It is not possible to translate names into English or Polish!

very interesting!!jacek means hyacinth?this is a flower. why have you changed your name?

Yes. It surprised me when I found out. Apparently there was an early Christian martyr called Hyacinth. I suspect the flower is named after him.


I just fancied a change - It's the 4th name I've had over the years.

Even the dumbest Anglo can say MAR-cheen (marcin). You may have to repeat it very slowly several times but eventually it'll sink in..

Hello Bobik,

Give them some slack, :-) Part of the problem is that hundreds of names around the world have equivalents -- due to the fact that in many European Countries, and even in some middle eastern countries, many common names have Biblical roots. Marek =Mark, Jan =John, Piotr = Peter, Lukasz = Luke, Mateusz = Matthew, Marta = Martha, etc etc.

Another factor is that lots of surnames in English were originally names of the occupation, thus Cooper, Smith, Carpenter, Tanner, Baker, etc, etc, and likewise the son of a person = Johnson, Wilson, Anderson.

Also, it is very popular for Polish people with names like Marek, or Dariusz or Michaeł, to use the English Michael, or Mark, or Darek.

Just explain that many names don't have a meaning, and so you don't translate last names as a rule.

Then, there is the added complexity of letters and sounds in POlish that don't exist in English, so recorders at Ellis Island either wrote what the name sounded like, or would substitute an English letter that they thought was close, but actually had totally different sounds. £ in a first name like £ukasz clealy looks like L but as a lower case letter, ł easily gets confused or changed with english t.

Cudziło was transcribed incorrectly as Cudzillo, which sounds more like Spanish. The root of this was "Strange or foreign".

Just explain that some names translate and some don't. :-)

And of course each of these gas a direct Polish equivalent.

I've never seen those letters listed in any Polish alphabet I've ever seen...what exactly are they?

How about Wesley?Maybe not direct translation but this is how it's done in Illinois and Czesław is Chester here.

You need to understand the the difference between translation and Americanisation of the name

Wulkan is right on this one. Czesław is not the easiest name to pronounce and has probably been mangled so many times by non-Polish speaking Americans, it's easier to come up with an Americanized version. This isn't common here in the UK.

But for anyone who's interested, here's a link to Polish Christian names and their English equivalents:

en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix%3APolish_given_names

I totally agree. But maybe it's a courtesy of someone to offer the translation of their name. But since my name is Tyler, I can't. I always try to call people by their real, given name though.

My uncle's name actually translated to a girls name in English so he had to go with the closest English Male name possible and chose Walter. His parents put the English name on his application so he has no issues now in Canada. However with my mom they only translated her middle name as that is the name they always called her. They never translated her first name so it is still in Polish. She tried to translate it herself going by someone else who supposedly had the English version and her parents said it was the same name as hers. Years later the Passport office said it was not the right translation. Still, close enough so they finally allowed her to get her passport but had to keep her Polish name on it. Not the English translation. My mom told me not all names can be translated for a number of reasons. Not just different alphabet.

Simply because sometimes there isn't an English equivalent of a Polish name. Sometimes a name isn't actually Polish at all as you can read about in this nice little article on Polish names:

culture.pl/en/article/a-foreigners-guide-to-polish-names

That is cool! I am asking my mom now what my Uncle's name was in Poland before coming to Canada and changing it. I know that she was saying it would have translated to Wanda but they didn't put his as that for English because that is considered a girl's name and he was just a little boy and would have been made fun of.

It certainly wouldn't have been pronounced as that because in Polish the letter W is pronounced as a V. Curious to know what his original name was though.

But Wanda is used in Poland for women. It's a Polish name.

I didn't know that Kaprys. I have heard the name before but pronounced as it's spelt, with a W.
So is there a male version of Wanda then as AnielaMaria is taking about her Uncle?

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wanda

Wanda was a daughter of king Krak, the legendary founder of Kraków. It's pronounced /vanda/ in Polish and it was quite popular in the 20th century.

I don't know it's male equivalent.

Thanks for that link Kaprys, I always thought it was an American name, surprised to learn it is Polish. I don't know anyone with this name though, so maybe it's not as popular as it used to be.

There was a girl at my school called Wanda..:) I think she did have a Polish surname.

There also a fish called wanda, It starred basil and jamie curtis, never saw the fish tho.

Wanda is indeed a Polish name but of course it is pronounced quite differently in Polish.
Although the Polish spelling of Wanda is used in English I suspect the best English translation would be Wendy.

Hmmm. Koliński might come from koło - wheel/circle. How about Wheelinsky/Circlinsky???

Funny thread. I think we might have a nice party here.


Did you watch the film about the Fish Called Wanda?