Polish name


Polish names have two main elements: the given name, and the surname. The usage of personal names in Poland is generally governed by civil law, church law, personal taste and family custom.
Polish names are inflected for gender. Most female names end in the 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 often old and uncommon, such as Barnaba, Bonawentura, Jarema, Kosma, Kuba and Saba. Maria is a female name that can also be used 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.

Given names

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.
In the past, there was no restrictions on the number of the given names. In formal situations, multiple given names were presented in the following style: "Zygmunt, Józef, Erazm 3-ga imion Kaczkowski, urodził sie dnia 2 maja 1825 roku..." In the case of two first names the qualifier "of two names" was used; four names: "of 4 names", etc.
Parents normally choose from a long list of traditional names, which includes:
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 they 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.

Surnames

Surnames, like those in most of Europe, are hereditary and generally patrilineal, being passed from the father 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 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 an adjective-forming suffix, from the Proto-Slavic "ьskъ", 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, the fact of 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, -ccy, or -dzcy as well as -skie, -ckie or -dzkie.
The -ski ending and similar adjectival endings 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 or -wianka for unmarried women. In most cases, this practice is now considered archaic or rustic.
Other common surname suffixes are -czyk, -czek, -czak, -czuk, and -wicz.

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. Over time the Polish nobility became grouped into heraldic clans whose names survived in their shared coats of arms. Members of one clan could 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. The opposite process happened as well: different families may have joined a heraldic clans by the means of heraldic adoption.
To explain the formation of a particular Polish nobleman's name, e.g. Jakub Dąbrowski, Radwan coat of arms, the process might be the following. In Polish dąb means "oak", dąbrowa 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.