Poles in America: How do you pronounce your Polish surname?

not in Poland :)

I'm sorry but what not in Poland?

Yet they claim to be Polish. Riiight.


Just don't claim that it's a Polish name if you pronounce it completely wrongly!

Sorry to contradict you, but Csonka is a Hungarian, not Polish, surname:

From Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Csonka

"One of six children, Csonka was born in Stow, Ohio. He was raised on a farm by his Hungarian family in Stow."

It may not be their fault.Their parents or grandparents or grand.... did not teach them how to pronaunce their name.And they don't know ĆĘ£ŃÓŚ-Ż sounds or letters .I am not a Pol Am but a Pole living in the US and when asked always pronounce my name just like I do in Poland.Interesting that when Americans have to read my name (like at the doctor's office or something) they usually ask afterwords if they had it right.I am telling them they where very close.(they have no chance since my name starts with CH and include ń sound).They do pretty good with SZ though.Personally I have no respect for those who have changed the spelling of their names.

Most of the Poles kept the original name.. But the stupid Americans had trouble pronouncing the names. I for one maintained my name but when I run into trouble with people that cant pronounce it, I drop one letter C, that makes it easier for them . I go from Krawczyk to Krawzyk. They have trouble with the CZYK thingy.

I have been reading so much on here and want to thank this active community for this accumulation of information. I notice there seem to be alot off differing feelings on American spellings (mutilations) of their Polish last names. It seems that the Pole who immigrated is taking the brunt of the blame for this. Although I am sure many did make this change to better fit in, I do not see much mention of how this was frequently imposed on many.

Often times when coming thru Ellis Island, those doing the processing would alter the last names of those coming through due to either their own biases or because of the inability of the immigrant to communicate the proper spelling.

This has always been my understanding anyway.

I abmit it is annoying when people say cow instead of kov. It's like, "no cows live in this house!" The only one who ever pronounced my last name properly was one grad student who went to boarding school in England and spent a lot of time in Europe and could speak several languages fluently.

It amuses me to see 'coworkers' in American English. I thought they were called cowboys.

thanks if you can help with these questions ;)

...i'm always impressed by the real, polish pronunciation of my last name, but have only heard it twice in my life.
i want to better understand and be able to repeat it correctly myself.
my father's father's name : kasprzycki.
is it correct that 'zy' = a "sj" sound ?
also i was told that the 'c' denotes knighthood. ..anyone know about this ?
..and for spelling the feminine version, would one still use 'c' with the 'a' ending: 'cka'??
my american pronunciation is: "kass-priss-key".
( eeek! ...i know..!)

aloha
####

that must make you feel like a total dumb ass when some stranger is telling you that you can't pronaunce your own surname

Correct pronunciaton is ***********. The rz has the sound of ż (like z in English azure), but after a p it takes on the sh sound.
Re nobility, yes and no. More well-born have surnames ending in -ski, -cki and -dzki than any other, but that does not automatically denote gentry status. Therre were two separate noble lines amongst the bearers of hte Kasprzycki surname, one of which belonged to the Noble Clan of Starykoń.

thanks so much for the responses. interesting and helpful information.
next time i will listen closely and become more familiar with my name .
aloha,
K

I am not sure if anyone in my family pronounces our last name correctly, it's Sciog - we have grown up with my polish grandfather pronouncing it SH-T-OO-K

Does anyone have any help for me?

I am also wondering if someone could help me figure out how to "write" my last name correctly in polish?

I pronounce how my Grandfather pronounced our name Hmyel our name is Chmiel. Alot of people pronounce our name, Shemeal, or Camille,,,, Our name Chmiel in Polish means Hops or pertaining to hops in making beer! I do tend to love a beer now and again or more often than then :)) Must be in the genes :)

Type your name and click "play" here: ivona.com/pl/

But before you do that you can choose from among 5 different pronunciations next to where it says "Polski, Jacek": choose instead "Polski, Agnieszka" as it the best.

Only one person named Sciog lives in Poland today: in Tarnów. There are many similar names, such as Ciog and Ciok. Over 2,000 Cioks live in Poland.

Sciog (or a similar name) was first recorded in Poland in the 15th century. It comes from the verb "ciokać" in old Polish or "cmokać" in modern Polish, which means to smack one's lips.


That's perfect pronunciation of your name. Interestingly, "h" and "ch" in modern Polish have exactly the same sound. In old Polish they were pronounced differently.

I think some of them Americanize the pronunciation on purpose to save the embarrassment. The Polish language does sound pretty funny for Americans.

well in this case they get it even worse because "Dźan-COW-skee" sounds ridiculous like fock for both: Polish and American

Ugh I am still softmouthing my future surname...least I have a year to get it right before the altar. I don't want him to have to Anglo-fy his name.

But I keep saying it bohemian style emphasizing a roll in the r. The brz kills me in many words. Haven't figured a good phonetic spelling to help train me.

Dobrzyński

Thank you Astoria!

When writing it, is Ścióg the correct way with our pronunciation?

My last name is Sicilian and I can tell you that it is not just Polish names that are butchered. Especially when coming from the native country to the US...my last name is Faniglula...which now, after years of being misspelled and mispronounced, makes almost no sense in the Italian language....Anyone wanna try it!? Haha

The English language sounds pretty funny for many Americans.

Wulkan


Fah-nee-LYOO-la (the capitalised syllable is stressed).
Just tell 'em the 'g' is silent or respell the name to Fanilyula. Doesn't look very nice but the Anglos will pronounce it better. Buona fortuna! - Powodzenia!

When I spell it phonetically for people I always spell it Fan-a-lou-la and I do tell everyone the g is silent. I love my last name and I don't even want to take my husbands name when I get married. I love that it attaches me to my father and brother. It's a tough one, especially growing up, but I love it!!

Probably. Ścióg is pronounced slightly differently than Sciog in Polish because "ś" has a different sound from "s" and "ó" is not "o". But this is basically the same name with two alternative spellings - Ścióg being more modern form. I just found out that there are 60 Ściógs in Poland, as opposed to 1 Sciog. And so it's more likely that your name was originally spelled (and pronounced) Ścióg.

Warszewski

Most 'Angle-Mangle' it not on purpose just out ignorance of Polish pronouciation.

Hi,
I live in Poland, Cracow but most of my family lives in Chicago. Our family name is Ścióg. It is really hard to pronounce it in english cause in English alphabet there no such sounds as ś end ó. :) but if You what to hear it try on google translator :)

Could someone please help spell the surname that sounds like "viza" in polish. Viza is my family surname but it was changed like many were. I would like to know how to spell a last name that that sounds like "viza".

My guess is something like "weesza". My mother once said the surname used to sound like "vee-ska".

Any help would be appreciated.
Thank you.

Viza? It can be Wiza in Poland - which means visa in Polish language (like US visa). But vee-ska is little different.

Related:

Arczynski--surname spelling


r-chee-n-s-key
chee as in cheese
n as in never
s as in snow