-ski/-ska, -scy/ski, -wicz - Polish surnames help

"stsi"? Or could that be a form of "ski" or a Polonized form of the Italian "schi", which could come form "ski" in the first place?

Surnames ending in "owicz" are typically Polish and Catholic. It was the advent of the Josefinian Laws in the mid 1800's that required Jews living amongst gentiles in Eastern Europe to adopt a Germanized Surname. "Owitz" was the German spelling and thus most Jews were indeed required to adopt this Germanized Spelling Variant. Of course there are always exceptions and some were able to retain their original spellings of "owicz" if they had limited contact with the enforcers of these laws (ie. Tax Collectors, Federal or County Officials and Immigration Inspectors).

I did read somewhere that "Czyk" is typically Polish, "Owicz" typically Yiddish.

I am searching for any information on the surname Matykiewicz. My father-in-law said the name was polish but he never told my husband any more about his ancestors. It is possible he did not know. We don't know and cannot ask him now. What does the name mean? Where should I look for more information, which province, etc?

I could be wrong, though it looks to be an equivalent of "ben Mattityahu" (in others, the patronymic for "Matthew").

it is a Belarussian or Ukrainian surname originally and a patronymic one - my guess is however Matyka is not a given name but a nickname (Matyka = Hoe)

there is however a possibility (but i think not very probable) that Matyka is a corrupted form of a given name Matthew (Matyj)

there is a new excellent thread on Polish and Eastern European surname suffixes by our long time user Paulina - read here https://polishforums.com/language/ethnic-backround-suffixes-surnames-72736/

Thank you. This has been helpful. Still need a voivodeship or province to start looking for more information. But this is quite enlightening. Thank you

Try JewishGen. e.g.,

Hello!
I was wondering if anyone could help me identify the following names.

Żółkiewicz
Maksymczuk
Palamer
Baran
Sawilak
Poprel

I would greatly appreciate any and all help!

Mostly just interested in Żółkiewicz.

Jstoz.
Your story sounds so similar to mine,
I am researching (sieniszkiewicz) my late Grandfathers name.
As he died when I was quite young I knew nothing about were he came from, but by going through shipping records,i found a photo of him.

His mothers name was Stanislawa and fathers name was Josef,
could this be a relation to you?

***Jstoz

***Gman121

Feel free to contact me too, as we all might have links to this family tree.

My name is Quustyn and my mother Sharon was the eldest daughter of Kazimierz Sieniszkiewicz who is your brother.
I have a family tree album with all these information you state, which you have might even wrote as your past was 2 years ago.
Feel free to get in touch with myself.

DO NOT spam please.

My family name is Jurewicz, and we came from Lublin, Poland. We are a very Catholic family, but there were rumors of some Jewish ancestry. Wow! Thanks to you all for your input.

maiden name Habrylewicz ......meaning ??

Habrylewicz means "son of Gabriel".

My surname is sosinowicz, I'm curious to find out more about my roots and why when my dad came to the uk after the war he was called sosinovich

@JustysiaS
"...wicz" is probably from proto-indo european evolved to the German "...witz", the Russian/Ukrainian "...vitz", the Anglo-Saxon "...wick(and variants like "...wykke", etc. These all imply a notion like "house of..." and/or "clan of...". There are many more similar suffixes derived from this essentially unknown(in modern times)language responsible for many modern linguistic anomalies in a great number of "modern" European-type languages.

Joseph Abucewicz (eipi01@yahoo)

I'm not the only one whom cited that, then. :-) I still can't refind that article re "-owicz", though.

I am trying to find the history of my family names. It is proving to be very difficult. My grandmother's name was Trochimowicz. She had it changed to Trochim in the 1940's. I have always wondered if she had a Jewish background. I know her family was from Poland. Also, my grandfathers name was Rochnowski. Any idea on the meanings of these names?

Surname (phonetically like) : TROCHIMOWICZ
The Nowogrodek Province 1929 Polish Business Directory1
Grodno Gubernia 1912 Voters List2
The 1915 Vsia Vilna Database2
Rosenbaum Bank Passage Order Book Records 1
Dachau Concentration Camp Records1
Flossenbürg Prisoner Lists1
Natzweiler-Struthof
JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry - Canada - Ontario1
JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry - Israel1

[JRI Poland - 3 From Grodno Gubernia]

It's all right there!

moved from


With the help of Polish "patriots," a la Ziem most outlandish lie will be excepted as truth if repeated countless times by master manipulator Lyzko and readily confirmed by know all Ziem. Of course, you know less than nothing, about anything, especially country of your birth, so don't try to comment unless you ask Ziem first

To stir an sh*t, Lyzko throws the bone of contention in the form of perfectly Polish names, claiming their Jewish origins, just because ending with WICZ instead of SKI, They assume the name is Jewish. WICZ may indicate the name originated in eastern regions of Poland, but not necessarily. Not one Brylewicz in the whole Old Testament.

The majority of Jewish names in Europe were borrowed; of course, Ziem knows better, because he knows.

@Ironside
Urban is not a Jewish name. It's of Latin origin -name of some popes. Urban was Urbach or his father was. I don't know if it's typically Jewish surname either.

@Ziemowit
Why are Kwiecień or May considered Jewish as you stated? I read about Majewski -coming from the baptism of Frankists in May.
But do really all surnames deriving from months and days are for Jewish converts to Christianity? I read the same about Nowicki.
Now were converts converts from Judaism?
There's this author called Przechrzta. I wonder if it's his real name or if his ancestors were really converts.
As for names deriving from names of towns, they seem to be often used by Jews like Izrael Poznański. Bielski etc.

As for -wicz surnames it's obvious they come from Eastern territories. Some were used by ethnic Poles, some by Jews others by Muslim Tatars.

Ski and wicz not much different at all Janowski becomes Janowicz, with Belaru's influence. Son of Jan, or from Janow (village or town)
Both are indicating a possible connection to nobility

No.
Poles did it too.
Zamoyski, Ostrowski, Krakowski, Tarnowski, the list is endless...... this is not a Jewish thing.

@Miloslaw
The key word is 'often'. And we're not talking about szlachta like Zamoyski. Although sometimes Jews allegedly got noble surnames from the nobles who were their godparents at baptism.

It is commonly believed that "-sky" is a Jewish surname while "-ski" is not.
The correct spelling of this common surname suffix in Polish is "-ski", and Poles usually kept that spelling after immigration to America.
There are 14 to 15 million jews in the world yet only about 5% of them actually practice their faith.

According to JewFAQ, "-ский" is Jewish according to one of the website creator's friends from Moskwa. One of my relatives (though I am not sure how he was related) from Krynki, Podlaskie who became Russian Orthodox (I have no idea why) was a Чернецкий (I see his grave picture, too. A Teodor Czerniecki he was, I think.).

PS We're an ethnic group as well.

That is not completely correct.
Immigration to America caused some language difficuties and because many women spoke better English than their husbands, when they gave their names it was ska not ski or ka not ko.

Which is what was registered.

It depended on what the tickets and ship manifests read.

I've been trying to find information on my great grandfather, surname Janolewicz. trading above I see the "wick" = "son of". Can anyone help with the meaning of the rest and possible location? Thank you

Perhaps a variant of Janulewicz. Translates roughly as Johmson.