Astoria
4 Jan 2014
Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4501]
It's not implausible, but I have no knowledge how heralds were nicknamed 500 or 700 years ago. Equally possible is that your ancestor was an owner of a bunch of noisy dogs in the 12th century and his neighbours called him szczekot. It's also possible your ancestor was from the city of Szczekociny "Barktown." One thing we know for sure - that the root-word szczekać was popular in Poland for generating nicknames and later names, as currently there are two dozen names with the same etymology: Szczek, Szczeka, Szczekala, Szczekalik, Szczekalski, Szczekała, Szczekało, Szczekan, Szczekarewicz, Szczekla, Szczeklik, Szczekna (since 1402), Szczekocin (since 1215), Szczekociński, Szczekocki (since 1362), etc.
It's not implausible, but I have no knowledge how heralds were nicknamed 500 or 700 years ago. Equally possible is that your ancestor was an owner of a bunch of noisy dogs in the 12th century and his neighbours called him szczekot. It's also possible your ancestor was from the city of Szczekociny "Barktown." One thing we know for sure - that the root-word szczekać was popular in Poland for generating nicknames and later names, as currently there are two dozen names with the same etymology: Szczek, Szczeka, Szczekala, Szczekalik, Szczekalski, Szczekała, Szczekało, Szczekan, Szczekarewicz, Szczekla, Szczeklik, Szczekna (since 1402), Szczekocin (since 1215), Szczekociński, Szczekocki (since 1362), etc.