Polish name
Encyclopedia
A Polish personal name, like names in most Europe
an cultures, consists of two main elements: imię, the first name, or given name
, followed by nazwisko, the last name, surname, or family name
.
The usage of personal name
s in Poland
is generally governed (in addition to personal taste or family custom) by three major factors: civil law
, Church
law, and tradition.
Parents normally choose a name or names for their child from a long list of traditional names which may be:
Note that names of Slavic saints, such as Wojciech
(St Adalbert), Stanisław
(St Stanislaus), or Kazimierz
(St Casimir), belong to both groups. Slavic names used by historical Polish monarchs, e.g. Bolesław, Lech
, Mieszko, Władysław
, are common as well. Additionally, a few names of Lithuania
n origin, such as Olgierd
(Algirdas
), Witold
(Vytautas) or Danuta, are also quite popular in Poland.
Traditionally, the names are given at a child's baptism
. Non-Christian but traditional Slavic names are usually accepted, but the priest may encourage the parents to pick at least one Christian name. In the past two Christian names were given to a child so that he or she had two patron saint
s instead of just one. At confirmation people usually adopt yet another (second or third) Christian name; however, it is never used outside Church documents.
In Eastern Poland, as in many other Catholic countries, people celebrate name days (imieniny) on the day of their patron saint. On the other hand, in Western Poland birthday
s are more popular. Today, in Eastern Poland birthdays remain relatively intimate celebrations, as often only relatives and close friends know a person's date of birth. Name days, on the other hand, are often celebrated together with co-workers, etc. Information about whose name day it is today can be found in most Polish calendars, web portals, etc.
It is required by law for a given name to clearly indicate the person's sex. Almost all Polish female names end in the vowel -a, while most male names end in a consonant or a vowel other than a. There are, however, a few male names, such as Barnaba and Bonawentura, which end in -a. Maria is an exceptional name as it is a female name which, however, can be also used as a middle (second) name for males (never as a first name for males).
The choice of a given name is largely influenced by fashion. Many parents name their child after a national hero or heroine, some otherwise famous person, or a character from a book, film, or TV show. In spite of this, a great number of names used in today's Poland have been in use since the Middle Ages
.
Diminutive
s are very popular in everyday usage, and are by no means reserved for children. The Polish language
allows for a great deal of creativity in this field. Most diminutives are formed by adding a suffix. For male names it may be -ek or the more affectionate -uś; for female names it may be -ka, or -nia / -dzia / -sia / cia respectively. Maria, a name whose standard form was once reserved to refer to Virgin Mary, has a particularly great number of possible diminutives, which include: Marysia, Maryśka, Marysieńka, Marychna, Mania, Mańka, Maniusia, Maryna, Marianna, some of which (indicated by underlining) have eventually become treated as standard names of their own (probably having their own derivatives), while others (such as those in italics), are shared diminutives and are less popular (largely regarded as foreign).
Also, as in many other cultures, a person may informally use a nickname
(przezwisko, ksywa) in addition to or instead of a given name.
As of 2009, the most popular female names in Poland are Anna, Maria, and Katarzyna (Katherine). The most popular male names are Piotr (Peter), Krzysztof (Christopher), and Andrzej (Andrew).
, i.e., passed from the father on to his children.
A Polish marriage certificate lists three fields, the surnames for the husband, wife, and children. The partners may choose to retain their surnames, or both adopt the surname before marriage of either partner, or a combination of both; the children must receive either the joint surname or the surname of one of the partners, if they are different. However, a married woman usually adopts her husband's name and the children usually bear the surname of the father. The wife may keep her maiden name (nazwisko panieńskie) or add her husband's surname to hers, thus creating a double-barrelled name
(nazwisko złożone). However, if she already has a double-barrelled name, she must leave one of the parts out—it is illegal to use a triple- or more-barrelled name. It is also possible, though rare, for the husband to adopt his wife's surname or to add his wife's surname to his family name.
A person may also legally change his or her surname if:
The most widespread Polish surnames are Nowak, Kowalski
, Wiśniewski
and Wójcik
.
Popular belief often associates surnames ending with sky/cky/dzky with Jewish Polish families and names ending with ski/cki/dzki with Christians, but the spelling differences sometimes have more to do with whether the name originated in Poland or in Russia.
(szlachta
). Originally the nobles belonged to chivalric clan
s whose names survived in the names of their coats of arms
. Eventually, members of one clan would split into separate families with different surnames, usually derived from the name of the village they owned. Sometimes the family name and the clan name (associated with the arms) would be used together and form a double-barrelled name.
The most striking peculiarity of the Polish heraldic system is that a coat of arms does not belong to a single family. A number of families sharing male-line origin or sometimes even unrelated by blood but only by a formal adoption upon ennoblement (sometimes hundreds of them), usually with a number of different family names, may use a coat of arms, and each coat of arms has its own name, usually the name of the original blood-line the clan descends from. Thus the total number of coats of arms in this system was relatively low — ca. 200 in the late Middle Ages.
One side-effect of this unique arrangement was that it became customary to refer to noblemen by both their family name and their coat of arms/clan name. For example: Jan Zamoyski
herbu Jelita means Jan Zamoyski of clan Jelita (though it is often quite incorrectly translated as ...of the clan Jelita coat-of-arms as if he were not a blood-member of the line).
From the 15th to 17th centuries, the formula seems to copy the ancient Roman naming convention with the classic tria nomina used by the Patricians: praenomen (or given name), nomen gentile (or gens
/Clan name) and cognomen
(surname), following the Renaissance fashion, thus: Jan Jelita Zamoyski, forming a double-barrelled name
(nazwisko złożone). Later, the double-barrelled name would be joined with a hyphen: Jan Jelita-Zamoyski.
Gradually the use of family names spread to other social groups: the townsfolk by the end of the 17th century, then the peasantry, and finally the Jews. The process finally ended only in the mid-19th century.
After the First
and Second World Wars
some resistance
fighters added their wartime noms de guerre to their original family names. This was yet another reason for creating double-barrelled names. Examples include Edward Rydz-Śmigły, Jan Nowak-Jeziorański
, and Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski
. Some artists, such as Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński
, also added their noms de plume to their surnames.
.
For example, in English
often changes w to v and sz to sh. Similar changes sometimes occur in French
, as well as the addition to aristocratic names of de (la particule :fr:Particule (onomastique)) or von in German or Van/van in Dutch. However, it is not very correct as the ski/cki/dzki surnames already contain the de/von/van meaning.
Changes in Spanish
may be even more extreme. A Spiczyński may become simply Spika, for example while the proper translation will be de Spiczyn. Hyphenated double-barrelled names are often rearranged: Erasmus Bogorya-Skotnicki becomes Erasmo Bogorya de Skotnicki or Erasmo Skotnicki de Bogorya.
Adjectival names very often end in the suffixes -ski, -cki and -dzki (feminine -ska, -cka and -dzka), and are considered to be either typically Polish or typical for the Polish nobility.
In case of '-ski' is true to the extent that a surname contains a name of a city or a town.
In France or Germany where not all people with a de or von in their names were formally nobles however the adjectival suffix -ski, -ski or -sky is found in many other Slavic languages
, and in Poland, the adjectival form of a name was not reserved to the szlachta.
Based on origin, Polish family names may be generally divided into three groups: cognominal, toponymic and patronymic.
Examples:
Examples:
surname (nazwisko odimienne) derives from a given name of a person and usually ends in a suffix suggesting a family relation.
Examples:
forms. If a masculine surname ends in -i or -y, its feminine equivalent ends in -a. Surnames ending with consonants have no specific feminine form. Examples:
Nominal surnames may or may not change with gender. Like other Slavic languages, Polish has special feminine suffixes which were added to a woman's surname. A woman who was never married used her father's surname with the suffix -ówna or -'anka. A married woman or a widow used her husband's surname with the suffix -owa or -'ina / -'yna (the apostrophe means that the last consonant in the base form of the surname is softened). Although these suffixes are still used by some people, mostly the elderly and in rural areas, they are now becoming outdated and there is a tendency to use the same form of a nominal surname for both a man and a woman.
However, the forms in "-anka" and "-ina/-yna" tend to disappear and are being replaced by the forms in "-ówna" and "-owa" respectively.
Examples:
"Państwo" is widely used when referred to a married couple (instead of using separately Pan and Pani) or even the whole family.
Examples:
Examples:
but:
Examples:
On the other hand, it is not common to refer to public figures, while not addressing them, with "Pan" or "Pani". It is rarely done with politicians, e.g.
and never with artists, athletes, sportsmen or sportswomen:
In such circumstances, preceding a name with "Pan" or "Pani" would usually be felt as being ironical.
The common situation is that of reciprocity (in case both people have equal, or close to equal, status). However, an asymmetric situation is also quite common, when a subordinate person is addressed by his or her given name by their superior, but the subordinate never uses the given name of the superior, using his or her title instead:
This style is to a certain degree similar to the Vietnamese
, Japanese
or Icelandic
usage.
NB. If the superior wants to behave more politely or show his or her friendly attitude towards the subordinate etc., the diminutive of the given name of the subordinate may be used (like in the semi-informal way of addressing among co-workers or neighbours, see below): "Panie Włodku!", "Pani Jadziu!". This, however, is usually not practiced when the subordinate is much older than the superior, as it may be felt by the subordinate as being overly patronised by his/her superior.
It is rude to call a person by his/hers surname in the presence of unknown people. In a random crowd, a person calling another person should use a form of "Proszę Pana / Pani" ("I'm asking you, Sir / Madam") or to use semi-formal form with first name, like "Panie Włodzimierzu" ("Mr. Włodzimierz"). This rule comes from a general rule that one has right to be anonymous among crowd of unknown people. This rule is observed in most countries of western culture. To disclose one's given name does not fall under this rule, as many people can be named Włodzimierz for instance.
Examples:
Using the honorific style with a surname only, if used to refer to a given person directly, is generally perceived as rude (giving impression of patronising or irony; e.g., "Panie Idioto"). In such a case it is more polite to avoid this form and when referring to the person use just the form "Pan", without given or family name.
It is very rude to address someone whom one does not know well with the omission of "Pan" or "Pani" (and with the second person singular instead of the polite third person singular pronouns and verb forms). Traditionally, the act of moving from this form to a friendly "you" must be acknowledged by both parties and it is usually a mark of a close friendly relationship between the two people. The change can only be proposed by the older or more respected person; a similar suggestion initiated by the younger or less respected person will usually be perceived as presumptuous and arrogant.
There is a clear distinction between "friends" and "colleagues". For example, co-workers will be very rarely referred to as friends. People will be called "colleagues" most likely only after the titling was mutually agreed to be changed from "Pan/Pani" to "you". To be considered a "friend" they have to feel closer relation and there must be mutual understanding of each other (usually, indicating that they believe they can share each other secrets without fearing that they will be revealed to others, and, more generally, when one can depend on another even in the most difficult situations). Thus "przyjaciel" ("friend") in Polish has a narrower meaning than its counterpart in English.
There is yet another type of relation: "znajomy" which means "acquainted" or "a person known to another person". There is no universal agreement, whether "znajomy" is more or less than "kolega" (a colleague). For instance, it is common to call "znajomi" (plural) people one knows on private level, therefore it is an equivalent of english "friend". However in official relationships it can mean a person one knows on lesser level than "kolega".
It is not uncommon to use a half-informal title, with the name omitted. This is, however, usually found only in the vocative case: "Panie Kolego!" (much less common: "Pani Koleżanko!") which literally means "Mr. Mate!".
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an cultures, consists of two main elements: imię, the first name, or given name
Given name
A given name, in Western contexts often referred to as a first name, is a personal name that specifies and differentiates between members of a group of individuals, especially in a family, all of whose members usually share the same family name...
, followed by nazwisko, the last name, surname, or family name
Family name
A family name is a type of surname and part of a person's name indicating the family to which the person belongs. The use of family names is widespread in cultures around the world...
.
The usage of personal name
Personal name
A personal name is the proper name identifying an individual person, and today usually comprises a given name bestowed at birth or at a young age plus a surname. It is nearly universal for a human to have a name; except in rare cases, for example feral children growing up in isolation, or infants...
s in Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
is generally governed (in addition to personal taste or family custom) by three major factors: civil law
Civil law (legal system)
Civil law is a legal system inspired by Roman law and whose primary feature is that laws are codified into collections, as compared to common law systems that gives great precedential weight to common law on the principle that it is unfair to treat similar facts differently on different...
, Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
law, and tradition.
Imię (given name)
A child in Poland is usually given one or two names, Polish registry offices do not register more than two. Among Catholics, who form the vast majority of the population, it is customary to adopt the name of a saint as an informal third given name at confirmation, however, this does not have any legal effect. (This is reminiscent of the pre-Christian rite of the "first haircut" (postrzyżyny), which also involved giving the child a new name.)Parents normally choose a name or names for their child from a long list of traditional names which may be:
- a Christian name, i.e., a Biblical name or a saint's nameSaint's nameA saint’s name is the name of a saint given to individuals at their baptism within the Catholic Church. The custom of giving the name of a saint originated in France and Germany during the Middle Ages...
, or - a Slavic name of pre-Christian origin.
Note that names of Slavic saints, such as Wojciech
Wojciech
Wojciech a Slavic root pertaining to war and "Ciech" meaning joy, with the resulting combination meaning "The joy of war" or "smiling warrior"...
(St Adalbert), Stanisław
Stanislav (given name)
Stanislav or Stanislaus is a very old Slavic origin given name, meaning someone who achieves glory or fame. It is most often given in the Slavic countries of Central and South Eastern Europe. The name has spread to many non-Slavic languages as well, such as French , German and others...
(St Stanislaus), or Kazimierz
Casimir
Casimir – is an English, French and Latin form of the Polish name Kazimierz, derived from the Slavic elements: kazić "to destroy" and mir "peace, prestige, world". It is originally a warlike name and may mean "someone who destroys opponent's prestige/glory during battle". Also, some researches...
(St Casimir), belong to both groups. Slavic names used by historical Polish monarchs, e.g. Bolesław, Lech
Lech (name)
Lech is a Polish given name, related to Leszek, Lestko, Leszko, Lestek, and Lechosław. Lech was the name of the legendary founder of Poland.Individuals named Lech celebrate their name day on February 28 or August 12....
, Mieszko, Władysław
Vladislav
Vladislav is a Slavic male given name, sometimes confused with/treated as the same as Ladislav...
, are common as well. Additionally, a few names of Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
n origin, such as Olgierd
Algirdas
Algirdas was a monarch of medieval Lithuania. Algirdas ruled the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from 1345 to 1377, which chiefly meant monarch of Lithuanians and Ruthenians...
(Algirdas
Algirdas
Algirdas was a monarch of medieval Lithuania. Algirdas ruled the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from 1345 to 1377, which chiefly meant monarch of Lithuanians and Ruthenians...
), Witold
Witold (given name)
Witold is a male given name used mostly in Poland.It may refer to:*Vytautas the Great , ruler of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from 1392 to 1430*Witold Baran , Polish middle distance runner...
(Vytautas) or Danuta, are also quite popular in Poland.
Traditionally, the names are given at a child's baptism
Baptism
In Christianity, baptism is for the majority the rite of admission , almost invariably with the use of water, into the Christian Church generally and also membership of a particular church tradition...
. Non-Christian but traditional Slavic names are usually accepted, but the priest may encourage the parents to pick at least one Christian name. In the past two Christian names were given to a child so that he or she had two patron saint
Patron saint
A patron saint is a saint who is regarded as the intercessor and advocate in heaven of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or person...
s instead of just one. At confirmation people usually adopt yet another (second or third) Christian name; however, it is never used outside Church documents.
In Eastern Poland, as in many other Catholic countries, people celebrate name days (imieniny) on the day of their patron saint. On the other hand, in Western Poland birthday
Birthday
A birthday is a day or anniversary where a person celebrates his or her date of birth. Birthdays are celebrated in numerous cultures, often with a gift, party or rite of passage. Although the major religions celebrate the birth of their founders , Christmas – which is celebrated widely by...
s are more popular. Today, in Eastern Poland birthdays remain relatively intimate celebrations, as often only relatives and close friends know a person's date of birth. Name days, on the other hand, are often celebrated together with co-workers, etc. Information about whose name day it is today can be found in most Polish calendars, web portals, etc.
It is required by law for a given name to clearly indicate the person's sex. Almost all Polish female names end in the vowel -a, while most male names end in a consonant or a vowel other than a. There are, however, a few male names, such as Barnaba and Bonawentura, which end in -a. Maria is an exceptional name as it is a female name which, however, can be also used as a middle (second) name for males (never as a first name for males).
The choice of a given name is largely influenced by fashion. Many parents name their child after a national hero or heroine, some otherwise famous person, or a character from a book, film, or TV show. In spite of this, a great number of names used in today's Poland have been in use since the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
.
Diminutive
Diminutive
In language structure, a diminutive, or diminutive form , is a formation of a word used to convey a slight degree of the root meaning, smallness of the object or quality named, encapsulation, intimacy, or endearment...
s are very popular in everyday usage, and are by no means reserved for children. The Polish language
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
allows for a great deal of creativity in this field. Most diminutives are formed by adding a suffix. For male names it may be -ek or the more affectionate -uś; for female names it may be -ka, or -nia / -dzia / -sia / cia respectively. Maria, a name whose standard form was once reserved to refer to Virgin Mary, has a particularly great number of possible diminutives, which include: Marysia, Maryśka, Marysieńka, Marychna, Mania, Mańka, Maniusia, Maryna, Marianna, some of which (indicated by underlining) have eventually become treated as standard names of their own (probably having their own derivatives), while others (such as those in italics), are shared diminutives and are less popular (largely regarded as foreign).
Also, as in many other cultures, a person may informally use a nickname
Nickname
A nickname is "a usually familiar or humorous but sometimes pointed or cruel name given to a person or place, as a supposedly appropriate replacement for or addition to the proper name.", or a name similar in origin and pronunciation from the original name....
(przezwisko, ksywa) in addition to or instead of a given name.
As of 2009, the most popular female names in Poland are Anna, Maria, and Katarzyna (Katherine). The most popular male names are Piotr (Peter), Krzysztof (Christopher), and Andrzej (Andrew).
Nazwisko (surname)
Polish surnames, like those in most of Europe, are hereditary and generally patrilinealPatrilineality
Patrilineality is a system in which one belongs to one's father's lineage. It generally involves the inheritance of property, names or titles through the male line as well....
, i.e., passed from the father on to his children.
A Polish marriage certificate lists three fields, the surnames for the husband, wife, and children. The partners may choose to retain their surnames, or both adopt the surname before marriage of either partner, or a combination of both; the children must receive either the joint surname or the surname of one of the partners, if they are different. However, a married woman usually adopts her husband's name and the children usually bear the surname of the father. The wife may keep her maiden name (nazwisko panieńskie) or add her husband's surname to hers, thus creating a double-barrelled name
Double-barrelled name
In English speaking and some other Western countries, a double-barrelled name is a family name with two parts, which may or may not be joined with a hyphen and is also known as a hyphenated name. An example of a hyphenated double-barrelled surname is Bowes-Lyon; an example of an unhyphenated...
(nazwisko złożone). However, if she already has a double-barrelled name, she must leave one of the parts out—it is illegal to use a triple- or more-barrelled name. It is also possible, though rare, for the husband to adopt his wife's surname or to add his wife's surname to his family name.
A person may also legally change his or her surname if:
- it is offensive or funny;
- it is of foreign origin;
- it is identical to a given name;
- that person has effectively used a different surname for a long time.
The most widespread Polish surnames are Nowak, Kowalski
Kowalski
Kowalski is the second most common surname in Poland . During the previous century it was the most common name. Jan Kowalski are synonymous with John Doe or John Smith in English-speaking countries....
, Wiśniewski
Wisniewski
Wiśniewski is the third most common surname in Poland . The name roughly translates to "from the town of the cherry tree."-Surname in voivodships:Wiśniewski surname in voivodships:* Wiśniewski: 1st in Warmia-Masuria ,...
and Wójcik
Wójcik
Wójcik, Wojczik, Wojczyk, or Wojszyk is one of the oldest and the 4th most common surname in Poland.Wójcik as a toponymic surname is derived from villages Wójcia, Wójciki, as a patronymic surname from popular in medieval Central Europe, as a first name Wojciech , as a cognominal surname from the...
.
Popular belief often associates surnames ending with sky/cky/dzky with Jewish Polish families and names ending with ski/cki/dzki with Christians, but the spelling differences sometimes have more to do with whether the name originated in Poland or in Russia.
History, heraldry, and clan names
Family names first appeared in Poland ca. 15th century and were only used by the nobilityNobility
Nobility is a social class which possesses more acknowledged privileges or eminence than members of most other classes in a society, membership therein typically being hereditary. The privileges associated with nobility may constitute substantial advantages over or relative to non-nobles, or may be...
(szlachta
Szlachta
The szlachta was a legally privileged noble class with origins in the Kingdom of Poland. It gained considerable institutional privileges during the 1333-1370 reign of Casimir the Great. In 1413, following a series of tentative personal unions between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of...
). Originally the nobles belonged to chivalric clan
Clan
A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, clan members may be organized around a founding member or apical ancestor. The kinship-based bonds may be symbolical, whereby the clan shares a "stipulated" common ancestor that is a...
s whose names survived in the names of their coats of arms
Coat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...
. Eventually, members of one clan would split into separate families with different surnames, usually derived from the name of the village they owned. Sometimes the family name and the clan name (associated with the arms) would be used together and form a double-barrelled name.
The most striking peculiarity of the Polish heraldic system is that a coat of arms does not belong to a single family. A number of families sharing male-line origin or sometimes even unrelated by blood but only by a formal adoption upon ennoblement (sometimes hundreds of them), usually with a number of different family names, may use a coat of arms, and each coat of arms has its own name, usually the name of the original blood-line the clan descends from. Thus the total number of coats of arms in this system was relatively low — ca. 200 in the late Middle Ages.
One side-effect of this unique arrangement was that it became customary to refer to noblemen by both their family name and their coat of arms/clan name. For example: Jan Zamoyski
Jan Zamoyski
Jan Zamoyski , was a Polish-Lithuanian nobleman, magnate, 1st duke/ordynat of Zamość. Royal Secretary since 1566, Lesser Kanclerz ) of the Crown since 1576, Lord Grand-Chancellor of the Crown since 1578, and Grand Hetman of the Crown since 1581...
herbu Jelita means Jan Zamoyski of clan Jelita (though it is often quite incorrectly translated as ...of the clan Jelita coat-of-arms as if he were not a blood-member of the line).
From the 15th to 17th centuries, the formula seems to copy the ancient Roman naming convention with the classic tria nomina used by the Patricians: praenomen (or given name), nomen gentile (or gens
Gens
In ancient Rome, a gens , plural gentes, referred to a family, consisting of all those individuals who shared the same nomen and claimed descent from a common ancestor. A branch of a gens was called a stirps . The gens was an important social structure at Rome and throughout Italy during the...
/Clan name) and cognomen
Cognomen
The cognomen nōmen "name") was the third name of a citizen of Ancient Rome, under Roman naming conventions. The cognomen started as a nickname, but lost that purpose when it became hereditary. Hereditary cognomina were used to augment the second name in order to identify a particular branch within...
(surname), following the Renaissance fashion, thus: Jan Jelita Zamoyski, forming a double-barrelled name
Double-barrelled name
In English speaking and some other Western countries, a double-barrelled name is a family name with two parts, which may or may not be joined with a hyphen and is also known as a hyphenated name. An example of a hyphenated double-barrelled surname is Bowes-Lyon; an example of an unhyphenated...
(nazwisko złożone). Later, the double-barrelled name would be joined with a hyphen: Jan Jelita-Zamoyski.
Gradually the use of family names spread to other social groups: the townsfolk by the end of the 17th century, then the peasantry, and finally the Jews. The process finally ended only in the mid-19th century.
After the First
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and Second World Wars
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
some resistance
Resistance movement
A resistance movement is a group or collection of individual groups, dedicated to opposing an invader in an occupied country or the government of a sovereign state. It may seek to achieve its objects through either the use of nonviolent resistance or the use of armed force...
fighters added their wartime noms de guerre to their original family names. This was yet another reason for creating double-barrelled names. Examples include Edward Rydz-Śmigły, Jan Nowak-Jeziorański
Jan Nowak-Jezioranski
Jan Nowak-Jeziorański was a Polish journalist, writer, politician, social worker and patriot. He served during the Second World War as one of the most notable resistance fighters of the Home Army...
, and Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski
Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski
General Count Tadeusz Komorowski , better known by the name Bór-Komorowski was a Polish military leader....
. Some artists, such as Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński
Tadeusz Boy-Zelenski
Tadeusz Kamil Marcjan Żeleński was a Polish stage writer, poet, critic above all, and translator of over 100 French literary classics into Polish...
, also added their noms de plume to their surnames.
Poles in Diasporas
When Poles emigrate to countries with different languages and cultures, the often-difficult spelling and pronunciation of Polish names commonly cause them to be misspelled or changed; sometimes indirectly by transliteration into, e.g., CyrillicCyrillic alphabet
The Cyrillic script or azbuka is an alphabetic writing system developed in the First Bulgarian Empire during the 10th century AD at the Preslav Literary School...
.
For example, in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
often changes w to v and sz to sh. Similar changes sometimes occur in French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, as well as the addition to aristocratic names of de (la particule :fr:Particule (onomastique)) or von in German or Van/van in Dutch. However, it is not very correct as the ski/cki/dzki surnames already contain the de/von/van meaning.
Changes in Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
may be even more extreme. A Spiczyński may become simply Spika, for example while the proper translation will be de Spiczyn. Hyphenated double-barrelled names are often rearranged: Erasmus Bogorya-Skotnicki becomes Erasmo Bogorya de Skotnicki or Erasmo Skotnicki de Bogorya.
Classification
Based on grammatical features, Polish surnames may be divided into:- nominal, derived from and declinedDeclensionIn linguistics, declension is the inflection of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and articles to indicate number , case , and gender...
as a nounNounIn linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of... - adjectival, derived from and declined as an adjectiveAdjectiveIn grammar, an adjective is a 'describing' word; the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified....
.
Adjectival names very often end in the suffixes -ski, -cki and -dzki (feminine -ska, -cka and -dzka), and are considered to be either typically Polish or typical for the Polish nobility.
In case of '-ski' is true to the extent that a surname contains a name of a city or a town.
In France or Germany where not all people with a de or von in their names were formally nobles however the adjectival suffix -ski, -ski or -sky is found in many other Slavic languages
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic...
, and in Poland, the adjectival form of a name was not reserved to the szlachta.
Based on origin, Polish family names may be generally divided into three groups: cognominal, toponymic and patronymic.
Cognominal
A cognominal surname (nazwisko przezwiskowe) derives from a person's nickname, usually based on his occupation, or a physical or character trait.Examples:
- Kowal, Kowalski, Kowalczyk, Kowalewski—from kowal (i.e. "blacksmith"); or from Kowale or Kowalewo ("Smithville") in case of Kowalski and Kowalewski.
- Młynarz, Młynarski, Młynarczyk—from młynarz (i.e. "miller"); or from Młynary ("Millersville") in case of Młynarski.
- Nowak, Nowakowski, Nowicki—from nowy ("the new one"); or from Nowakowo or Nowice ("Newmantown") in case of Nowakowski and Nowicki.
- Lis, Lisiewicz, Lisowski—from lis ("fox"); or from Lisowo ("Foxville") in case of Lisowski.
- Kołodziej, Kołodziejska, Kołodziejski — from kołodziej (wheelwright) or koło (Wheel); or from Kołowice ("Wheeltown").
- Kuchar
Toponymic
A toponymic surname (nazwisko odmiejscowe) usually derives from the name of a village or town, or the name of a topographic feature. These names are almost always of the adjectival form. Originally they referred to the village owner, in the 19th century however they were mostly formed for people who were lacking surnames by then, from the name of the town inhabited.Examples:
- Andrychowski -lord of AndrychówAndrychówAndrychów is the largest town in Wadowice County in southern Poland with 22,257 inhabitants as of 2006. It has been situated in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship since 1999. Previously, it was located in Bielsko-Biała Voivodeship...
; - Brodowski—lord of Brodowo;
- Ćmielowski - lord of ĆmielówCmielówĆmielów is a town in Ostrowiec County, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, Poland, seat of Gmina Ćmielów. It has 3,222 inhabitants . It is known for one of Poland's oldest porcelain factories dating back to 1790.The town history dates back to 14th century...
; - Tarnowski—lord of TarnówTarnówTarnów is a city in southeastern Poland with 115,341 inhabitants as of June 2009. The city has been situated in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship since 1999, but from 1975 to 1998 it was the capital of the Tarnów Voivodeship. It is a major rail junction, located on the strategic east-west connection...
; - Ujazdowski - lord of Ujazd;
- Wrzesiński - lord of WrześniaWrzesniaWrześnia is a town in central Poland with 28,600 inhabitants . It is situated in the Września County, Greater Poland Voivodeship , previously in Poznań Voivodeship , on the Wrzesnica River.- History :...
; - Zaleski—lord of ZalesieZalesieZalesie may refer to the following places in Poland.In Greater Poland Voivodeship :*Zalesie, Gmina Krzymów*Zalesie, Gmina Ostrów Wielkopolski*Zalesie, Gmina Skulsk*Zalesie, Gostyń County*Zalesie, Jarocin County*Zalesie, Koło County...
;
- Krakowski—dweller of KrakówKrakówKraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
; - Warszawski—dweller of Warszawa (WarsawWarsawWarsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
).
- Mazur, Mazurski -from MasuriaMasuriaMasuria is an area in northeastern Poland famous for its 2,000 lakes. Geographically, Masuria is part of two adjacent lakeland districts, the Masurian Lake District and the Iława Lake District...
.
Patronymic
A patronymicPatronymic
A patronym, or patronymic, is a component of a personal name based on the name of one's father, grandfather or an even earlier male ancestor. A component of a name based on the name of one's mother or a female ancestor is a matronymic. Each is a means of conveying lineage.In many areas patronyms...
surname (nazwisko odimienne) derives from a given name of a person and usually ends in a suffix suggesting a family relation.
Examples:
- Jan, Jachowicz, Janicki, Jankowski, Janowski—derived from Jan (John or Ian), Jankowo or Janowo (Johnstown).
- Adamczewski, Adamczyk, Adamowski, Adamski—derived from Adam; or from Adamczewo / Adamowo (Adamsville).
- Łukasiński, Łukaszewicz—derived from Łukasz (Luke); or from Łukasin (Luketown).
Other
- There is also a class of surnames derived from the past tense participles. These names usually have the feminine (-ła) or neuter (-ło) ending of the (ancient, now obsolete) active past participle, meaning "the one who has ...[come, applied, accomplished, settled, searched, found, etc.]", e.g. Domagała, Przybyła, Napierała, Dopierała, Szukała or Podsiadło, Wcisło, Wlazło, Przybyło. A smaller number of surnames use the masculine form, e.g. Musiał. Note that in foreign countries, where the letter Ł is not available, l will be used instead, e.g. Domagala.
- The most popular Polish surname, Nowak,,, has the original meaning "the new one".
Feminine forms
Adjectival surnames, like all Polish adjectives, have masculine and feminineGrammatical gender
Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
forms. If a masculine surname ends in -i or -y, its feminine equivalent ends in -a. Surnames ending with consonants have no specific feminine form. Examples:
| Masculine | Feminine |
|---|---|
| Malinowski | Malinowska |
| Zawadzki | Zawadzka |
| Podgórny | Podgórna |
| Biały | Biała |
Nominal surnames may or may not change with gender. Like other Slavic languages, Polish has special feminine suffixes which were added to a woman's surname. A woman who was never married used her father's surname with the suffix -ówna or -'anka. A married woman or a widow used her husband's surname with the suffix -owa or -'ina / -'yna (the apostrophe means that the last consonant in the base form of the surname is softened). Although these suffixes are still used by some people, mostly the elderly and in rural areas, they are now becoming outdated and there is a tendency to use the same form of a nominal surname for both a man and a woman.
| Father / husband | Unmarried woman | Married woman or widow |
|---|---|---|
| ending in a consonant (except g) | -ówna | -owa |
| ending in a vowel or in -g | -'anka | -'ina or -'yna |
However, the forms in "-anka" and "-ina/-yna" tend to disappear and are being replaced by the forms in "-ówna" and "-owa" respectively.
Examples:
| Father / husband | Unmarried woman | Married woman or widow |
|---|---|---|
| Nowak | Nowakówna | Nowakowa |
| Madej | Madejówna | Madejowa |
| Konopka | Konopczanka, new: Konopkówna | Konopczyna, new: Konopkowa |
| Zaręba | Zarębianka, new: Zarębówna | Zarębina, new: Zarębowa |
| Pług | Płużanka, new: Pługówna | Płużyna, new: Pługowa |
Plural forms
Plural forms of the surnames follow the pattern of the masculine and feminine forms respectively, if such exist. For the whole family (bi-gender situations, mixture of males and females), the masculine plural is used. Plural forms of the names quite rarely follow the patterns of regular declension, even if the name is identical with a common name. Uneducated people often use plural of the common names for plural of surnames, and feminine (felt as neutral) of the adjectival surnames for bi-gender situation.| Surname masculine | Plural masculine or both masculine and feminine | Surname feminine | Plural feminine | Plural of the common name (for comparison) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kowalski | Kowalscy | Kowalska | Kowalskie | --- |
| Wilk | Wilkowie | --- (Wilkówna, Wilkowa) | --- (Wilkówne, Wilkowe) | wilki, wilcy |
| Zięba | Ziębowie | --- (Ziębianka, Ziębina, new: Ziębówna, Ziębowa) | --- (Ziębianki, Ziębiny, new: Ziębówny, Ziębowe) | zięby |
Formal and informal use
Poles pay great attention to the correct way of referring to or addressing other people depending on the level of social distance, familiarity and politeness. The differences between formal and informal language include:- using surnames vs. given names;
- using vs. not using honorific titles such as Pan / Pani / Państwo;
- using the third person singular (formal) vs. the second person singular (informal) forms.
Pan / Pani / Państwo
Pan and Pani are the basic honorific styles used in Polish to refer to a man or woman, respectively. In the past, these styles were reserved to hereditary nobles and played more or less the same roles as "Lord" or "Sir" and "Lady" or "Madame" in English. Since the 19th century, they have come to be used in all strata of society and may be considered equivalent to the English "Mr." and "Ms." or the Japanese "san" suffix while the nobles would be addressed "Jego/Jej Miłość Pan/Pani" (His/Her Grace Lord/Lady). There used to be a separate style, Panna ("Miss"), applied to an unmarried woman, but this is now outdated and mostly replaced by Pani."Państwo" is widely used when referred to a married couple (instead of using separately Pan and Pani) or even the whole family.
Examples:
- Pan Kowalski + Pani Kowalska = Państwo Kowalscy
- Pan Nowak + Pani Nowak = Państwo Nowakowie
Titles
When addressing people, scientific and other titles are always used together with "Pan" and "Pani" and the name itself is dropped. However, when a person is spoken of but not addressed directly, then both the title and the name are used and the words "Pan"/"Pani" are often omitted.Examples:
- "Panie profesorze" ("Professor!"), "Pan profesor powiedział" ("Professor (X) said" or: "you have said, professor")
- "Pani doktor" ("Doctor!"), "Pani doktor powiedziała" ("Doctor (X) said" or: "you have said, doctor")
but:
- "Pan profesor Jan Nowak" or: "profesor Jan Nowak" or: "profesor Nowak",
- "Pani doktor Maria Kowalska" or "doktor Maria Kowalska" or: "doktor Kowalska"
Given name / surname order
The given name(s) normally comes before the surname. However, in a list of people sorted alphabetically by surname, the surname usually comes first. Hence some people may also use this order in spoken language (e.g. introducing themselves as Kowalski Jan instead of Jan Kowalski), but this is generally considered incorrect or a throwback to the Communist era when this order was sometimes heard in official situations. In many formal situations the given name is omitted altogether.Examples:
- Pan Włodzimierz Malinowski
- Pani Jadwiga Kwiatkowska
On the other hand, it is not common to refer to public figures, while not addressing them, with "Pan" or "Pani". It is rarely done with politicians, e.g.
- "Jan Kowalski był dziś w Gdańsku." ("Jan Kowalski was in Gdansk today") (e.g. of a Prime Minister) and not *"Pan Jan Kowalski był dziś w Gdańsku."
- "Pan Kowalski uważa, że" ("Mr Kowalski maintains that", e.g. of a government minister), better: "Jan Kowalski uważa, że" or "Minister Kowalski uważa, że"
and never with artists, athletes, sportsmen or sportswomen:
- "Film reżyserował Jan Kowalski." ("The film was directed by Jan Kowalski.") and not: *"Film reżyserował pan Jan Kowalski."
- "Złoty medal zdobyła Anna Kowalska." ("The gold medal was won by Anna Kowalska.") and never: *"Złoty medal zdobyła pani Anna Kowalska."
In such circumstances, preceding a name with "Pan" or "Pani" would usually be felt as being ironical.
Semi-formal levels of address
In situations of frequent contact, e.g. at work, people who do not decide to change their status from formal into friendly, may remain for years at semi-formal level, using the formal "Pan" / "Pani" form followed by the given name. This way of calling people is used not only when addressing them but also when referring to them while talking to a third person with whom one remains at the same level of semi-formal contacts.The common situation is that of reciprocity (in case both people have equal, or close to equal, status). However, an asymmetric situation is also quite common, when a subordinate person is addressed by his or her given name by their superior, but the subordinate never uses the given name of the superior, using his or her title instead:
- the superior to a subordinate: "Panie Włodzimierzu!", "Pani Jadwigo!";
- a subordinate to the superior: "Panie Dyrektorze!" (literally: "Mr Principal!"), "Pani Kierownik!" (literally: "Mrs Manager!").
This style is to a certain degree similar to the Vietnamese
Vietnamese name
Vietnamese names generally consist of three parts: a family name, a middle name, and a given name, used in that order. The "family name first" order follows the system of Chinese names and is common throughout the Sinosphere , but is different from Chinese, Korean, and Japanese names in having a...
, Japanese
Japanese name
in modern times usually consist of a family name , followed by a given name. "Middle names" are not generally used.Japanese names are usually written in kanji, which are characters of usually Chinese origin in Japanese pronunciation...
or Icelandic
Icelandic name
Icelandic names differ from most current Western family name systems by being patronymic in that they reflect the immediate father of the child and not the historic family lineage....
usage.
NB. If the superior wants to behave more politely or show his or her friendly attitude towards the subordinate etc., the diminutive of the given name of the subordinate may be used (like in the semi-informal way of addressing among co-workers or neighbours, see below): "Panie Włodku!", "Pani Jadziu!". This, however, is usually not practiced when the subordinate is much older than the superior, as it may be felt by the subordinate as being overly patronised by his/her superior.
It is rude to call a person by his/hers surname in the presence of unknown people. In a random crowd, a person calling another person should use a form of "Proszę Pana / Pani" ("I'm asking you, Sir / Madam") or to use semi-formal form with first name, like "Panie Włodzimierzu" ("Mr. Włodzimierz"). This rule comes from a general rule that one has right to be anonymous among crowd of unknown people. This rule is observed in most countries of western culture. To disclose one's given name does not fall under this rule, as many people can be named Włodzimierz for instance.
Semi-informal and informal language
Informal forms of address are normally used only by relatives, close friends and co-workers. In such situations diminutives are generally preferred to the standard forms of given names. At an intermediate level of familiarity (e.g. among co-workers) a diminutive given name may be preceded by formal Pan or Pani (semi-informal form of address).Examples:
- Pan Włodek (but also standard semi-formal form "Pan Włodzimierz") - in direct address "Panie Włodku" (standard: "Panie Włodzimierzu")
- Pani Jadzia (but also "Pani Jadwiga") - in direct address "Pani Jadziu" (standard: "Pani Jadwigo")
Using the honorific style with a surname only, if used to refer to a given person directly, is generally perceived as rude (giving impression of patronising or irony; e.g., "Panie Idioto"). In such a case it is more polite to avoid this form and when referring to the person use just the form "Pan", without given or family name.
It is very rude to address someone whom one does not know well with the omission of "Pan" or "Pani" (and with the second person singular instead of the polite third person singular pronouns and verb forms). Traditionally, the act of moving from this form to a friendly "you" must be acknowledged by both parties and it is usually a mark of a close friendly relationship between the two people. The change can only be proposed by the older or more respected person; a similar suggestion initiated by the younger or less respected person will usually be perceived as presumptuous and arrogant.
There is a clear distinction between "friends" and "colleagues". For example, co-workers will be very rarely referred to as friends. People will be called "colleagues" most likely only after the titling was mutually agreed to be changed from "Pan/Pani" to "you". To be considered a "friend" they have to feel closer relation and there must be mutual understanding of each other (usually, indicating that they believe they can share each other secrets without fearing that they will be revealed to others, and, more generally, when one can depend on another even in the most difficult situations). Thus "przyjaciel" ("friend") in Polish has a narrower meaning than its counterpart in English.
There is yet another type of relation: "znajomy" which means "acquainted" or "a person known to another person". There is no universal agreement, whether "znajomy" is more or less than "kolega" (a colleague). For instance, it is common to call "znajomi" (plural) people one knows on private level, therefore it is an equivalent of english "friend". However in official relationships it can mean a person one knows on lesser level than "kolega".
It is not uncommon to use a half-informal title, with the name omitted. This is, however, usually found only in the vocative case: "Panie Kolego!" (much less common: "Pani Koleżanko!") which literally means "Mr. Mate!".
See also
- Name of PolandName of PolandThe ethnonyms for the Poles and Poland include endonyms and exonyms...
- Polish clansPolish clansPolish clans differ from most clan systems in that while they are mostly composed of families sharing male-line origin there can also be some genealogically unrelated families bearing the same coat of arms and clan name because of a formal adoption upon ennoblement or sometimes because of a...
- Polish heraldryPolish heraldryPolish heraldry is a branch of heraldry focused on studying the development of coats of arms in the lands of historical Poland , as well as specifically-Polish traits of heraldry. The term is also used to refer to Polish heraldic system, as opposed to systems used elsewhere, notably in Western Europe...
- Slavic names
- Slavic surnames
- T-V distinctionT-V distinctionIn sociolinguistics, a T–V distinction is a contrast, within one language, between second-person pronouns that are specialized for varying levels of politeness, social distance, courtesy, familiarity, or insult toward the addressee....
- Family nameFamily nameA family name is a type of surname and part of a person's name indicating the family to which the person belongs. The use of family names is widespread in cultures around the world...
- Family name affixesFamily name affixesFamily name affixes are a clue for family name etymology and can sometimes determine the ethnic origin of a person. This is a partial list of affixes.-Prefixes:* A- "son of"* Ab - "son of"...
- A Translation Guide to 19th-Century Polish-Language Civil-Registration DocumentsA Translation Guide to 19th-Century Polish-Language Civil-Registration DocumentsA Translation Guide to 19th-Century Polish-Language Civil-Registration Documents is a book written by genealogical researcher Judith R. Frazin as a tool to help researchers unlock the meaning of 19th-century Polish language civil records...
External links
- Meaning of Polish Lastnames / Surnames
- Traditional Slavic names and namedays
- Slavic calendar
- The most Common Baby names in Poland - History, Trends
- Polish Last Names
- Database of Polish given names
- Most common surnames in Poland
- Repartition of Polish surnames in present day Poland (interactive maps) according to the 2001 census