Steve’s Genealogy Blog

In grade school I always enjoyed the day that came every year when our teachers would ask what our mothers’ maiden names were. My mother’s maiden surname - Niedziałkowski - always got everyone’s attention because it was so unusual. My own surname - Dańko - hardly raised an eyebrow.

Not until I began studying my family history in the late 1990s did I begin to realize that those names might have some meaning behind them. After all, a name is a name right? Fairly soon after I started researching my ancestry seriously, the second edition of Fred Hoffman’s book on Polish surnames was published, and boy, was this a godsend!

Categories of Polish Surnames

In his book on Polish surnames, Fred Hoffman divides and discusses the surnames according to five general categories:

1. Personal Names and Coats of Arms
2. Toponyms (Place Names)
3. Occupations
4. Features or Objects (including verbs, animals, trees, plants, food, drink)
5. Foreign Names

Polish Surnames in My Family Tree 

The surnames in my family tree span all of these five groups. Here is a list of some of them with their origins and meanings:

Bal: bal- “to tell tales”, first name Baltazar, Hungarian personal name Bal
Bonislawski: village Bonisław, altered name Będzisław
Chmielewski: chmiel “hops”
Chotkowski: place names Chotków, Chotkowo
Chruścicki: chrust “dry twigs”
Dańko: dan- “given” or name element from Daniel
Dymek: dym “smoke” or name element from Dymitr
Dziura / Dziurzyński: dziura “hole”
Głowacz: głowa “head”
Goliński: goły “bare, naked”, golić “to shave”, or place name Golina
Grabowski: grab “hornbeam”, grabić “to rob”, grabie “rake”, old first name Grab, or toponym
Iwaniec: Ukrainian name Ivan = Polish name Jan (John)
Izbicki: izba “hut, chamber”
Jach: name element from Jan, Jakub, Jachym, etc.
Jara: jar- “sharp, strict”, jary “of the spring, robust, young”
Jedliński: jodła “fir tree”
Kolarowira: kolarz “wheelwright”
Malon: mały “small”, or a name root as in Małomir, also popular in toponyms
Marcinkiewicz: first name Marcin from the Latin Martinus (of or relating to Mars)
Markiewicz: first name Marek from the Latin Marcus (Mark)
Milewski: ancient names Miłobor, Miłosław with the root miły “dear, beloved”
Mossakowski: name Mojsław or Mojżesz (Moses)
Muszynski: mucha “housefly”
Niedziałkowski: nie działać “to do nothing”, niedziela “Sunday” (day of doing nothing)
Nosarzewski: nos “nose”
Panowski: pan “master, bridegroom”, names Pankracy, Pantelejmon, Opanas
Pomaski: village of Pomaski
Pszczółkowski: pszczoła “bee”
Ranow: rana “wound”, rano “early”, or name Ranimir
Skowroński: skowronek “lark’ (a kind of bird)
Ślimak: ślimak “snail, slug” or “slow fellow”
Sowa: sowa “owl”
Szymański: name Szymon (Simon) (Hebrew), meaning “Hear my affliction”
Tropiło / Trupiło: trop “trace, trail, scent”, tropić “to track”
Wojnowski: wojna “war, struggle”
Zygmuntowicz: name Zygmunt, Germanic *sigis “victory” + *mundo “protect, guard”

SOURCE: Hoffman, William F. 1998. Polish surnames: origins and meanings. Chicago: Polish Genealogical Society of America.

Evolution of Polish Surnames 

I am often amazed at the number of different surnames used in Poland. Because fixed surnames are a rather recent phenomenon in Poland (and elsewhere), most not being fixed until the 18th century, many surnames have developed through something of a divergent evolution, where a surname such as Markowicz might diverge into Markowicz and Markiewicz over time.

In fact, in addition to Markowicz and Markiewicz, a large number of names derive from the given name Marek and the numbers of individuals with these surnames in Poland in 1990 varied greatly, with only 1 person using the surname Marec, but with 16,202 people using the surname Marek. And, of course, not all the people in Poland with the same or similar surnames are related to each other. Many surnames arose independently all over Poland, resulting in a convergent evolution of surnames.

Many of these Polish surnames present some difficulty for native speakers of English. I’m often asked “How is that name pronounced?” The short answer a native speaker of Polish would give is “Just the way it’s spelled”, but that’s little comfort to most people. My mother’s maiden name, Niedziałkowski, is mispronounced by nearly all native speakers of English.

These difficulties of pronouncing the surname Niedziałkowski has led to a divergent evolution of the surname among my relatives in the United States, resulting in the surnames Niedzialkowski, Niedzialkoski, Niedzial, and even Newman, all in one family line.

My own mother, while in her teens, briefly changed her surname to Nigel.

But that’s another story.

Copyright © 2007 Stephen J. Danko

Yesterday, I posted the Birth and Baptismal Record for Agnieszka Sowa, my great grandmother.  Today, we’ll look at the Marriage Record for Agnieszka’s parents, my great great grandparents, Maciej Sowa and Katarzyna Jachowa.  Their marriage record is the middle record on this image.  If you look carefully, though, you’ll notice that someone with the surname Sowa is mentioned in all three marriage records on this image.

The Marriage Record for Maciej Sowa and Katarzyna Jachowa

Click on the link for a PDF copy of the Marriage Record for Maciej Sowa and Katarzyna Jachowa.  The record shows that:

Page: 47
Number: Not stated
Date: 28 May 1844
House Number: Bride 35 to Groom 105
Groom: Maciej Sowa, farmer, widower left behind after the death of Anna
Religion: Catholic
Age: 34
Marital Status: Widower
Name of Bride: Katarzyna Jachowa, daughter of Wojciech Jach and Jadwiga Markowa, farmer
Religion: Catholic
Age: 24
Marital Status: Unmarried
Witnesses: Wawrzyniec Klepacki and Szymon Zaleski, farmers in Nienadowa
Banns Read: 11 May 1844
Priest: Father Karol Poprawski

This record demonstrates an interesting confounding factor for translating Polish records from the Latin into English.  The given names in this record are written in Latin (Mathias, Catharina, Laurentius, Simon).  I’ve chosen to translate these names into Polish, rather than English, but I easily could have done either:

• Latin = Polish = English
• Mathias = Maciej = Matthew
• Catharina = Katarzyna = Katherine or Catherine
• Laurentius = Wawrzyniec = Lawrence
• Simon = Szymon = Simon
• Hedwig = Jadwiga = Hedwig

The surnames are actually written in Polish, since there really is no Latin or English equivalent for surnames.  Another difficulty, however, is that the surnames of women are usually feminized in Polish.  In this record, two feminized surnames are Jachowa and Markowa.  The male equivalents of these surnames, and the form most often used in English-speaking countries, are Jach and Marek.

When translating these records, I’ve decided to translate the given names and surnames from Latin into Polish, rather than into English.

Notice that this record provides the names of Katarzyna Jachowa’s parents, my great great great grandparents:  Wojciech Jach and Jadwiga Marek.  Unfortunately, the record does not provide the names of the parents of my great great grandfather, Maciej Sowa.

For more details on Polish first names, refer to the Big Book of Names.

My great grandmother, Agnieszka Sowa, was the first wife of my great grandfather, Jakub Dańko.  Agnieszka was born in Nienadowa, Galicia (Austria-Poland) in 1855.  Agnieszka was the first child born in Nienadowa in 1855.

The Birth and Baptismal Record for Agnieszka Sowa

Click on the link for a PDF copy of Agnieszka Sowa’s Birth and Baptismal Record.  Translated from the Latin, the record states:

Page: not stated
Number: 1
Birth: January 6, 1855
Baptism: January 7, 1855
House Number: 105
Name: Agnieszka Sowa
Religion: Catholic
Sex: Girl
Legitimacy: Legitimate
Father: Maciej Sowa, farmer
Mother: Katarzyna Jach, daughter of Wojciech Jach and Hedwig Markowa daughter of Pawel Marek
Godparents and their occupations: Piotr Sowa, farmer and Rozalia [Dryska], widow
Priest: Father Józef Karpiński
Midwife: Zofia Grabowa

A while back, I published the Birth and Baptismal Records for my Uncle Jan Dańko, my Aunt Zofia Dańko, and my Grandfather Michał Dańko, all born in Nienadowa, and baptised in Dubiecko, Galicia (Austria-Poland).  The information on the Birth and Baptismal Records for Uncle Jan and Aunt Zofia showed that they were the children of Grandfather Michał (no surprise there).

The next document in the family line is the Marriage Record for Michał’s parents, Jakub Dańko and Agnieszka Sowa, married in the church in Dubiecko, Galicia.

Marriage Record for Jakub Dańko and Agnieszka Sowa

Click on the link for a PDF copy of the Marriage Record.  The record, like other records from this part of Poland, is written in columnar form and in Latin.  The record is a bit more complex than others because it includes some writing in Polish.

The record states that:

• The couple was married in Dubiecko on October (8ber) 18, 1870; their marriage was the 6th marriage for a couple from Nienadowa in 1870
• Jakub Dańko was a farmer, the legitimate son of the legally married couple Pawel Dańko and Zofia Szymańska, farmers
• Jakub was from house number 122, and was a 27 year old Catholic, never before married
• Agnieszka Sowa was the daughter of the legally married couple Maciej Sowa and Katarzyna Jach, farmers
• Agnieszka was from house number 105, and was a 16 year old Catholic, never before married
• The witnesses were Antoni Sowa and Michał Zaleski, farmers
• The officiant was Reverend Niedzialski
• Because Agnieszka was only 16 years old at the time of her marriage, her father had to give his permission for the marriage and the witnesses attested to not only the marriage, but the fact that Agnieszka’s father gave his permission

The Latin headers mean:

• Sponsus = Groom
• Sponsa = Bride
• Testes = Witnesses
• Dies et Mensis = Day and Month
• Nrus Domus = House Number
• Nomen = Name
• Nomina = Names
• Religio = Religion
• Catholica = Catholic
• Aut alia = Anything else (any religion other than Catholic)
• Aetas = Age
• Coelebs = Unmarried
• Viduus = Widower
• Vidua = Widow
• Conditio = Occupation

With the information on this record, I have traced the family back one more generation to four of my great-great-grandparents, Pawel Dańko, Zofia Szymańska, Maciej Sowa, and Katarzyna Jach.