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

NOŻEWIK: variant of Nożownik (knifer, cuthrtoat); nearly 100 Nożewniks in Poland, the largest concetration being in the Poznań area.

KARZCEWSKI: 95% or mroe of all Polish surnames ending in -owski or -ewski are of toponmyic origin. Karczewski probably had nothing to do with felling trees but only happened to live in Karczew or Karczewo.

WINIARSKA: adjectival form from winiarz (wine-maker), hence Winiarska (wine-maker's wife)

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

LANGKOWSKI: There is one female in Poland in the Gdańsk area named Langkowska. Name does not look indigenously Polidh (lang is German for long). There are more than 2,200 Langowskis whose toponymic soruce is probably the locality of Langowo.

BOREJKO: Possible root 'bor' (fight, struggle), still exists in the Russian word борба. Or possibly a toponymic nick from some place such as Borki, Boreczek, Boreczno, Borowe, etc. Another possibiltiy is a hypocoristic (pet) form of Borys. The -ko ending is Ruthenian.

STYMA: Archaic form of estyma (esteem, respect).

KO£ODZIEJ: Wheelwright, maker of wagon wheels. Piast the wheelwright is only a legend so it's not likely you could be related to him.

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

More than 200 people in today's truncated Poland share the Pączko surname. Ponczko ahs been recorded but no-one uses that spelling at present.
Etymology: pączek (flower bud -- the doughnut is a secondary meaning). It could have originated as a toponymic nick connected to such places as Pączkowo, Pączek or Pączew (Budville, Buddington).

It definitely is an "eastern" surname. All but about 50 of its current users live in the recovered territories to which Poles stranded to the east of Stalin's redrawn border were repatriated.

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

FILARECKI: from Filaret. a member of a secret university club to which Adam Mickiewicz belonged in Russian-occupied 19th-century Poland-Lithuania. The adjectival Filarecki could have arisen to describe a son of such a member. The name comes from the Greek filaretos (lover of virtue). About 120 users.

FUCHSOVEN: Properly Fuchsofen, literally fox stove in German or Yiddish. No-one in today’s Poland uses this surname at present.

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

Rather than the -nycz being the Ukrainian word for night, the n is part of the hryc- adjective whilst the -ycz is the patronymic ending. My guess is that someone was nicknamed Hrycko, Hrycok, or something like that through some association with buckwheat or because he lived in a village whose name incorporated included the Hryc- root.

No-one in today’s truncatedf Poland uses the Hryckanycz surname. The only surnames incorproating the syllable hryck- are: Hryckiewicz Hrycko Hryckowiak Hryckowian Hryckowiarz Hryckowion and Hrycków. Maybe double-check the spelling. Problems have been known to arise when trasnliterating Cyrillic into Latin script.

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

Hryckanycz looks to be a Ukrainian patronymic from the word for buckwheat (hryka), however no-one currently uses it in Poland.
Truchan is a Ukrainian first name also appearing as Truchon and Trufan. First names sometimes serve as surnames.
Dancz might possibly have been derivfed from a first name sach as Danisław, Daniel or Danisz. Both Dancz and Turchan are used in today's Poland.

As for your question, children with their mother's surname were either illegitmate (born out of wedlock) or were orphaned and retained their late dad's surname after their mum remarried. Such irregularities always occurred but not as frequently as at present.

Language / It is not possible to translate names into English or Polish! [52]

KOLlIŃSKI -toponymic nick from Kolin, a village in the Baltic coastal region.
NOTE: Perhaps as many as 90% of all Polish surnames ending in -ski are of toponymic origin, so the first thing to do is to trot out your atlas.

JASZCZAK: The archaic Polish word jaszcz once meant a wooden box, chest or other container for butter, powidła, curd cheese, etc. Someone who produced these could have

The preceding entry somehow got cut off...
Someone who produced the wooden food chests known as jaszcz could himself have been nicknamed Jaszcz, and when he fathered a son -- Jaszczak would have been the offspring's patronymic nick.

Jazscz is also a regional name for a small trash fish (no eating value) of the perch family known as a jazgarz in standard modern Polish.

Language / It is not possible to translate names into English or Polish! [52]

PAJDO: Mark Slice? (as in pajda chleba)

PASKOWICZ: Well, in Yiddish the -witz is a patrnymic indicator just as -wicz is in Polish and -вич in Russian etc. The root pask- must therefore be deciphred. Could a leatherworker been called Pasek (belt) and his son was referred to as Paskowitz? Or maybe it was actually Pasch- (Jewish Pejsach, Polish Pascha)?

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

If it was spelled Wełecki (with the slashed 'ł'), then it probably originated as a toponymic nick for someone from Wełecz in the Świętokrzyskie Mountnain region or perhaps Wełcza in Małopolska. Wełecka is the feminine form used by the womenfolk.

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

CHMURYCZ: Chmura is the Polish word for cloud. When someone surnamed or nicknamed chmura fatehred a son, local villagers apparently added the now archaic patronymic -ycz ending typical of the eastern borderlands of the old Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. English equivalent: Cloudson.

BARAŃSKI: root word is baran (ram, male sheep). Could have originated as a patronymic nick for the son of someone nicknamed Baran or a toponymic one for someone from such localities as Baran, Baraniec, Baranów, Baranowo, Baranowice, etc. (Eng. Ramville, Ramton).

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

Names ending in -ała quite often are concentrated in Poland's southland but not necessarily in the Tatra Mountain region.
The largest concentrations of Poland's 93 Gembałas are encountered in Śląsk in and around Częstochowa (48) and Katowice (27). Only 3 live in the mountainous Nowy Sącz area and a mere 2 make their home in the also hilly neighbouring Bielsko-Biała area. 102 spell their name the original way Gębała, and their ancestral nest is SE Poland's Lublin region (81).

Other -a ending suranmes include: Biga 143 of which Tarnów (90); Przytuła more than 2,500 of which voer 500 in SE Poland's Zamość area.

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

Sołdyga is rather enigmatic. In general the -dyga ending is a pejorative one to cite only dziadyga (clumsy, flea-bitten old f*art) and bałdyga (crooked, gnarled stick or a person who fits that description). Sołgdyga might have been a negative to describe someone from the village of Sołdany in northern Poland. The only other word in Polish starting in sołd- is sołdat (from Russian, pejorative for soldier). But having a choice the toponymic Sołdany option seems more plausible.

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

KRASZEWSKI - toponymic nick from one of several localities in Poland named Kraszew or Kraszewo (Beautyville).

ODMINOWSKI - no such name in today's Poland. Could it have been Odmianowski. Possibly a nick identifying an odmieniec (oddball, someone who sticks otu like sore thumb).

Or from a locality called Odmianów or Odmianowo.

Food / "Browar Jabłonowo" beer, A Christmas word of warning [18]

Last year in Poland I ran across a beer called Donner (brewed by Poland's VanPur brewery) that was quite inexpensive (1.39zł for 1/2 a litre) that was quite accceptable when well chilled. It was only 4% ABW but refreshing on a hot summer day. That's roughly the same strength of many of America's so-called "lite beers". Incidentally, most of my American fellow-compatriots have been brainwashed into thinking "lite beer" is only "less filling", but are shocked when they learn it is also roughly 1% weaker than the ordinary brew.

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

Krysia -- No-one surnamed Kurwa in Poland at present, as far as I can determine, but there is 1 person surnamed Kurwacz, 1 Kurwan and 1 Kurwat.
There are a number of people named Fiut, however, and 58 that go by Sral.

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

SZYPKOWSKI: Possibly from szyp (archaic for arrow; in modern Polish - strzała).
Ending -owski suggests a toponymic nick, so Szypkowski might have originated to identify the bloke from Arrowville.
There are 147 Szypkowskis in Poland and 10 people srunamed Szypko.

RAJEWSKI: basic root raj (paradise); like -owski, the -ewski ending is also mainly toponymic, hence the guy from Rajewo (Paradiseville).

Genealogy / Zientara Surname [12]

Ziętara and Zientara surnames are traceable to zięć (son-in-law). Polish has a proclivity for variants so others of simialr derivation inlcude ziętaszek, zięciaszek, zięciak, ziętek, ziątek, zięciulo, etc.

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

Redko – hard to say where this surname came from, but the fact is that in Russian редко
(Polish trasliteration: redko) is an adverb meaning seldom or rarely (in Polish – rzadko).
There is also the toponymic option – the Pomeranian locality of Redkowice.

Genealogy / Odette Timmons looking for father history, Setnik [4]

The root of Setnik is sto (one hundred) and setnik is the Polish translation of the Roman centurion. It means someone in command or chagre of 100 people.

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

Mocarski - either toponymic nick from Mocarze or a patronymic one from mocarz (the village strongman)

Budfuloski - couldn't find anythign even close. Budfuloski is already quadrisyllabic. How long was the name from which it was shortened?

Pazder - probably derived from pazdur, regional form of pazur (claw). Possibly a nick for some nasty soul who clawed his way through life. Or a toponmyic nick from Pazdury.

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

Uchmanowicz - patronymic nick from Uchman, a name found largely in Ukraine, possibly of Turkish or Arabic origin. No coat of arms goes with Uchmanowicz. The closest is Uchański

Laks - probably originally Lachs (German or Yiddish = salmon)

Kurowski - toponmyic nick from Kurów or Kurowo (Cockville). The locality is now known as Rywałd and is in the Kashubian coastal area. WHen yoru ancestors lived there it was under German control and known as Riewald.

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

Brzegowski - toponymic nick from Brzeg or Brzegi (bank or shore in sing. and pl.- loclaities weould be Bankton or Shoreville in English.

Rywanowocz is impossible in Polish. Rywanowicz is more plausible but no-one uses that name at present. It would mean Rywan's son.

The cvit~cvet root in other Slavonic languages is the Polish equivalent of Kwiat.

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

No-one in Poland currently uses either the Miliorański or Meliorański surname.

Genealogy / Want to find a person [770]

I can't help you in the field of genealogy or family history, but the Jurkowski surname probably origanated as a toponymic nick from such localities as Jurków or Jurkowo (rough translation: Georgetown, Georgieville, ec.).

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

The archaic Polish word gonia once meant a woman of ill-repute, the village (pardon my French) wh*re.
But not all is lost. As an alternative form of gunia it also meant a horse-blanket woven from thick wool.


Komorowski is a name of multiple possible origins. In Russia there may be several localtieis called Коморово (Komorowo) from which the toponymic nick Коморовский (Komorowskij) would have been derived. However, the dozens of Polish localities called Komorów and Komorowo makes Poland the most likely source of Komorowski.

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

Basic root dudy (goatskin bagpipes used in the Carpathian Mts) - Dudziński probably toponmyic nick meaning the bloke from Dudzin or Duziny (Piperton).

Genealogy / Pieklo, Lutski, Lucki, Reyman, Tyniec - Trying to locate relatives [3]

£ucki - toponymic nick from the town of £uck (now in Ukraine

Piekło - hell

Reyman - also spelt Rejman and Reimann (originaly from German toponymic nick Reimann (Rhein + Mann) someone from the banks of the River Rhine (German: Rhein) or Rhineland.

Tyniec - from archaic tyn (hedge, enclosure); also a monastic town in soutehrn Poland.

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

The only names anywhere close used in today's Poland are:
Nasterowicz Nasterowski Nasterski
Noster Nosterowicz Nastorowski
Due to widespread illiteracy at one time plus defective manual recopying by semi-litereate priests, village scribes or foreign occupiers, all kind of weird things have happened to surnames over the generations. The meaning and derivation of the above are uncertain.

Noster (as in Pater Noster) may belong to a small group of surames derived from Latin prayers; they include Meus, Dominus and Sekuła (from soecula - Latin for centuries found in the prayer Per omnia soecula soeculoram - Na wieki wieków...). Nosterowicz would be Noster's son.

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

The form of Prysunka is definitely Ukrainian. In Polish it would be Przysunka, from the verb przysunąć (to bring closer, move up, approach).
There are only 2 people in Poland named Prysunka, both in the Elbląg area (recovered territories), but not a single Przysunka.