Polish name


Polish names have two main elements: the imię, the first name, or given name; and the nazwisko, the last name, family name.
The usage of personal names in Poland is generally governed by civil law, church law, personal taste and family custom.
The law requires a given name to indicate the person's gender. Almost all Polish female names end in a vowel -a, and most male names end in a consonant or a vowel other than a. There are, however, a few male names that end in a, which are very old and uncommon, such as Barnaba, Bonawentura, Boryna, Jarema, Kosma, Kuba and Saba. Maria is a female name that can be used also as a middle name for males.
Since the High Middle Ages, Polish-sounding surnames ending with the masculine -ski suffix, including -cki and -dzki, and the corresponding feminine suffix -ska/-cka/-dzka were associated with the nobility, which alone, in the early years, had such suffix distinctions. They are widely popular today.
Minor regional spelling differences also exist depending on whether the surname originated in Polish, Czech or Slovak.

''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.
Parents normally choose from a long list of traditional names which may come from:
The names of Slavic saints, such as Wojciech, Stanisław, or Kazimierz, belong to both of these groups. Slavic names used by historical Polish monarchs, e.g. Bolesław, Lech, Mieszko, Władysław, are common as well. Additionally, a few names of Lithuanian origin, such as Olgierd, Witold or Danuta, are 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 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 saints instead of just one. At confirmation, people usually adopt yet another Christian name, however, it is never used outside church documents.
In Eastern Poland, as in many other Catholic countries, people celebrate name days on the day of their patron saint. On the other hand, in Western Poland, birthdays 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 and other less-intimate friends. Information about whose name is associated with a given day can be found in most Polish calendars and on the internet.
The choice of a given name is largely influenced by fashion. Many parents name their child after a national hero or heroine, or a character from a book, film, or TV show. In spite of this, a great number of popular names have been in use since the Middle Ages.
Diminutives are 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. For example, Maria, has diminutives Marysia, Maryśka, Marysieńka, Mania, Mańka, Maniusia, etc.
Alternatively, augmentative forms may be colloquially used, often with scornful or disdainful intention. For example, Maria may be called Marycha or Marychna.
As in many other cultures, a person may informally use a nickname or instead of a given name.
In 2009, the most popular female names in Poland were Anna, Maria, and Katarzyna. The most popular male names were Piotr, Krzysztof, and Andrzej.

''Nazwisko'' (surname)

Polish surnames, like those in most of Europe, are hereditary and generally patrilineal.
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 of either partner, or a combination of both; the children must receive either the joint surname or the surname of one of the partners. 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 or add her husband's surname to hers, thus creating a double-barrelled name. 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. An exception is when one of the surnames is composed of a surname proper plus agnomen, e.g., Maria Gąsienica Daniel-Szatkowska, where "Gąsienica Daniel is her husband's surname. 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. Polish triple-barreled surnames are known to exist; an example is the one borne by, a university professor and writer, living in Canada.
The most widespread Polish surnames are Nowak, Kowalski, Wiśniewski and Wójcik.

Suffix -ski/-ska

"Ski" is a formative adjective, from the Proto-Slavic "", which defined affiliation to something. It was also used with names of territories and settlements to denote possession or place of origin. The suffix, -ski, has been restricted to the nobility in eastern Europe and some parts of central Europe since the High Middle Ages. It was the equivalent to nobiliary particles appearing in the names of nobility, such as in the Germanic von or zu. Almost all surnames borne by the nobility with the -ski suffix are preceded by a place name or other territorial designation derived from their main court, holdings, castle, manor or estate. For example, the Polish nobleman Jan of Tarnów whose name in Polish is "Jan z Tarnowa" was equally known by the name "Jan Tarnowski"; this highlighted his nobility unlike the preposition of "z" alone which could be construed as a regular prepositional particle.
In the 19th century, a wave of seemingly noble sounding surnames began to appear among the common population, where a significant number of the bourgeoisie class, and even the peasantry, began to adopt or bear the noble -ski suffix. The -ski suffix was thus attached to surnames derived from a person's occupation, characteristics, patronymic surnames, or toponymic surnames. This caused a blur between the -ski bearing territorial toponymic surnames once a characteristic only borne by the nobility. As such, and contrary to a popular modern-day misconception, a person simply bearing the -ski suffix in their family surname or merely sharing the same toponymic surname as members of Poland's nobility, does not in itself denote that person too is a member of the nobility, of noble origin, or indeed connected to that particular family.
When referring to two or more members of the same family and surname, the suffix -ski is replaced with the plural -skich, -scy or -ccy as well as -skie or -ckie.
The -ski ending and its derivations are the only ones in Polish that have feminine forms, where women have the feminine version ending in -ska instead. Historically, female versions of surnames were more complex, often formed by adding the suffix -owa for married women and -ówna for unmarried women. In most cases, this practice is now considered archaic or rustic.

History, heraldry, and clan names

Family names first appeared in Poland around the 13th century and were only used by the upper social classes of society. Originally the Polish nobility belonged to heraldic clans whose names survived in their shared coats of arms. Eventually, members of one clan would split into separate families with different surnames, usually derived from the name of their holdings or estates. Sometimes the family name and the clan name would be used together and form a double-barrelled name.
To explain the formation of a particular Polish nobleman's name, e.g. Jakub Dąbrowski, Radwan coat of arms, the process might be as follows:
In Polish dąb means "oak". Dąbrów means "oak forest" and Dąbrówka means "oak grove". Then, by analogy with German surnames associated with noble provenance using von, the equivalent Polish preposition is, z, which means "from" followed by the name of the patrimony or estate. In Polish the expressions, z Dąbrówki and Dąbrowski mean the same thing: hailing "from Dąbrówka". More precisely, z Dąbrówki actually means owner of the estate, Dąbrówka, but not necessarily originating from there. Thus Jakub z Dąbrówki herbu Radwan translates as "Jacob from Dąbrówka, with the Radwan coat of arms". But with the later addition of his cognomen or nickname, Żądło, he would become known as, Jakub z Dąbrówki, Żądło, herbu Radwan - or he could be called just plain, Jakub Żądło.
The most striking concept of the Polish heraldic system is that a coat of arms may originate from a single family, but come to be carried by several non-related families of the Polish szlachta. Unrelated families who have joined the nobility by heraldic adoption can share the same coat of arms, even though that coat of arms bears the surname of the family who created it. Thus the total number of coats of arms in this system was relatively low — about 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 the clan Jelita.
From the 15th to the 17th century, the formula seems to copy the ancient Roman naming convention with the classic tria nomina used by the Patricians: praenomen, nomen gentile and cognomen, following the Renaissance fashion. Thus, Jan Jelita Zamoyski, forming a double-barrelled name. Later, the double-barrelled name would be joined with a hyphen: Jan Jelita-Zamoyski.

Example

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 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.

Change of name

A Polish citizen may apply to the registry office with a request for a change of name or surname alongside the payment of a small administrative fee. If the change of surname is not linked to marriage, the family surname is also changed in the successful's applicant's documents. A note is added to the applicant's birth certificate in the system, informing of the subsequent change of name.
The request is not always successful. Certain types of request are certain to be refused: for example, the surname of a famous historical figure, or where there is concern that the applicant is applying with the aim of evading criminal or civil responsibility. Every application must give a motivation for the change of name; for example, the existing name being offensive or funny, the desire to revert to a previous name, a close attachment to family members bearing a different surname, or being commonly known in unofficial contexts by a different name.

Polish names in diasporas

When Polish individuals 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 by transliteration into, for example, Cyrillic.
For example, in English, w is often changed to v and sz to sh. Similar changes occur in French. Changes in Spanish can be even more extreme; a Spiczyński may become simply Spika, for example, where a more rigorous transcription would produce de Spiczyñ.
Another typical change is the loss of the gender distinction in adjectival surnames, especially visible for those ending in -ski, -cki and -dzki. Western languages do not distinguish between male and female surnames, even if the language has gender-specific adjectives. As the surname is, in most cases, inherited from the father, the Western registries of birth and marriage ascribe the masculine form to the female members of the family. Slavic countries, in contrast, would use the feminine form of the surname. So the form Anna Kowalski would never be met within Poland, whereas it is commonly found in the US, Germany or Argentina.
Another change is changing the final vowel -i of the endings -ski, -cki and -dzki into -y. These endings are common in Czech, Slovak and Ukrainian languages, but they never occur in Polish.

Classification

Based on grammatical features, Polish surnames may be divided into:
Adjectival names very often end in the suffixes, -ski, -cki and -dzki, and are considered to be either typically Polish or typical for the Polish nobility. In the case of '-ski', it holds true if the surname contains the name of a city, town, village or other geographical location.
Based on origin, Polish family names may be generally divided into three groups: cognominal, toponymic and patronymic.

Cognominal

A Polish cognominal surname derives from a person's nickname, usually based on his profession, occupation, physical description, character trait, etc. The occupational surnames often would come from the Medieval Polish serf-villages, where a whole village serving the prince, township or lord, or a few streets in a town block would be inhabited by the same kind of specialized workers, often a guild of professionals. These areas would often be separate from the rest of the town due to the danger of fire, area ownership by the guild, or due to unpleasant pollution. Such serf areas would bear the plural form of the profession name, such as Piekary, Garbary, Winiary. Furthermore, the suffix -czyk, -yk, -ek was used to describe a profession as a diminutive, often, but not always, indicating a trainee - the learning assistant before achieving a full job title or seniority.
Examples of cognominal surnames:
s usually derive 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, surnames were often taken from the name of a person's town.
Examples of toponymic surnames:
A patronymic surname derives from the given name of a person, and usually ends in a suffix suggesting a family relation.
Examples of patronymic surnames:
Adjectival surnames, like all Polish adjectives, have masculine and feminine forms. If a masculine surname ends in -i or -y; its feminine equivalent ends in -a.
The feminine form is not just a common usage form, it is also the form of the surname that appears in all official records, such as birth, death and marriage certificates, identity cards, and passports. A female first name coupled with a male surname or vice versa sounds incongruous and wrong to the Polish ear.
Surnames ending with consonants usually have no additional feminine form. In the past, when the masculine form ended in a consonant, the feminine surname could have been derived by adding the suffix ' for married women and the suffix ' for maiden surname. For example, Cezaria Baudouin de Courtenay, after her marriage to Janusz Jędrzejewicz, was named Cezaria Baudouin de Courtenay Ehrenkreutz Jędrzejewiczowa. The unmarried daughter of Jędrzejewicz would have the official surname Jędrzejewiczówna. In modern times, Jędrzejewicz may be both a masculine and a feminine surname.
Another pair of archaic feminine forms are these derived from the masculine surname based on a nickname ending in vowel: "-ina" for married and "-anka/-ianka" for unmarried.
Still another archaic feminine forms are for surnames ending in -g or syllables starting with '-g': in this case the unmarried feminine form would use the suffix -żanka: Fertig->Fertiżanka, Szeliga->Szeliżanka.

Neutral form

The neutral form may be used for neutral gender. For example, when talking about a child of the neighbours one may say "To małe Kowalskie jest bardzo spokojnym dzieckiem", or in plural: "Wasilewskie wyjechały do babci". Unlike the feminine form, this form is never used in official documents; it is an informal form used mostly in spoken language.

Examples of feminine and neutral forms

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. 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. Furthermore, the forms "-anka" and "-ina/-yna" are going out of fashion and being replaced by "-ówna" and "-owa" respectively.
Examples of old feminine forms:

Plural forms

Plural forms of surnames follow the pattern of the masculine and feminine forms, respectively, if such exist. For a married couple or a family where there is a mix of males and females, the masculine plural is used. Plural forms of names rarely follow the patterns of regular declension, even if the name is identical with a common name.

Declension of adjectival surnames

The table below shows the full declension of adjectival surnames ending in -ki, using the surname "Kowalski" as an example.

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:

''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 for hereditary nobles, and played more or less the same role 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 nobles would be addressed "Jego/Jej Miłość Pan/Pani". There used to be a separate style, Panna, applied to unmarried women, but this is now outdated and mostly replaced by Pani.
"Państwo" is widely used when referring to a married couple or even a whole family.
Examples:
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:
but:
The given name 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, 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:
On the other hand, it is not common to refer to public figures, while not addressing them, with "Pan" or "Pani". This is true for politicians, artists, and athletes.
In such circumstances, preceding a name with "Pan" or "Pani" would usually be seen as being ironical.

Semi-formal levels of address

In situations of frequent contact, for example, at work, people who do not change their status from formal into familiar, may remain for years at a 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 to a third person with whom one remains at the same level of semi-formal contact.
In a situation where two people do not have the same status, for example an employer and employee, 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, a diminutive form of the given name may be used: "Panie Włodku!", "Pani Jadziu!". This, however, is usually not practised 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" or use the semi-formal form with first name, like "Panie Włodzimierzu". This comes from a general rule that one has the right to be anonymous in a 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 forms of address

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 a diminutive given name may be preceded by formal the Pan or Pani :
Using the honorific style with a surname only, if used to refer to a given person directly, is generally perceived as rude. In such case, it is more polite to use just the form "Pan", without given or family name.
It is very rude to address someone whom one does not know well without using "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.

Multiple surnames of married women

Although a re-married woman who takes the new husband's surname does not formally retain the surname from the previous marriages, on biographical occasions all her surnames may be listed as follows: "Maria Piłsudska, de domo Koplewska, primo voto Juszkiewicz, secundo voto Piłsudska", where "de domo" literally meaning "of house" is basically the same as née, ":pl:Wikt:primo voto|primo voto" marks the surname by the first marriage, "secundo voto" marks the surname by the second marriage, etc.