Polish names without a nickname (or less frequently shortened)

Possibly I was working from memory and pieniąche does get some google hits. I collected a bunch of forms I heard once but can't put my fingers on it right now.


I think of it as the 'bro' form (except that young women use it in a similar way) kind of youthful exhuberance and irreverent attitudes, it seems to add a breezy connotation more than disrespect or coarseness (among young Polish people).

Yes, Giovanni -> Gianni (double "n"), Cataldo -> Aldo, Filippo -> Pippo, Antonio -> Toni / Nino, Luigi -> Gigi. There are plenty.


I'm not a big fan of them also my language, but nevertheless it's something people use only with very close friends and relatives. When I introduce myself to someone new I'd use my real name. If a Polish person in Italy introduces herself as Aga, or Kasia, or Kuba, everybody will be absolutely sure that those are their real names, and never connect them to Agnieszka, Katarzyna or Jakub. For example there is a pretty well-known Polish actress in Italy, Kasia Smutniak, I'm 100% that nobody knows which her real name is.


That's interesting, I was not aware that there is an augmentative form in Polish as well, even if I got some examples somewhere but I thought they were more like exceptions. Italian has a bunch of such suffix "modifiers", such as:

-ino : small, gatto -> gattino (kotek)
-one : big, gatto -> gattone (big cat)
-accio : ugly, gatto -> gattaccio (ugly dirty cat)
-etto : pretty, casa -> casetta (small pretty lovely house)
-uncolo : tiny, meaningless, uomo -> omuncolo (worthless man)
-uccio : similar to -etto, casa -> casuccia (small cozy house)

and few less common ones that people can perceive from the context even if they are not well defined or standardized.


Well, if I name him Piotr or Rafał, I guess they'll call him Piotrek or Rafałek maybe and not other random pet names (Piotruś, Piotruszek, Piotruszeczek, Piotrusiuczku) right? So I can be happy with those little variations of the name (the -ek ones I mean) which are not as disruptive as in other cases, as the mentioned Aga, Kasia or Kuba. Hope you get my point here.

Pippo, that's tremendous! I never knew Italian had all those modifying forms. I'm impressed. (Soy imponato?!) As you can see my Italian is non-existent, something I greatly regret but somehow I never had the opportunity to learn.

In Italian you'd say "Sono impressionato", "soy" is Spanish :) I think Italian is a beautiful, rich, fascinating language, which is easy to learn, and damn hard to master. I know for experience that Slavic speakers can pick it up very rapidly with excellent results, so you should give it a try, and once you speak Italian it's a short step to Spanish, like learning Czech once you know Polish I guess. I like Polish as well, even if sometimes its grammar is driving me crazy for it seems exactly planned to make it hard for foreigners to learn it, but that goes off-topics I guess.

Actually I studied Spnaish for one year at uni mayn years ago, hence the soy, so I would have to de-hispanicise any Italian I would learn.

Io ha studiato espagnol alla universitate un uno. I know that's probably wrong but it's understandable to an Italian isn't it, so I think I could get by in basic conversation.

Anyway, grazie!

Back to the topic

I assume you are talking about names that are not shortened by almost everybody. ( I'm just going though a list of names in my head and asking myself if adressing someone with Mr/Mrs Dimiutive sounds ok)

Monika, Marta, Agata, Aneta, Iga, Ida, Kamila, Aga, (People may assume it's short for Agata/Agnieszka), Dorota, Justyna,

Paweł, Marcin, Błażej, Mariusz, £ukasz, Jacek, Dawid, Mateusz,

Poles will come up with pet forms of most every name since the use of diminutives is an immanent feature of the Polish language, hence:

Moniczka, Martunia, Agatka, Igunia (rare but not impossible), Idźka, Kamilka, Justysia, Pawełek, Marcinek, Błażejek, Mariuszek, Maniek, £ukaszek, Jacuś, Dawidek, Mateuszek.

Dorota has a number of variants: Dorotka, Dorcia, Dosia and even Doda (although the latter is a contrived stage name).
Unlike English where short pet forms prevaill (Bill < William, Meg < Margaret), Polish endearing names often add an exrtra syllable, eg Mareczek < Marek.

Dorota - Dodzia
Marta - Martusia, Tusia, Tunia
Maria - Marysia, Mańka, Mańcia Maniusia
Wacław

Wacek, Wacuś, Wacunio...

I suspect Gniewomir can be shortened to something or other, but what about Ildefons and Seweryn?

Ildek, Ildzio, Fonsik. I had a cousin named Seweryn who was called Sewek, Sewuś and Sewcio.

Our Jacek became known as Jack ... and then "Polish Jack" (because around where we live we have so many Jacks) :)

That's only because of the simialr spelling. Actually, the true English equivalent of Jacek is Hyacinth!

To a point, Po3, and that point is largely historical since Hyacinth has not been used for men for a very long time. It does have a sort of High Victorian ring to it.

I have an acquaintance called Kacper. I always call him Kacper. What is the diminutive of that?

Kacperek. BTW is Hyacinth a women's name in English as per Mrs Bucket aka Bouquet of "Keeping up Appearances" fame? In Polish Hilary is a man's name, in fact a Polish spectacle-wipe manufacturer has labeleld his product Hilary. Know why?

That's what I thought.

Hyacinth does exist as a woman's name, but I've never met one. Incidentally Hilary can be a man's name in England too. Beverly can be both.

Wasn't there a Tuwim poem about a Hilary who had glasses but couldn't find them?

I know a Mira and a Ksawery - maybe Mirka (though I know a Miroslawa who is called that) but what about Ksawery?

Ksawerek - used also on a soap I watch with the Mrs. Bear in mind that Polish is a variant-prone language easy to coin new diminutives in. There are countless unique-case scenarios in the nicknaming field, at times limited to a single family or perhaps even a single household within that family. Ksawery itself is quite rare in Poland but I can readily imagine such people also being endearingly referred to as Ksawuś, Ksawunio, etc.

Mira and Mirka as usually pet forms of Sławomira or Mirosława. Other possibilities are Sławcia, Sławka, Mirunia, Mireczka, Mircia...,

Apart from Tony Benn's son I've never encountered a male Hilary. I didn't know Beverly could be given to a boy. The only Beverley I've known is the pleasant market town north of Hull. I have less pleasant memories of its racetrack, though. Lost my shirt. Long journey home.

I like the name. There's also someone I know slightly called Kordian. I'm guessing Korduś? I also once met a Gniewomir, maybe Gniewek?

Are there any diminutives of Wiktor other than Wiktorek?

Polish has very few one-syllable names. Of the top of my head, Lech and Jan come to mind.


Hilary was my local MP for a short while. I never met him, but did meet his parents a few times prior to that. Beverly Nichols is the only male Beverly I can think of. He lived long enough to have seen Abigail's Party.The town A really nice place - I could easily live there. Good races too, providing you don't lose too much ;-)

Kordek, Kordeczek, Gniewek, Gnieweczek, Gniewuś, Leszek, Lesio, Lesiuniu, Janek, Janeczek, Jaś, Jasio, Jasiek, Jasieczek
Older forms include: Gniewko, Leszko, Janko, Jaśko

These I know. I'm more interested in one syllable names.


He'd go beserk if I called him that. Glad I'm not called Gniewomir....

Like all names, soon after their initial emergence centuries ago they became lexicalised, meaning that etymology was rarely considered and they were treated as "just another name".

Indeed, though that one nowadays just produces mirth.

[quote=PippoZ]-ino : small, gatto -> gattino = kotek. koteczek, kicia
-one : big, gatto -> gattone = kocisko , kocur (tomcat)
-accio : ugly, gatto -> gattaccio = kocisko
-etto : pretty, casa -> casetta (small pretty lovely house) = domek, domeczek
-uncolo : tiny, meaningless, uomo -> omuncolo = ludzik, człowieczek (little but not necessarily man)
-uccio : similar to -etto, casa -> casuccia = domek, domeczek

QUESION: can these be used interchanegably, eg gatuccio?

Szymon - Szymek, Szymonek at least and if you use it, be pleased it's not the English shortenings of Sim or worse, Si [to rhyme with eye]

Gniewomir could be Gniewcio :D

Yeah, we can come up with a diminutive for every name, I think.

And I found a Hiacynt in my family tree - got really confused but then I saw a record of him as Jacek as well.

A few given names were originally male-only given names and are now exclusively female-only, including Beverley and Hil(l)ary, which nowadays are never used as male given names (plus nowadays most female Beverleys are at least middle-aged, and nowadays most male Beverleys would be least elderly-aged). Another couple examples of originally male-only given names that are now exclusively female-only names are Joyce and Meredith (nowadays most female Joyces are also at least middle-aged, and nowadays most male Joyces would also be at least elderly-aged). I think a few years ago, an American celebrity even named her newborn son "Meredith" - and because of that, she and her son's father got major backlash from the public (most of those people didn't even know Meredith was originally a male-only given name)

There was the writer Evelyn Waugh, and his first wife, also called Evelyn Waugh.

Yup a few originally male-only given names ending-Lyn(n), the male ones most commonly ending single Letter N than double NN (I think Jocelyn also originally a male-only given name now turned exclusively female-only. Jocelyn as a female given name maybe just a tad less outdated than Beverley/Evelyn/Joyce as female given names. Nowadays most probably more female Jocelyns younger than middle-aged than female Beverleys/Evelyn/Joyces younger than middle-aged, regardless of spellings). But ending Letter E such as -Lyn(n)(e) ending is almost never a male given name I don't think

Did he worry about what people would say?

One thing that's weird for English speakers (in Poland and also Germany) is the male version of Irene (Ireneusz and Irenäus) because I've never heard of any equivalent in English

In Romanian they even have a male version of Katarzyna... Cătălin.... (the original(?) name is Greek Αἰκατερίνη and in some languages, maybe first French the r became an l)