Kaszubik wrote: > > >Subject: Does endings on Polish surnames have any meaning? > >My name ends in 'cki' . No one realizes it is Polish. > > KK> You have been spared the abuse I grew up with then. There are many > jealous of our intelligence. My name is Pawlicki and it made no difference growing up in Australia (near Melbourne in the south - nowhere near P.Hanson and her like). Both my parents were born in Poland. > >I was told Wysocki means "tall" (seems true- I'm 6'3"). > KK> "wysoki" means "tall, elevated, high." The letter 'c' "Wysocki" is pronounced like 'ts' in tsar so you would get Vysotski. My uncle in England actually changed his name from Pawlicki to Pavlitski to try and keep it sounding "right". > The suffix -cki or -ski > generally means from, like or of. I have the surname Wysocki in my > own family pedigree as a toponym ("from" the village of Wysoka > Zaborska). This is a very common > surname with almost 30,000 people > in Poland with that name in 1990. > > KK> For more information I suggest that you purchase an excellent book > titled: Polish Suranmes: Origins and Meanings by William F. Hoffman > from the Polish Genealogical Society of America. > > >Just curious of any meaning if name ends in 'ski', > >'cki', or other. My father has always insisted that names that ended in 'cki' or 'ski' are from the nobility. For example: Potocki, Czartoryski, etc. As Mr Kaszubik said above, many names are taken from the place of origin. But the reverse is also true. The noble family of Zamojski/Zamoyski owned the town of Zamosc. I am fairly that the town was named after the noble. On the other hand, some people not from the nobility adopted or adjusted their names so as to sound noble. Ed PA P.S. TO MR KASZUBIK: My father was born in the area near/in Kaszuby. His 3 sisters now live in Chojnice. Is this anywhere near your anscestors ?