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.
her maiden name was Taran.
A taran is a battering-ram.
What does the surname Wojcik mean?
Wójciak and Wójcik = hamlet headman, village mayor.
the name Burcewicz
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.