The first places among Polish female names are also occupied by Zuzanna, Julia, Maja, Zofia, Hanna, Aleksandra, Amelia. And the boys were often called - Kacper, Antoni, Filip, Jan, Szymon, Franciszek, Michał.
The Polish Ministry of Internal Affairs analyzed statistics from 2014, as well as the last 10 years in all voivodeships of the country. And they came to the conclusion that last decade little has changed. The only change concerned the name Lena: it became a leader, displacing the name Yulia in 2013. But Yakub has been a favorite among male names since 2004.
The popularity of names differs depending on the province. Thus, the most girls with the name Lena were born in 2014 in the voivodeships of Kuyavia-Pomerania, Lubusz, Lodz, Mazowieckie, Opole, Podkarpackie, Silesia, Świętokrzyski, Warmia-Masuria, and Wielkopolskie. And girls with the name Zuzanna are in the voivodeships of Lublin, Lesser Poland, and Pomerania. In Lower Silesia and West Pomeranian Voivodeship, parents most often named their daughters Hanna.
With boys the situation is more homogeneous: Yakub is in the lead almost everywhere. The only exception is the Mazowieckie Voivodeship, where Janow was registered the most in 2014.
But children were least often called by Old Polish names - such as Bogusława, Mirosława, Lubomir, Jurand.
Popular Polish surnames
To the very popular names include Nowak, Kowalski and Wiśniewski. Currently, 277 thousand Nowaks, 178 thousand Kowalskis, 139 thousand Wisniewskis are registered in Poland.
Also in the top ten most common Polish surnames are Wujcik, Kowalczyk, Kaminski, Lewandowski, Dąbrowski, Zielinski, Szymanski. (Wójcik, Kowalczyk, Kamiński, Lewandowski, Dąbrowski, Zieliński, Szymański).
In Poland it will now be possible to call children by foreign names
From March 1, 2015, children will be able to give names foreign origin. Previously, there was a regulation according to which all names had to be “as Polish as possible”: Jan, not John or Johann, Katarzyna, not Catherine, etc.
However, it will still be possible to give a child no more than two names. In addition, parents should choose names that are not offensive or degrading.
In this case, the final decision on whether the chosen name meets all the requirements is made by the civil registry officer.
Polish surnames have a long origin and history. Over a long period of time they acquired their own Polish characteristics. We must know the history of the origin of surnames, so as not to lose touch with our ancestors, and then pass on this knowledge to our children and grandchildren.
Polish surnames were formed in the same way as other Slavic and European peoples. But, of course, different nations there are some nuances and character traits origin and formation of surnames. Poland is no exception.
It has been known since ancient times that the plate word “familia” meant a community, a circle of close people, which even included vassals and slaves. According to historians, the surname was first formed in economically developed cities of Europe in the tenth and eleventh centuries. A surname means the name of an ancestor, so to speak, the founder of the entire family. Then it is passed down by inheritance, being added to the person’s name. In Poland, surnames began to be formed only in the fifteenth century. At first they were worn only by Polish nobles - the gentry.
How were the surnames of the gentry formed?
The formation of Polish surnames was influenced by the formation of the gentry, which at first was a military class. Basically, all gentry had equal rights, they differed from each other only in wealth, some had it higher, some had it lower.
In 1138, as soon as the statute of Boleslav Wrymouth came into force, there was no regular princely army in the country. And the landowners, the nobles, in case of war, had to form their own clan militia and give it to the king for command. The nobles who lived in the same area united into societies. They had their own individual clan name and also had their own coat of arms with the same name. This coat of arms belonged to everyone who was in this community, and its name was part of the surname of each nobleman. Everyone who was a member of the clan had the name of their coat of arms, for example “klejnotni”, “herbowni”, “współherbowni”. So it turned out that the name of one coat of arms was included in the surnames of many clans. After this, the gentry began to use such a concept as “coat of arms”.
It turned out that the full name of the nobleman included several components. This was his name, then his own surname (family name), then the name of the area and the name of the coat of arms. An example can be given, Jakub Lewandowki from Sobieniach of the Bojcza coat of arms.
Then, three centuries later, such noble names were shortened and consisted of three names. The natural personal name of the nobleman came first, followed by the name of the clan or the name of the coat of arms, and then the surname was written through a hyphen. For example, Pavel Allan-Orehowcki.
How surnames were formed among ordinary peoples
The Poles, who did not have much wealth, who were not educated and were not in the gentry class, began to bear surnames later than the aristocratic population. Only from the seventeenth century did surnames begin to appear among city residents, and then among villagers. Surnames among such peoples were formed based on a person’s personal name, nickname, his profession and the place where he lived. For example, the surname Kowalski meant that the person was most likely a blacksmith by profession. A person bearing the surname Wilenski meant that his homeland was a city called Vilna.
In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, pseudonyms were added to the main surname through a hyphen, as well as nicknames; since then, surnames have become almost the same as those of the gentry. An example is Jan Boy-Ż eleń ski(Ian Boy-Zeleński).
Nowadays, almost all Polish people have a surname consisting of one word. Although you can easily find double surnames.
What suffixes do Polish surnames have?
Most Polish surnames have the suffix – tsky/-sky, and also the suffix - evich/-ovich.
The first suffix is the most common, in Polish it looks like ski/-cki. In ancient times, only nobles had surnames with such suffixes. This ending symbolized the name of the property. Since surnames with such suffixes were considered socially prestigious, it turned out that these suffixes became popular among the lower classes. social strata society. As a result, this suffix came to be considered a predominantly Polish onomastic suffix. This fact can explain its great popularity among ethnic people, living in Poland. These are Belarusians, Jews, and also Ukrainians. It must be said that Belarusian, Jewish and Ukrainian surnames, as in Polish, the stress is placed on the penultimate syllable. This emphasis can also be seen in Russian surnames, for example, Vyazemsky.
Second suffix - evich/-ovich, in Polish form it looks like -owicz/-ewicz.It should be noted that the origin of this suffix is not Polish, but Belarusian-Ukrainian. The purely Polish form looks like -owic/ -ewic. Surnames with such a suffix were considered not as socially prestigious as the suffix discussed above.
But in Belarus and Ukraine, surnames with suffixes -ovich/-evich,worn by nobles. In 1569 after the Union of Lublin. All the privileges that the Polish nobility had were also extended to the Belarusian and Ukrainian feudal lords. Surname suffix -owicz/-ewicz, indicated the noble origin of a person, therefore the suffix -owic/-ewic simply disappeared. Also this suffix has lost its popularity as usual in Polish language pronounced the letter “s” “ts” instead of the letter “cz” “ch”. Comparing the suffix - owicz/-ewicz, with the suffix - owic/-ewic,the second significantly lost in popularity, for the reason that he was considered common and socially low. Last surname with the suffix –owic,was recorded in 1574, since it was in the sixteenth century that surnames with the suffix -owicz/-ewicz began to actively spread.
Different forms of surnames for males and females
Male and female surnames in Poland differ from each other in the suffix and also in the ending. The most common surnames in masculine, have the ending " -ski/-cki", and the feminine gender in such surnames has the ending " -ska/—cka" Also, the ending changes depending on whether the gender is masculine or feminine, in other models of surnames, for example, if the surname is an adjective. You can give an example of the surname “ Śmigły“(Smigly), in the masculine gender the ending for such a surname is “-y”, and in the feminine gender the ending changes to “-a”, that is, it will already be “ Śmigła».
If the surname is a noun, the ending remains the same, both in the feminine and masculine genders, these are surnames such as: Nowak (Nowak), Kowal (Kowal), Kowalczyk (Kowalski).
In everyday speech, surnames that are nouns are constructed in the feminine gender based on marriage. For example, if a woman is unmarried and has a masculine surname with a consonant ending, the ending “ -owna" or " -(i)anka.” For example, if the surname is Nowak, then in this case it will be Nowakowna (Novak - Nowakuvna). If a woman is married or is a widow, then such a surname is pronounced with the addition of the husband’s surname, which ends with a consonant or a vowel with the ending “ -owa" or " -ina/-yna" An example is the surname Nowakowa.
Married name
Poles traditionally, when a girl gets married, she takes her husband's surname. Another girl, if she wishes, can have a double surname, that is, replace part of her surname with part of her husband’s surname. This can be done not only by a woman, but also by a man. When children are born in such a marriage, they generally take their father’s surname.
Changing your surname in Poland
All Polish citizens have the right to change their last name if they wish. This happens in cases where the surname sounds dissonant, if it is not of Polish origin, also if the surname coincides with the name, there are also many other reasons because of which a person may decide to change his surname.
The most common surnames in Poland
According to statistics from ten years ago, the surname Nowak is most common in Poland. There are approximately two hundred thousand Poles in the country with this surname. The next most popular name is Kowalski; about one hundred and forty thousand Polish citizens bear this surname. About one hundred and ten thousand Poles bear the surname Wiśniewski (Wisniewski). Next in popular list there are such surnames: Wójcik (In y ytsik), Kowalczyk (Kowalchik), Kamiński (Kamiński), Lewandowski (Lewandowski), Zieliński (Zielinski), Szymański (Szymanski), Woźniak (Wozniak) and Dąbrowski (Dąbrowski).
Important points about pronunciation of Polish surnames in Russian
There are some peculiarities in the pronunciation of Polish surnames in Russian. For example, at the end of surnames, which are often supplemented with Russian forms.
There are special forms female surnames, (pani Kowalowa, panna Kowalowa). Officially, such surnames are pronounced with the addition of “pan”, for example, Panna Koval, and in literary form Mrs. Kovaleva.
Thus, surnames that are adjectives and have the endings " -ski/-cki/-dzki", or in the case of the feminine ending " -ska/-cka/-dzka", in Russian pronounced as " –skiy/-tskiy/-dskiy (-dzskiy)" or "- and I».
If the surname ends with “ -ński/-ńska", then officially it is pronounced with a soft sign, for example, Oginsky, and in colloquial speech, or in the literature without soft sign Oginsky.
Those surnames that end in “-” ów/-iów”, officially translated as “-uv/-yuv”, and in literature it is written as “-ov/-ev” or “-ev”; an example is the surname Kowalow and Kovalev.
Surnames that are adjectives, for example, such as " Śmigły - Śmigła”, officially pronounced briefly as “-ы/-и”, “-а/-я” and has no declension. And in literature there is an additional ending “-й/-й”, and in the feminine gender “-й/-й”.
There comes a period in the history of any country when the development of the economy and technical progress lead to such an increase in population that the number of people bearing the same names becomes huge, and there is a need to somehow distinguish between them. Poland was no exception here.
Behind long history countries its inhabitants added to own name and the name of the area where they were born, and the designation of belonging to various professions, the names of illustrious ancestors, often invented nicknames.
As a result, Polish surnames acquired their own very specific features. And the study of this topic was and remains especially important for everyone who wants to preserve the connecting threads with their relatives and pass on this connection to future generations, as well as to those who are not indifferent to the history of their fatherland.
A little history
The word “surname” itself came to us from Latin language. IN Ancient Rome it denoted those who dined at the same table: the family, relatives and servants of this house, and later the slaves belonging to this family. Later, in European cities, around the 10th-11th centuries, people began to use the name or nickname of an illustrious ancestor as a surname in order to attribute themselves to the family of this person. It was then passed down to the children as family glory.
Today, Polish archives contain names whose origins date back to approximately the 15th century. At that time, only the emerging class of noble nobility - the gentry - could possess it. Simple people then they made do with only the name received at baptism.
Initially, gentry called representatives of a special social class - the military. Later they received land ownership, had the same rights among themselves, and differed in greater or lesser material wealth. After the entry into force of the statute of Boleslav Wrymouth, which led to feudal fragmentation and the disappearance of the regular army as a concept, landowners-gentry had to provide the king with independently armed units for the duration of the war.
To preserve their possessions in this turbulent time, the gentry living in the neighborhood tried to unite into communities. Soon these communities acquired their own names and coats of arms. Each member of them had the name of the coat of arms added to their surname. Because these the names of coats of arms and communities were added to the surnames of various Polish families, the term “arms of arms” arose. And the full name of the nobleman received one more component and now included the following parts:
- name received at baptism;
- family surname;
- name of the area;
- coat of arms name.
It looked like this: Jakub Lewandowski from Sobienia, Boich coat of arms. After some time, the name of the area disappeared from the full name, and it began to look like this: Pavel Allan-Orekhovsky. That is, first the name, then the family name or the name of the coat of arms, and after a hyphen - Polish noble surname. List of the most common ones:
Among them there were many who compose the armorial of titled Russian families. Alphabetical list:
- Sobolevskys.
- Mstislavsky.
- Vishnevetsky.
- Czartorynski.
- Shuisky.
- Zaslavsky.
- Mosalskie.
Most of their bearers were the ancestors of Rurik, the first prince and founder of Ancient Rus'.
The appearance of surnames of the lower strata
Ordinary residents who did not have noble origins great fortune and education and those who were not part of the aristocratic class acquired their surnames closer to the 17th century, and city dwellers earlier than rural residents. Full name city dweller of that time included:
- given name;
- name of profession;
- place of residence.
Thus, the form Kowalski (Kowalski) tells that its bearer was a blacksmith, and Wileński (Wilenski) tells about his birth in the area of Vilna.
Closer to the 19th-20th centuries, people began to add nicknames to their surnames, adding them at the end with a hyphen - Jan Boy-Żeleński (Jan Boy-Zeleński). Although today most of them consist of only one word, such double surnames are not uncommon.
What suffixes are used to form
National Polish forms are formed using the suffixes -skiy/-tskiy (feminine form -skaya/-tskaya) and suffixes -owicz/-evich. The first suffix, which in Polish looks like -cki/-ski, originally belonged to the upper class and indicated the name of the possession, and to have a similar surname is to be a respected person. Later, the addition of this suffix became very common, and today it is the main ending of the surname of the average Pole.
The suffixes -owicz/-evich, in Polish are designated as -owicz/-ewicz, and come from Belarusian as well as Ukrainian dialects. The Polish native forms were -owic/-ewic and were considered to be of lower status. At the same time, the suffix -ovich/-evich at the end in Belarusian and Ukrainian languages indicated belonging to a noble family. Therefore, after the Union of Lublin and the extension of the privileges of the szlachta to the nobility from Belarus and Ukraine, the Polish form -owic/-ewic disappeared. Because it was considered common and indicated the low status of the bearer in society.
Since in Polish the letter cz (ch) is often pronounced as “s” or “ts”, such a surname merges with high-born nobles. Last time the surname with the suffix -owic was recorded in the second half of the 16th century, during the period when the form spread to -owicz/-ewicz.
Difference between male and female forms
The difference in the forms of surnames lies not only in suffixes, but also in endings. Surnames with the masculine combination -ski/-сki at the end and the feminine с -skа/-ckа at the end of words are widespread.
Besides, the ending changes with different genders. That is, it varies depending on whether the name is masculine or feminine. Or from the model of the unit, provided that it refers to an adjective. One example is Śmigły (Smigly), which in the masculine ending in “u”, and in the feminine ending in “a”, where it is read as Śmigła. The same thing is observed in Slovak surnames. If the designated linguistic unit is a noun, the end of the word does not change in both genders. For example, Kowalski.
In ordinary speech, surnames are nouns that are formed when the marital status of a woman or man changes. For example, an unmarried girl has a variant in the masculine gender with consonants at the end, adding to the ending in this case “owna” or “(i)anka”. The sample Novak, with her unmarried status, sounds like Novakuvna. In the status of married or for widows, half of the spouse is added to the wife’s name, which ends in a consonant or vowel - “owa” or “ina/уна”. Novakov's version is proof of this.
What changes happen when you get married?
When getting married, a girl, according to custom, changes maiden name. In Poland, there is an option to replace the ordinary form with a double form by adding part of the spouse’s surname to it. For example, the famous Polish physicist Maria Skladowska, after her marriage to the scientist Pierre Curie, took the surname Skladowska-Curie. This replacement is also possible for a man. However When children are born in a family, they inherit their father’s data.
One of the reasons for changing a surname is the personal desire of a citizen of the country. For example, if a citizen thinks that she is ugly, he does not have Polish roots or for any other reason. In this case, the law cannot refuse the citizen.
Common Polish surnames: alphabetical list
According to statistics released in 2016, the most common surnames are Novak. Almost two hundred thousand residents of Poland are its carriers. Next in the ranking is Kowalski, its owners are about one hundred and forty thousand residents of the country. Approximately one hundred and ten thousand Poles have the surname Wisniewski. This list also includes:
- Dombrovsky.
- Kaminsky.
- Levadovsky.
- Zelinsky.
- Wuychik.
- Shimansky.
- Wozniak.
- Kovalchuk.
The Jews who inhabited Poland got their names from the names of various things. Most of them were formed on behalf of mother and father, place of residence. Such formations are characterized by the combination ski or ivik at the end. Among this ethnic group, the Grzhibovsky form was widespread.
Several appeals have been provided for this nation in the past. For example, Posner was used when communicating with Jews, and Poznansky was used by Poles. The forms formed using the place of residence were the same, they were used mainly by Jews born in the Polish state. Below is an example list of the most common additions combined with names. For example, Varshavski (Warsaw), Krakovski (Krakovsky), Lobzovski (Lobzovsky), Pajcanovski (Patsanovsky).
After the division of the country, the authorities of Austria and Prussia began to give Jews unique surnames. Often they were offensive and unflattering. For example, Volgeruh (Volgeruh) is “incense”, Оhjcenshvah (Okhtsenshvants) is “ox tail”. The heads of Poland at that time did not stoop to this level, but in the 19th century such variations appeared as Inventаsz (Inventory) - “inventory” or Vihodek (Vychodek) - “toilet”. There were no people willing to bear such names.
Pronunciation Features
Let's get acquainted with the nuances of pronunciation. Among them are graduations from education with Russian addition. You need to be especially careful with such forms as Mrs. Kovaleva, Mrs. Kovalevna. In the Russian language, such a pronunciation as Panna Koval has been approved, in literary language- Mrs. Kovaleva.
Surnames in the form of adjectives have -ski/-сki/-dzki at the end, in the feminine gender they have -skа/-ckа/-dzka at the end, in Russian they are pronounced as -skiy (aya)/-tskiy (aya), -dskiy (aya)/-dzsky (aya). If they end in -ński/-ńskа, then a soft sign is used when pronouncing, for example, Oginskiy. But when mentioned in a conversation or in a literary source without a soft sign - Oginsky.
Options with the ending -ów/-iów sound in translation as -yв/-ув, in literary sources-ov/-ev or -ev. For example, Kowalów (Kovalyov). Formed from the name of the adjective Śmigły (Smigly) is pronounced with -ы/-u, -a/-я at the end and is not declined. In literature, it has an addition with the ending -й/-й in both genders.
Attention, TODAY only!
Polish origin can be easily recognized by the surname of its bearer. Polish surnames have deep history and identity. The fifteenth century is considered to be the period of formation and assignment of Polish surnames. Initially, it was customary to give them exclusively to persons noble origin, that is, the gentry.
Where did the surnames come from (list of the most famous)
The emergence of the gentry, which originally designated the military class, played a significant role in the formation of noble initials. Then all nobles had equal rights, and differed only in their income levels. In 1138, the need for an army arose, because there was no regular army then. In this regard, nobles from one area decided to unite into societies with an individual name and their own coat of arms. The coat of arms became the property of each member of the community, and the name of the clan was included in the surname. The names of the coats of arms were very different, for example, klejnotni, współherbowni, herbowni. They became components of the surnames of many clans, which led to the emergence of the concept of “coat of arms”. Among the most popular are the surnames Levandovsky and Allan-Orekhovsky.
How simple Polish surnames appeared (list)
Only in the seventeenth century were ordinary Poles given the opportunity to bear a surname. Those who did not belong to a noble family received their initials depending on their personal name, area of residence or type of activity. Initially, city residents came to this and only then villagers. It was most often the basis for its appropriation.
List common surnames usually includes the surname Kowalski, derived from the profession. That is, the person who forged is now a blacksmith. As for people born in Vilna, they were guaranteed to be called Vilna. Speaking about double Polish surnames, the list of which is not very diverse today, it is worth noting that they were especially popular several centuries ago. For example, Boy-Zhelensky is double surname, the first part of which is the nickname of its bearer.
When the basis of a surname is borrowed
The history of the development of the Polish principality is closely intertwined with the destinies of neighboring and distant powers. Polish surnames (the alphabetical list is presented below), borrowed from the Ukrainian people, most often mean a profession or character trait of its bearer. These include: Bachinsky, Vishnevsky, Dovgalevsky, Kotlyarsky, Poplavsky, Remigovsky, Shvidkovsky. Polish surnames borrowed from the Lithuanian people (list in alphabetical order): Bryl, Vaganas, Korsak, Miksha, Ruksha.
In addition, there are those that appeared under the influence of other nationalities. Shervinsky is a surname that came from German language and directly connected with the town of Shirvindt. From Czech came Kokhovsky, and from Russian - Berezovsky. The Old Russian language became the progenitor of the Sudovsky surname. The relationship with the Jews introduced its own notes into the Polish lexicon (Grzybowski and Zolondzewski). Studying the history of the origin of Polish surnames must be carried out in conjunction with history Slavic peoples. Only this approach allows us to obtain reliable data.
Polish surnames for girls (list)
Women's initials in Poland have one unique feature. Their ending directly depends on whether the girl is married or not. If the lady is married, then the ending for her surname is -ówna or -(i)anka, otherwise a single girl receives a surname with the ending -owa or -ina, -yna. The most beautiful Polish surnames for girls (list): Sheviola, Sudnika, Vishnevskaya, Zawadskaya, Karel, Kowalska, Matseng. For married ladies: Novakova, Kobina, Puhalina. Typical unmarried women: Kordziakówna, Moravian woman.
Famous Polish women
Polish female beauty charms and disarms many men. The most beautiful bearer of a Polish surname is considered to be. Despite the fact that the actress was born in Germany, her father is an ethnic Pole, originally from Sopot. The photograph in which her naked body is wrapped around a python brought her particular popularity. Second place in the ranking of the most famous and beautiful bearers of Polish surnames is taken by Barbara Brylska. The Polish actress is familiar to many for her role as Nadya in the New Year's film "The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath!"
The top three is completed by the inimitable Apolonia, or Polya Raksa, recognized as the most popular Polish actress. She starred in various paintings Polish and Soviet production. Raxa gained fame after the release of the film “Four Tankmen and a Dog.” But we shouldn’t forget about equally charming and talented Poles: (Polish actress), Rosalia Mantsevich (Miss Poland 2010), (Polish model and actress), Barbara Karska (actress), Olga Savitskaya (Polish ballerina, actress, choreographer).
About Polish men
The male half of the populated country also has numerous beautiful Polish surnames. The list of them is huge, and the most memorable, of course, belong to famous personalities. Seductive look, slight unshavenness, aristocratic appearance, speaking surname- this is all Mikhail Zhebrovsky. The Warsaw-born theater and film actor starred in the familiar films “The Witcher” and “The Pianist.”
The owner of the most mysterious look, Polish actor Maciej Zakoscielny is one of the three most handsome Polish men. One look from him makes girls lose their heads. Young and handsome Mateusz Damieński is the owner of a difficult, but at the same time very attractive surname. He graduated from the Theater Academy in Warsaw and glorified his name throughout the country with his roles in the films “Black”, “Russian Revolt”, “Love and Dance”. Actors Malaszynski, Janusz Gajos, and Anthony Pawlicki have no less beautiful and distinctive surnames.
Change of surnames
As we see, Polish surnames are very diverse. A list of those that have undergone changes can also be compiled. Any resident of Poland, if desired, can submit documents to change their surname. Most often, these are cases when the surname is dissonant in pronunciation or does not have Polish roots. It happens when the last name is identical to the first name, then it is also changed. The relevant service certainly would not refuse to change their surname to persons whose initials complete the words: Meloch, Zapadlovsky, Zayaitsky, Vynka, Zaremba, Scorupko. Also, Poles often change their surnames in order to give it sonority and relevance in different countries. This reason is especially popular for show business stars. Thus, one famous Polish actress, having a real surname Kizyuk, decided that it was not sonorous enough and changed it to Karel. Among the Polish stars who believe that their surname is inappropriate for a star is Zofia Soretok with real name Taubwursel.
Formation of Polish-Jewish surnames
Polish Jews received their surnames according to various Polish words. Also, many of them appeared on behalf of the father or mother, region of residence. Most often they have the ending -skiy or -ivich. One of the most common surnames of Polish-Jewish origin is Grzybowski.
Previously, it was important for Jews to have several options for surnames. They used one, for example Posner, when communicating with Jews, while in conversations with Poles the surname Poznansky was pronounced. Surnames based on the name of the city of residence are absolutely typical, and were most often used by Polish Jews.
Surnames, the list of which is huge, have several of the most common ones. Among them are Warsaw, Krakow, Lobzovsky, Patsanovsky. After the division of Poland, the Austrian and Prussian authorities began to give surnames to Jews. It was they who began to ridicule the Jews and give them unflattering surnames (for example, Volgeruch - means “incense”; or Ochzenschwanz - “ox tail”). The Polish authorities in those days did not allow themselves this, although by the nineteenth century they introduced surnames such as Inventarz (“inventory”) or Wychodek (“toilet”). Of course, these are less offensive surnames, but still there is no one who wants to be their bearer.
The Polish surname (nazwisko) first appeared and took root in the circles of the wealthy Polish nobility - the gentry. The origin of Polish surnames dates back to the period of the 15th-17th centuries, which saw the heyday of this noble military class.
To understand the reasons for the emergence of such distinctive feature as a surname in Poland, it is important to know the features way of life Polish people of that time. Poland of that era did not have its own army, but the need to protect its property existed. In order to implement it, the nobility themselves came up with the idea of organizing the gentry - a special military stratum designed to represent the interests of the rich in power disputes and conflicts.
A distinctive feature of the gentry was an honest and noble attitude towards each other, regardless of the degree of wealth - equality. The structure of the Polish gentry was formed as follows: a titled noble representative of the nobles was elected in a certain territorial area. Required condition he had land. The gentry had a statute, its own laws and privileges, approved by the royal court.
The first Polish surnames of the gentry were determined by two branches: by the name assigned to the military clan, and by the name of the area where the land of the noble representative was located. For example, Vasily Zbarazhsky of the coat of arms of Korbut, Prince Stanislav Alexandrovich of the coat of arms of Witold, etc.
Depending on the names of the coats of arms, a dictionary of Polish surnames of that time was formed.
Family forms could contain such names as Elita, Zlotovonzh, Abdank, Bellina, Boncha, Bozhezlarzh, Brokhvich, Kholeva, Doliva, Drohomir, Yanina, Yasenchik, Grif, Drzhevica, Godzemba, Geralt. Later, the two parts of the letter began to be hyphenated: Korbut-Zbarazhsky, Vitold-Alexandrovich, Brodzits-Bunin, and later one part was discarded: Zbarazhsky, Alexandrovich.
Distinctive features of Polish surnames
Since the 17th century, surnames became widespread first among townspeople, and by end of the 19th century centuries and rural population Poland. Of course, the simple unpretentious Polish people did not get noble Polish surnames like Vishnevetsky, Woitsekhovsky, Boguslavsky. For peasants and hard workers, simpler family forms were selected, as with other Slavic peoples. These were derivatives either from the name or from the profession, less often from the place of residence or the names of objects and living creatures: Mazur, Konopka, Plow, Zatsepka, Kovalchik, Krawchik, Zinkevich, Zareba, Cherry.
But the creative spirit did not allow Poles with such simple surnames to sleep peacefully, and in the 19th century there was a short period of time when especially creative representatives of the people began to add nicknames to their surnames. This is how they were formed unusual surnames: Bur-Kowalsky, Bonch-Bruevich, Rydz-Smigly, Yungvald-Khilkevich.
Traditionally, surnames in Poland are passed down through the line of men who continue the family line. Each letter of the alphabet can be the first in a Polish surname, starting from Avinsky, ending with Yakubovsky.
Polish surnames, like most Slavic ones, have two forms: feminine (-skaya, -tskaya) and masculine (-skiy, -tskiy). Brylska - Brylsky, Vygovska - Vygovsky, Stanishevskaya - Stanishevsky, Donovska - Donovsky. Such surnames have the meaning of adjectives; they are declined and inflected in the same way as adjectives.
Surnames that match the forms according to generic sign, are also quite often used: Ozheshko, Gurevich, Wojtek, Tadeusz, Khilkevich, Nemirovich. These family forms change only in male version, for women they are unchanged.
The Linguistic Dictionary of Polish Surnames notes differences in their rendering between the official style and the literary artistic style. Thus, surnames-adjectives in the first case are fixed using a soft sign (Kaminsky, Zaremsky), and in literary genre possible omission of the soft sign (Kaminsky, Zaremsky). Besides, male surnames with the form in –ov, -ev they are transmitted in two ways: Koval - Kovalev - Kovalyuv.
It was customary for rural residents to modify some surnames for women (based on whether they were a married lady or a single girl of marriageable age). For example, if a man’s last name is Koval, then his wife may be Kovaleva, and his daughter may be Kovalevna. More examples: Plow - Pluzhina (deputy) - Pluzhanka; Madey - Madeeva (deputy) - Madeyuvna.
Below is a list of ten Polish surnames, the most common in the statistics of surnames of Polish origin:
- Novak - more than 200 thousand bearers of the surname.
- Kovalsky - about 135 thousand happy owners.
- Wuycik - about 100 thousand people.
- Vishnevsky - about the same, 100 thousand people.
- Kovalchuk - just over 95 thousand Polish inhabitants.
- Levandovsky - about 91 thousand owners.
- Zelinsky - about 90 thousand Poles.
- Kaminsky - about 90 thousand people.
- Shimansky - approximately 85 thousand population.
- Wozniak - almost 80 thousand citizens.
The data is taken from 2004 statistics, so slight discrepancies may occur.
Common Polish surnames are slightly behind: Kozlowski, Grabowski, Dąbrowski, Kaczmarek, Petrovski, Jankowski.
Foreign roots of Polish surnames
The history of the Polish Principality is closely intertwined with the histories of neighboring and other powers: Ukraine, Hungary, Lithuania, Russia, Germany. Over the centuries, there has been coexistence of peoples, sometimes peaceful, sometimes warlike, thanks to which more than one culture has changed and improved.
Each nation borrowed some pieces of traditions, cultures, and language from others, giving their own in return, and the formation of surnames also underwent changes under the influence of foreign cultures.
Here are some of them:
- Shervinsky - from German: Shirvindt (a town in Prussia);
- Kochovsky - from Czech: Kochna (name);
- Sudovsky - from Old Russian: “court” (dishes);
- Berezovsky - from Russian: birch;
- Grzhibovsky - from Hebrew: “grib” (mushroom);
- Zholondzevsky - from Hebrew: “zholondz” (acorn).
Taken from Ukrainian everyday life:
- Bachinsky - “bachiti” (to see);
- Dovgalevsky - “dovgy” (long);
- Poplavsky - “float” (flooded meadow);
- Vishnevsky - “cherry”;
- Remigovsky - “remiga” (prudent);
- Shvidkovsky - “shvidky” (fast);
- Kotlyarsky - “kotlyar” (boiler manufacturer).
There are surnames borrowed from the Lithuanian foreign language. They came into use without any morphological changes: Vaganas (“hawk”), Korsak (“steppe fox”), Ruksha (“smoky”), Bryl (“hat”), Miksha (“sleepy”), etc.
The history of the formation of Polish surnames should be considered in the context of the histories of the surnames of all Slavic peoples as a whole. Only in this version will it be correctly interpreted and conveyed to descendants.
