Genealogy / Looking for descendents of Josef Samiec [4]

SAMIEC: male of the species, virile male (perhaps macho of yesteryear?!) or toponymic nick from Samary, Samice, Samocice, etc.

Genealogy / Clan Prus I here! [15]

PRUS I aka PÓ£TORA KRZYŻA: Prus (Prussian), also known as Półtora Krzyża (Cross-and-a-Half), depicting a white cross on a red shield with an extra half-bar protruding on the right, was said to have originated when three pagan Prussian warriors converted to Christianity and were awarded the coat of arms by the Polish king. There are other Prus crests numbered II and III which differ from Prus I.

PRUS II: During the reign of King Casimir the Renewer (1034-1958), his brave commander using the Prus I coat of arms successfully defeated the self-styled Prince Masław (Miecław) who had allied himself with the pagan Pomeranians and Jadvingians to attack the Polish kingdom. As his reward, the commander married Masław’s daughter and added the latter’s twin-scythe or twin-ploughshare emblem to his own Cross-and-a-Half coat of arms which became known as Prus II.

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

I'm unfamiliar with the belt-buckle meaning of szuflik. Maybe it's a regionalism. A szuflak is a male elk or deer, and a szuflica is a river and canal-dredging machine. Those are the closest words I could find. A szaflik is a wooden washing-up basin or a mason's trough for carrying mortar in.

CORRECTION: Mea maxima culpa - I misread Szlufik as Szuflik and obviously could find no connection. Szlufa was once an alternative form of szlifa (epaulette); another meaning of szlufa or ślufa was a metal tag (shoelace tip) or point protector of a walking stick, scabbard, etc. It was also a loop in a cable used in mining as well as modelling clay. The Szlufik nickname might have originally identified someone who worked with such items details or was otherwise associated with them.

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

WO£OŚ: It is rare also in Poland, used by only 26 people. Like Wołoch and Wołosz it means a Valachian -- a Romanian shepherd from the opposite side of the Carpathians.

Language / twoj wasz [12]

Well, that sure ain't the kind of English Obama uses!

Language / twoj wasz [12]

Up north uneducated Americans say 'youse'.

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

BAMBYNEK: There are some 250 people in Poland (mostly in Śląsk) using the Bambynek surname. I'm wondering if it wasn't possibly connected to Bamber, the term applied in the Wielkopolska region tp Polonised Germans. The diminutive ending may have served a patronymic function so it would have meant 'son of the Polonised German'.

Yes, the overwhelming majority of Bambyneks hail from the Częstochowa area and the Katowice area to the sotuh of it.

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

SUMSKI: sum = sheatfish; probably toponmyic nick from Sumowo, Sumówko or Sumki

WALCZAK: patroynmic nick (son of Walenty or Walerian)

Genealogy / Anton and Ottolie (Anna) Skierka [9]

SKIERKA: spark; probably toponymic nick from Skierki or Skierkowizna (Sparks, Sparkland).

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

WICH£ACZ: The root of this surname is to nowe archaic Polish verb wichłać (to entangle, confuse, involve). In mdoern Polish it is spelt wikłać.

The -acz ending is occupational or pertains to someone doing something or known for something, hence it indeed could have arisen to identify a schemer, swindler, crooks or some such con artist. But it might have also emerged as a toponymic nick from Wichowo, Wichorze, Wichowicze, etc. with the -łacz ending thrown in for no special reason. The nicknamers of yesteryear were mostly illiterate peasants with no knowledge of grammar, spelling or etymology. They blurted out whatever came to mind and sometimes (if it was regarded as clever or catchy) it stuck.


On the basis of that information (Patronym), Neitzke would be the equivalent of Nicholson.

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

DANOWSKI - toponymic nick from Danowo (several such places in Poland), probably from Daniel and roughly translatable as Danville, Danton, Danbury, etc.

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


NEITZKE: I believe someone has already indicated that Neitzke was probably derived from Nikolaus (German for Nicholas). So it would be something like English Nicky or Polish Mikuś. Naitzke is pronounced in German exactly like Neitzke. As a result of widespread illiteracy, Germans also had spelling problems way back when.


RADEK: Radek is the pet form for the first name Radosław. There is a group of Polish surnames identical to first names and including: Wiktor, Augustyn, Fryderyk, Zygmunt. It is said they often evolved into patronymics if only a single person in a given hamlet bore such a name. So the original Wiktor’s children would have been identified as Adam Wiktor, Jan Wiktor, Maria Wiktorówna, etc.

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

Indeed, Myślin and Mylina are the prime sources, but Myślinów cannot be ruled out. If linguists had been coining nickanmes centuries ago then from Myślinów you could get only Myślinowski. But most nicknamers were illiterate peasants with no knowledge of grammar, spelling or etymology. Always bear in mind that 90% of the time a -ski ending indicates toponymic origin, so always first head for the atlas, as you have done.

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

GADZALIŃSKI: probably a variant form of Gadaliński, toponymic nick from Gadalin (in once neighbouring Romania)

POTOCKI: toponymic nick from potok (strream, brook) - numerous localities in Poland called Potok or Potoki

TOMCZEWSKI: toponymic nick from Tomczew or Tomczewo (Tomsville, Tomton)

KUCZAJ: possibly from verb kuczyć (to tease, goad, annoy), the noun kucza (hut, tent) or or toponym from Kuczbork

Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]

Polish also has its own das Mädchen -- dziewczę (neuter for maiden).

Language / NAMES POLES GIVE THEIR DOGS [76]

One Polish bitch name not ending in -a is Lulu.

Genealogy / Polish soil - who wants to buy? Does it have any sentimental value? [11]

Dunno if this is practised elsewhere in Diaspora, but in the USA some Polish-born Polonians keep a handful of Polish soil on hand to be sprinkled on their coffins at the graveside funeral ceremony. They are therefore symbolcially laid to rest in the soil from whence they sprang.

The place to advertise this (and other goods and services of Pol-Am interest) would be the largest-circulation All-English-language Polish-themed newspaper published in the US:
Polish-American Journal (based just outside Buffalo, NY)
info@ polamjournal.coml

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

BONDYRA: This is a Ukrainian name but it was originally a borrowing from the German word Büttner (cooper, wooden tub & barrel-maker). That's also where Poles got the word bednarz.

Love / Looking for a Polish love song [78]

'Miłość ci wszystko wybaczy...' was is a moving pre-WW2 song about love that forgives everything. It was featrued in a 1970s ior '80s film about cabaret crooner Ordonka who travlled with Gen. Anders army through the middle East.

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

MADURSKI: origin uncertain; possibly a unique-case patornymic nick -- Madur -- from Amadeusz (better-known versions include: Maduś, Madziuś, Madek, Madzio, etc.). Or a toponymic nik. There are localiteis called Madar in neighbouring Ukraine and Slovakia. That should have produced Madarski, not Madurski, but with surnames (generations of recopying and possibly miscopying?) one never knows for sure!

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

Numerous surnames including the -polski (dervied from pole /field/) component including Wielkopolski, Wielopolski, Księżopolski, Długopolski, etc. Probably all are of toponymic orign.
Dłjugopolski comes from the spa/health resrot of Długopole-Zdrój (in German: Bad Langenau) in Lower Sielsia's Kłodzkio area.
There are some 480 Długopolskis in Poland, morer than 300 in the Nowy Sącz area.

Life / POLISH DANCING (how to to this holding hands and such?) [11]

Speaking of dance styles, there's this new teenage dance craze. It's called the Mess. You stand stilll and just your bowels move!!!

Genealogy / Bies ancestry [10]

BIES: devil, demon, evil spirit in Polish and other Slavonic tongues (cf. Dostoevsky's novel 'Biesy' - translated into English as 'The Possessed'). Used by some 540 people in today's Poland, around 300 of whom live in the mountainous Bielsko-Biała area of south Poland along the Czech and Slovak border.

It could have been a Jewish name, since most Slavonic names have been used by Jews at some stage.
How could it have become a surname? Imagine a big burly raven-haired Jewish cartwright or blacksmith with black glowing eyes
whom someone had met in the forest and was scared sh*tless (excusez mon français!) ‘I thought I’d met the devil himself,’ the hapless soul told a neighbour. Someone who overheard told another villager: ‘Moshek called blacksmith Shmul “a devil”.’ Someone else heard it, repeated it, it caught on and soon became the common way of describing Shmul.

That of course is only a hypothetical scenario, but the fact remains that nearly all Polish (and not only Polish) surnames started out as local nicknames: Jan Bednarczyk (the barrel-maker's son John), Antek Nosal (big-nosed Tony /Soprano?!/), Jędrek Brzeziński (Andy from Birchville), etc., etc.

GWIZDA£A: One of a small group of Polish surnames formed from the past tense singular of verbs which includes Biegała (literally: she was running), Świtało (day was breaking), Przybył (he has arrived, ie a newcomer). Stach Gwizdała (from gwizdać=to whistle) would probably best translate into English as Stan the whistler.

Genealogy / Neugebauer surname in Poland / Nestor, Zurawel, Worobec, Atamanczuk in Galicia Poland [27]

The fact is that in most traditional tight-knit communities where everyone knew everyone else and everything about him an outsider moving in was viewed with both curiosity and suspicion. Naturally, after a few generations the initial odium subsided, and Nowak, Novak, Neumann or Newman became simply a surname with no special connotation.

As for Jewish names, most any German or Slavonic name coudl have been used by Jews, but certain ones were their favourites.
See also: ancestry.com/facts/Neubauer-name-meaning.ashx

Neugebauer: German and Jewish (Ashkenazic) variant of Neubauer.
German: epithet for a settler who was new to an area, from Middle High German niu(we) 'new' + (ge)bure 'settler', 'resident', 'peasant' (see Bauer).

Jewish: either an adoption of the German surname (Jews were not usually agricultural workers at the time when surnames were acquired) or an artificial creation of a name from the German vocabulary word without any relationship to the actual occupation of the first Jewish bearer.

Food / Fermented Oatmeal Soup from Poland - Recipe? [67]

KISIELICA AND KISIA£KA are eastern versions of ŻUR

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

GMYTRASIEWICZ: originated as patronymic nick; variant form of Dmytrasiewicz (son of Dmytri).

Genealogy / Neugebauer surname in Poland / Nestor, Zurawel, Worobec, Atamanczuk in Galicia Poland [27]

NEUGEBAUER: German or Yiddish (Askhenazy) name for a (largely unwelcome) new settler, newcomer or outsider.

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

TRAWIŃSKI (Polish spelling): I would guess that the root is trawa (grass, lawn), but the
-ski ending 90% of the time indicates a toponmyic nick. So it probably originated to identify someone from Trawy or Trawniki.


A taran is a battering-ram.


Wójciak and Wójcik = hamlet headman, village mayor.


BURCEWICZ: possibly from the verb burcować (borrowed from Czech burcovati) to wake someone by shaking him out of his sleep. The son of someone nicknamed Burcek or similar

(-wicz is always a patronymic ending) could have been dubbed Burcewicz..
Or, alternatively, perhaps someone was nicknamed burcak (from German Brotsack) because he always seen carrying a bread sack or food bag. His son might also have ended up being called Burcewicz. There is also a locality in Poland called Burzec (pochodzi z Burca)which might have generated the Burcek or Burcak nickname.....etc, etc. But these are all simply hypotheses.

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

MUCHORSKI: toponymic nick for someone from Mucharz (pronounced the SIlesian way Muchorz)

JUCEWICZ: possibly metonymic nick "son of Juta" (variant of Judyta)

WOYCIAK/WOJCIAK: "son of the wójt" (village mayor)

KARWOWSKI: toponymic nick for someone from Karwów or Karwowo (Bullton); karw is Old Polish for bull, and karwa was the cow.

LEWANDOWSKI: toponymic nick from Lewandów, a section of the Warsaw suburb of Białołęka, or Lewandowsczyzna in the Lublin region. Etymology: lewanda - archaic term for lawenda (lavender).


Karalus: possibly derived from the Lithuanian word for king karalius; or a form of Karolus/Carolus (Latin for Charles).