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Posts by Polonius3  

Joined: 11 Apr 2008 / Male ♂
Warnings: 1 - Q		 Last Post: 9 Apr 2018
Threads: Total: 980 / Live: 115 / Archived: 865
Posts: Total: 12275 / Live: 4521 / Archived: 7754 		From: US Sterling Heigths, MI
Speaks Polish?: yes
Interests: Polish history, genealogy

Displayed posts: 4636 / page 136 of 155
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Polonius3   
17 Jun 2010
Genealogy / Does your last name end in CKI not SKI [60]

Why do so many English names end in -man, -ton, -son, -ly, -ing, etc. Becuase that is their lknguistic and cultural tradition.
In Polish the -ski is an adjectival ending and (as you probably remember from school) an adjective is a word that describes someone or something as being of, about, related to, descended from, associated with or connected to someone or something else.

A kowal is a blacksmith in Polish and the adjective kowalski means of, about. concerning or (in the case of a person) descended from the blacksmith. So the name Kowalski means little more than Smithson, although at times it was also applied to the blacksmith’s helper or apprentice. Even more commonly the -ski ending was toponymic indicating that a person was from a certain place: Brzeziński hailed from Brzezina (Birchville), Gwizdowski from Gwizdów (Whistleton) and Wiśniewski from Wiśniewo (Cherryville).

Names evolved from Jan z Dębowa (John of Oakville) to Jan Dębowski.
Incidentally, a similar but not identical process occurred in English, where the Middle English John of Oakville became simply John Oakville.
In general, the -ski is a high-class ending in Polish. More Polish nobles had ski-ending surnames than those with any other suffix.
Polonius3   
16 Jun 2010
Genealogy / Polish equivalent of "Jessie"? [48]

I have heard Jesse (as in Jesse James) and Jess used in the US as a popular equivalent
of the Polish man's name Zdzisław. But there is also a feminine version of that name -- Zdzisława, whose pet form is Zdzisia. Could that have been it?
Polonius3   
15 Jun 2010
Language / -ski/-ska, -scy/ski, -wicz - Polish surnames help [185]

Nicknames-turned-surnames emerged centuries ago. Most likely your immediate ancestors even as far back as great-great-grandparents no longer worked at the occupation indicated by the surname. In otehr words, if you're introduced to a John Baker, you probably don't ask him what kind of bread he bakes. Sure, maybe back in 1382 or 1519, somebody got called Baker because he actually baked bread and buns, but soon it became just another name with no occupational connotation.
Polonius3   
15 Jun 2010
Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

DUDZIK: diminutive of duda (bagpipes); Dudzik could well have originated as a patronymic nick to indicate the piper's (fiddler's or any home-spun rural musician's) son.

LAMPA: also spelt Lampe, was often a Jewish surname; other than lamp, it could have also emerged as a hypocoristic (pet) form of the first name Lambert.
Polonius3   
15 Jun 2010
Genealogy / Funny Polish surnames [64]

The following are all currently used in Poland, usually by only a handful of Poles, but Fiut has several thousand users. Know any others that might evoke a chuckle?

Dupiński
Fiut
Fiutek
Pierdoła
Sral
Hujek
Polonius3   
14 Jun 2010
Genealogy / Polish and Russian DNA? [52]

I will resist the temptation of typing in a nationality to the old quip: Q: What do you get when you cross a ......... with an ape? A: A retarded ape!
Polonius3   
14 Jun 2010
Genealogy / Polish and Russian DNA? [52]

Indeed, a person's nationality or ethnicity comprises both congenital and acquired elements. The congential (DNA) cannot be changed, whilst the acquired can (raise a Finn as an Irishman and you get a DNA Finn with Irish cultural traits).
Polonius3   
13 Jun 2010
History / Polish and other Slavic nobility in our time [71]

Those who read Polish may enjoy learning about the barfoot, backwater gentry (szlachta zaściankowa) of the Podlasie region.
jamiolkowski.pl/korzenie/mpmmp.html
Polonius3   
13 Jun 2010
History / Polish and other Slavic nobility in our time [71]

Less known about the Polish nobility is that there were plenty of impoverished ennobled peasants. For their service to theh country (usually miliatry service or defending the lord's castle) especially in the poor Podlasie region entire villages were ennobled. They may have been barefoot but in stirrups and tilled the hard-scrabble soil like their peasant neighbours, but had a coat of arms and a sword and could say: Szlachcic na zagrodzie równy wojewodzie (A farming gentleman is the equal of any voivod/governor).
Polonius3   
13 Jun 2010
Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

GEMBAL/GEMBALA: any relation to German Gabel (fork) seems rather unlikely. The root-word here is gęba (rude word for mouth). This is a typically peasant name where unusual features such as body parts were latched onto and often served as the basis of a nickname-turned-surname. Other examples: Nosal (big-nosed), Paluch (big-fingered), etc. The spellings Gębal and Gębala also exist.

SOCHOWSKI: topo nick from Socha or Sochy (root-word socha= primitive wooden plough),

KOSAKIEWICZ: patronymic from Kosak (someone nicknamed after a straw-cutting or cabbage knife)
Polonius3   
12 Jun 2010
Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

KUŻAMSKI: does not exist in Poland at present. Could it have been Kużawski? That could have been a misspelling of Kurzawski (from kurzawa=dust storm). Ther kuż- root might trace back to kuża, a dialectic from of the old Polish word koża (hide). Kuź- on the other hand might be linked to the first name Kosma (in peasant speech Kuźma).
Polonius3   
10 Jun 2010
Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

France / klinczyk : kli (n ) czyk = klimczyk avec un M et non un N ?

KLIMCZYK: Sans doute avec un <<m>>. La racine de cette surnom est Klimek (dérivé du prénom Klemens/Clément). Le suffixe -czyk indique le fils de Klimek, ainsi Klimczyk serait l'équivalent des surnoms DuClément (français) et Clemson (anglais).

I heard there is a Polish surname Pakula.

PAKU£A: pakuł or pakuła are Polish terms for oakum (strands of old rope pulled into loose hemp and used for caulking windows and ship's seams). Probably only a DNA test could rule out any Polish blood flowing in your veins. Who knows if some Polish trader, traveller or adventurer didn't travel north to Finland to sow his wild oats generations ago and decided to put down roots and stay.
Polonius3   
10 Jun 2010
Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

DRABIK: diminutive of drab (mercenary or crude, boorish person)

BOŻEK: idol, pagan deity; hypocoristic (endearing) form of first names Bożysław, Bożydar & similar

TRYBIEC: alternate form of trybarz = horseherder; a similar word trybkarz = kosher butcher; the Tryibec spelling is impossible in Polish; so is ‘Leswykowska’. Could it have been Lesznowola or Leśniowice?

JUREK: hypocoristic form of Jerzy (George).
Polonius3   
9 Jun 2010
Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

GARUS: derivatives include Garuszewski, Garuski and Garuszyński, Maybe one of those was the original form of your family name.

FROSCH: German for frog

WANASZ: origin uncertain; wanata was once an old word for a loafer, idler or time-waster. Wanata is a variety of apple.

WOJTOWICZ: Woytowich is a poor attempt at phonetic respelling. A better choice would have been Voytovich.
Polonius3   
8 Jun 2010
History / Why Poles love Russia [105]

Ar$ehole Poles there were aplenty, but that's not the point. Poles only briefly occupied Muscovy a signle time in 1614. Was that one offesnce ormisdeed worth 5 centuries of atrocites, partitions, subversion and murder? That balance-sheet is terribly skewed.
Polonius3   
8 Jun 2010
History / Why Poles love Russia [105]

So have the partitons and the Katyń lie. This was just a brief review of historical wrongs visited on ther poor Poles by the imperialist Rooskies -- imeprialist under any banner. As they say: Raz Lenin, Raz Stalin, Raz Brezhnev, Razputin!
Polonius3   
8 Jun 2010
History / Why Poles love Russia [105]

Over the generations Poles have had countless reasons to love Russia. There were three successive partitions which wiped the country off the map, Siberian exile for freedom-fighters, forced Russification and the imposition of Eastern Orthodoxy and the 1920 attempt to Bolshevise Poland and the rest of Europe. There was the Comintern and its attempt to incite subversive activity in and destabilise between-the-wars Poland, the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, breaching the non-aggression pact with Poland and stabbing her in the back. There was Katyń, standing idly by during the Warsaw Uprising, and the post-war repalcement of Nazi occupation with Soviet occupation. There was the refusal to return the one-half of pre-war Poland annexed by Stalin and the murder of Poland’s top leaders in Moscow. At least the Germans were punished by being downsized, but Soviet Russia bloated by keeping all its territorial gains arranged with Hitler from Finland to Romania. Poles also love Russia for the Katyń Lie and reprisals against those who dared speak the truth about it, for Soviet 'aid' to the brother-Hungarians in 1956, for exploiting Poland economically under Comecon (RWPG = Rosji wsio, Polsze gawno – everything for Russia, sh*t for Poland)). Also for forcing Poland to invade Czechoslovakia in 1968 under the Brezhnev doctrine, for Gorbachev's anti-Katyń (fabricated accusations of mistreating soviet POWs after the 1920 war), for blackmailing and intimidating finally free Poland over NATO membership, for banning Polish food exports under sanitation pretexts (as if Russia is so hygienic?!), landlocking the Port of Elbląg by closing the Vistula Lagoon to navigation, by snubbing the Polish delegation to the 2005 Victory Day celebrations....

These are but a few of the reasons that readily come to mind. There are many, many more examples of the crimes and misdeeds of a genetically flawed semi-Slavic/semi-Mongol nation which knows only intrigues and brute force against its own people and their neighbours.
Polonius3   
7 Jun 2010
Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

SZYBAŃSKI FOLLOW-UP: An ideal source for the Szybański surname is the Ukrainian locality of Шыбань (Szybań), once part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Names often have a way of surviving centuries of political upheavals and border shifts.

STRZYCKI: possibly derived from strzyc, formerly strzydz (to shear, cut hair); or strzyga (bugbear, bogie, demon, ghost); maybe topo nick from Strzygi (Bogies); only a dozen users in Poland today.

PUCI£OWSKI: topo nick from Puciłów or Puciłowo
Polonius3   
7 Jun 2010
Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

PANEK: little lord, impoverished mmeber of the petty gentry

PAPROCKI: from paproć fern, very roughly the equivalent of such English surnames as Fernly, Fernton, Ferning, Fernman, Fernwood, etc. It is used by over 5,700 people in Poland and perhaps another 1,400 world-wide. That is not too common a surname but can hardly be called rare.

KANIECKI: root-word probably kania (kite, bird species); possibly topo nick from Kaniew (Kiteville); ideally should be Kaniewski, but with surname evolution one never knows.

ROMAŃSKI: topo nick from Romany or patronymic = Roman’s son (Roman being a first name)

SZYBAŃSKI: possibly a variant of Szybalski (cheat, crook, trickster, conman)

TKACZYK: patronymic = weaver’s son

SADOWSKI: topo nick from Sadów or Sadowo (Orchardville).

In some cases surnames may contain geographic, occupational or class indicators but these have to do with the name's initial origin. Subsequently, all kinds of people used the same or similar names. If you meet a John Baker for the first time, do you ask him what kind of bread and rolls he bakes?
Polonius3   
6 Jun 2010
Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

I strongly doubt wehtehr Luwalski could've been a respellign of Lubelski (the adj. of Lublin). On the other hand, if we assume that centureis ago name got written down in the shaky hand of an illiterate peasant and subsequently was recopied by an inebriated village scribe or parish preist with poor eyesight, most anything would be possible There is an old word luwar, a variant of the standard lewar (winch, pulley), which would have produced the adj. form luwarski, but no-one in Poland uses it as a surname. Yes, a żuk is a beetle.
Polonius3   
5 Jun 2010
Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

LUWALSKI (?): No-one by that name in Poland; there are some people who spell their name Lewalski, very few use Liwalski and the Lowalski surname has been recorded but nobody uses it at present. Meaning obscure.

ŻUKOWIECKI: Thsi name is use, Żukawiecki is not. Maybe it's the Belarussian pronunciation (they use the vowel 'a' a lot!). It would mean the bloke from Żukowiec (Beetleville).
Polonius3   
5 Jun 2010
Genealogy / Is your line of the Polish family noble? [74]

Whether any coat of arms is attached to a given Polish surname can be found in any armorial. Much more difficult is determining whether someone's line of a given family was of noble rank. In different periods of time and depending on which surname was involved, from several to maybe 12% of a name's bearers were of gentry background. Only a professional genealogist can conduct the necessary research and try to find the answer. One such firm is the Institute of Genealogy. Those interested may visit:

instytut-genealogii.com.pl/index.php?lang=en
Polonius3   
5 Jun 2010
Genealogy / Czajka name? And Poland questions. [25]

To view the Dębno and Jastrzębiec coats of arms please visit:
pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herby_szlachty_polskiej_(galeria)#Herby_rod.C3.B3w_szlacheckich