three Allies after the war to partially compensate for the one-half of prewar Poland annexed by Stalin and never returned. Those lands were mostly resettled by repatriates from eastern Poland. That suggests that the Piskunowiczes hailed from the eastern half of prewar Poladn, now in Ukraine and Belarus.

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

PISKUNOWICZ: root-word pisk (squeal, sqeuak, scream, screach) from which piskun (squealer, squaeker, screecher, screamer) was derived. Since -wicz is a patronymic ending, Piskunowicz would have been the screecher's son.

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

KUPSCH: In Poland also spelt Kupsz and Kupś is a menaignless German name beleived to have been derived from a Slavic root, whose Polish spin-off would be Kupiec (merchant).

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

SKICEWICZ: from peasant dialectal skic or skica (jumper leaper, someone constantly on the go); Skicewicz is the patronymic form identifying the 'son of Skic'.

Genealogy / Chyrow, Dobromil, Pietnice, Rosenberg - Any info on Mazur/Can Lineages [11]

MAZUR: a surname of toponymic origin indicating the region someone hailed from (in this case Mazowsze and/or Masuria).

CAN: Polish phonetic respelling of the German name Zahn (tooth); known in Poland since the 14th century.

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

IS your speculation as to 'man of the water' based on the German word 'Watt' (shallows, sandbar, mud flats) I mentioned?