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

KLUK: possibly derivative of kluka - a pole with a hook at the end of it for drawing water from a crane-type well, suspending a cookpot over a campfire, etc. or topo nick from Kluki or Klukowo.

Genealogy / Anyone from Berezka / Brzuska near the Ukrainian border ? [53]

SZAFRAN: This is the Polish word for saffron, an very priceyoreitnal spice first brought to Europe after the Crusades. As a surname it could have been given to a spice merchant or, alternatively, to an inhabitant of Szafranki (Saffronville).

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

WIKARYASZ: root-word wikary (vicar - priest who assists the rector or pastor of a parish). The Wikaryasz surname has been registered in Poland but no-one uses it at this time. There are a few people named Wkiarusz and Wikarski. Probably arose to identify the bastard son of a local priest. Men fo the cloth also had their human weaknesses and failings.

Language / -ski/-ska, -scy/ski, -wicz - Polish surnames help [185]

£OKUCEWICZ: possible soruce - archaic word łoktusza (borrowing from archaic German Lakentuch); a coarse canvas material, sail-cloth; hypothesis: someone got nicknamed £oktusz or £oktuc because he made or traded in such cloth, possibly distorted into £okut or £okuc. When he fathered a son - bingo! - £okucewicz (???)

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

KWAŚNIEWCZ: This is a surname of patronymic origin (the -wicz tells us that!). IT means son of Kwaśny (the sour guy). Was he called that because of his constant sour puss or maybe he hailed from Kwaśno or Kwaśniów (Sourville, Sourton)? The nickname probably emerged centuries before your grandparents were born and it is unlikely to be indciative of their occupations.

BANASZAK: patronymic from Banach, peasant form of the first name Benedykt, so it means Benny's boy.

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

Where the Auberzinskis of ethnic Polish nationality?

Genealogy / Polish Romani (gypsy) surnames [64]

WAJDA: traceable to one of 2 different sources: 1) Polish phonetic spelling of the German word Weide (meadow); 2) leader of the Walachian (Romanian) shepherds. You may be confusing Romani (Gipsies) with Romanians, becasue the similarity is coincidental.

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

PRAG£OWSKI: -owski names are geenrally topo nicks, so this would be a way of identifying someone from Pragłów or Pragłowo. Meaning of pragłow- root is obscure. (Sounds like pre-head or proto-head whatever that might mean?!)

ZES£AWSKI: topo form Zesławice, a Kraków district. No dot (ż) over the z, btu it amy have got inadvertently added over the generations, maybe during the partitions. Zesławice means the place settled by the Zesław boys. Both Zesławski and Żesławski exist in todays Poland.

Genealogy / IS SWAROVSKI POLISH? [19]

SWAROWSKI: possibly Polish spelling of topo nick from Czech locality of Svarov; Czech spelling Svarocsky

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

SECH: It might be of non-Polish (eg German or Yiddish) origin. If of ethnic Polish origin, it could be related to the past tense verb sechł (he was drying off) which is pronounced exactly like sech (the final ł is silent). Or perhaps it arose as a topo nick from the village of Sechna in Małopolska.

BERNAT: Czech form of the German first name Bernhard or Bernard; the more Polish equivalent is Biernat but Bernat is also used as a surname in Poland.

GEMBIŃSKI/GĘBIŃSKI: root-word gęba - vulgar term for mouth or face (mug, yap, snout). Probably topo nick from Gębiny

MARKOWICZ: patronymic nick = Marcson, Marcuson (Mark's son).

Language / -ski/-ska, -scy/ski, -wicz - Polish surnames help [185]

Would IVANOVA be Ivan's wife and IVANOVNA his daughter?
Polish does something like that with the surname: Man = Tomczak (Thomson), wife = Tomczakowa, daughter = Tomczakówna (the latter ending is not used that much anymore).

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

KUBECZKOWA: Kubeczkova would be the wife of Kubeczek (literally little mug or cup).
Kubeèek and Kubeèkova would be the Czech equivalents. Your Kubeczkova is a kind of hybrid spelling.

GA£GONEK: variant spelling of Gałganek (little rag, tatter) - perhaps a nick for a beggar or homeless soul wearing threadbare clothes or maybe a rag collector.

UNKA: probably the hypocoristic (endearing pet) form of Unisława, a rare first name used by on 12 ladies in all of Poland today. Although Unka is not used by anyone in today's Poland as a surname, there are 49 people named Unkiewicz - a patronymic nick meaning son of Unka.

JONKA: This surname is used by only 11 people in Poland today. It looks to be a short Polonised form of the Lithuanian-rooted surname Jonkaitis, dervied from Jonas (Lithuanian for John).

LESZKIEWICZ: patronymic nick = son of Leszek

ZALESKI: toponymic nick from Zalesie (Edgewood) or a topographic one for someone living on the other side of the forest

SZUMA: szuma, szumawa and szum all suggest the rustling of leaves, the sough of swaying tree-tops, murmur of rapidly flowing water or the swoosh of the sea. Could have origianated as a toponymic nick for someone from Szumanie or Szumowo.

SZUMSKI: patroynmic nick = son of Szuma.

ODYNIEC: the male of the wild boar; also a clan-name in Polish heraldry (there is an Odyniec coat of arms).

PRZYBY£A: Also Przybył and Przybyło come form the verb przybyć (to arrive). It was often a nick for a newcomer to the village or, as we might say today, the new guy on the block.

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

TABAJ: Possibly dervied from the Hebrew name Tobiasz. The a instead of an o in the first syllable may indicate a Belarussian pronunciation. Or a topo nick from some such locality as

Tabaszowa. The -aj is a common Polish ending, eg hultaj (good for nothing)

GÓRAL: highlander, dweller of a moutnain area; in Sielsia used to mean every non-Sielsian outsider, whether from the hills or Kashubia or Białystok...

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

Most likely. Don't forget that the Slavic names got written down by non-Slavs at Ellis Islannand other ports of entry. That probably attests to the anomaly of the Polish cz in a Czech name instead of the Czech è. To America's Anglo and Irish im migration officials Slavic names probably looked like an unintelliglible jumble of consonants.

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

I was only partly right, because I didn't think of Czech. The Czech ending for the masc. sing. adj. is indeed -ého, but the cz is Polish. In Czech it would read Folvarèného in the genitive and accusative case.

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

Did yoru grandfather actually sign his name Folwarczneho on a letter or document where his signatrue was requried or did you see this spelling within a text? It looks to be the genitive or accusative case phonetically transcribed from Ukrainian Cyrillic (Фолварчнего). The Polish ending would -ego. Actually the г is the Cyrillic letter g but in Ukrainian is pronouced like an h.

GANCARZ: probably variant form or garncarz (potter) - occupational nick.
JAROSZ: vegetarian; actually the jar root has numerous meanings: one has to do with spring (pszenica jara = spring wheat), newness, resilience (spryness) as in 'stary ale jary'; another is the word for ravine; could have also originated as a topo nick from a place incorporating the jar- root (eg Jaroszów, Jaroszyn).

SZYMIK: patronymic nick from Szymon (Simon), hence Simonson. Szymika looks tgo be an oblique (inflected case) - genitive or accusative.

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

You're in for quite a wait unlesss someone decides to change their surame to that, because no such name exists. But the names Polski, Polak and Polaczek do exist in today's Poland.

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

FOLWARCZNY: Indeed, this is the adjectival form of folwark which came from the German word Vorwerk (outwork - suggesting that the outbuildings were out of the way). It meant a grange, the estate of a gentleman farmer whose manor house was some distance away from the sheds, barns, granary, stables, etc. Folwarczny would have arisen as a nick to identify someone attached to a grange -- ploughman, stable boy, farm hand, coachman, servant, cook, etc.

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

BEREŚ: This is a hypocoristic (endearing pet) form derived from the first name Bernat (formed under Czech influence) or Biernat (the Polish equivalent), both of which are traceable to the German Bernhard or Bernard (orignally meaning strong as a bear); in soem cases it could have been a topo niccfrom such places as Beresie, Bereśś or Berest.

LUDERA: As well as Luder and Luter are variant forms once used to indicate a Lutheran in the period following the Reformation; possible topo alternative from Lutry or Lutrowskie.

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

KOZ£OWICZ: patronymic nick meaning son of Kozioł (someone nicknamed Billy Goat); the spellign you gave could be tranliterated Cyrillic or Jewish.

£ATA: patch
PESTA: multiple possible sources: pesta (agumentative for fruit pit or stone; normal form pestka); pest or pęst (archaic term for a flower bud); peste (Italian for plague); Pest (one of the two cities forming Budapest)

PODHAJSKI: Ukrainian influenced pronunciation of Podgajski (someone living at the edge of the grove); Podchajski is a misspelling
ANDRUSZKOW: probably of Russian origin derived from Andrei (Andrew); Ukrainian would be Андрушків (Andruszkiw). In Poland both the Andruszków and Andruszkow spelling is used.
LORKOWSKI: probably topo nick from Lorki in Masuria. Masuria was an area of Polish-Gemran interaction, so someone with the first name Lorenz (Polish: Wawrzynieec) may have been called Lorek and that eventually eovlved into a surname. When the Lorek kids grew up and built a few homesetads next to one another, we had the nucelus of the fututre hamlet of Lorki. Hard to prove, but it makes a good story, innit?

ŻUKOWSKI: base-word żuk (beetle); topo nick from Żukowo or Żuków (Beetleville). Zhukovsky would be the transliteraed Russian spelling, Zhukousky -- Belarussian and Zhukivsky -- Ukrainian.

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

KA-MIERSKI (note the accte accent over the ź, not a dot as in ż). It is also spelt Kazimeirski.
It may have originated as a patronymic (Casimir's son) or topopnymic nick (someone from Kaźmierz, Kaźmierzewo, Kazimierz, Kazimierówka, etc.)

Work / CPAs in Poland? [8]

In the US it is Certified Public Accountant. I was essentially comparing the US and Poland, not taking other countires into account. Does nursing in the UK require a bachelor's degree?

I understand that in Poland only a secondary education and a little extra training is requried to be a nurse.

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

GONTARZ: shingler - someone who makes or fits roofing shingles: Gontarski is an adjectival derivative meaning of, about, descended from the shingler, in otehr words a patronymic nick meaning the shingler's son.

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

KĘCKI: one of the toponymic nicks from Kęty (root-word kąt); hence Corners, Cornerville.
Variant from is Kącki.

Food / Traditional Polish Soups. [85]

Czernina is a true gourmet treat. No-one has ever made it like my late Babcia (God rest her soul) once did. There's only about 1-2 cups duck blood per big pot of soup. Some US-born Pol-Am kids woud call it chocolate soup with bullets (the latter being potato dumplings). It is choclatey in appearance with a rich, deep, winey, sweet-sour flavour and fruity undertones or (for those who use lots of prunes, dried apples, pears, raisins, etc.) overtones. Niebo w gębie (heaven to the palate)!

Life / Smoking vs. Grilling on Balconies / High Rises in Poland [66]

Apr 24, 10, 16:03 - Thread attached on merging:
Polish barbecuing

As the warm season approaches, will many Poles be engaged in grillowanie? Is this a class thing -- uban middle class mainly -- or does if crisscross Polish society? What are the favourite grilling items: chicken, steak, karczek, shashlik, fish, bangers, kaszanka, etc.?

I have seen people in Poland grilling on the balconeis or their high-rise apartment blocks. Do neighbours find that smoking up the place is a nuisance? Is there a law against it?

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

MAZURKIEWICZ: patronymic nikc = son of the Masurian

BACHUR: unruly, misbehaved child

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

WALL: As such this does not appear to be a name of Polish origin, although more than 300 people in Poland today use it. It could have originated as a short form of Wałach (Valachian= Rmanian shepherd) or such first names as Walenty and Walerian. The German word Wall means a rampart or embankment and as a loan-word it entered Polish as wał. Only 15 people sign themselves Wał.