Lindy asked that I clarify a few items... and it may be a wise thing to do here since one can easily get confused with these names. With regard to origins... Marian (male) and Marianna (female, also Mariana) have Latin origins and designate someone belonging to Mariusz or that family or to Mars (the Roman god of War). The Latin form for Mariusz is Marius (as in Gajus Marius). In particular, these names are not Polish equivalents of the English name Maryann, a combinational form of Mary Ann, nor do they originate from the name Mary (which has Hebrew origins). With regard to grammar... The Polish Masculine Genitive Singular case endings are -a and -u. A noun stem ending in -n will almost always form the genitive case by attaching the ending -a. This means that the Genitive Case for the male name Marian is Mariana (not Marianna). The Female Genitive Case of Marianna is Marianny. Hope this helps a bit. Roman On 1/31/2011 2:40 PM, Lindy Kasperski wrote: > Just to add to this and I trust Roman and others to clarify any mistakes: > Maryan or Marian is a very common male Polish name that in a different > grammatical case could show up as Marianna or Maryanna. > > My official name is Lindy Marian Kasperski. Please don't ask about Lindy, > but I am a male. However my 1950 birth certificate is Lindy Maryan > Kasperski. I changed Maryan to Marian after my second visit to Poland in > 1974 at a Polish folk dance school in Lublin when officials there suggested > my middle name was not correct i.e. Maryan should be Marian. I send this > email with humorous intention but also to point out that in official > documents of Poles arriving in Canada before WW2 a female could have her > name listed as Maria, Marya or Marja and a male Marian, Maryan or Marjan. > Obviously this is nominative case but reflects persons who recorded the > documents. > > Fred Hoffman wrote an article on this sometime back that is interchange of > i j and y. I will track it down or better yet ask Fred to identify it. > > > Lindy Marian Kasperski > Regina, Sk >

Adding to Roman's excellent explanation. Marianna (female name) was extremely popular in pre-WWI Poland due to the fact that the church frowned on anybody who wanted to name their girl Maria. Reasoning being that Maria was the name of the Mother of God and no mortal being should bear that name. So people would put Marianna (as sounding somewhat similar) on the church record but use Maria at home anyway. And while the name Maria has been since de-throned (so to speak) and has been widely used, you will not find a Pole named Jesus (as opposed to Italy and Spain for example). Ella -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Roman Sent: Monday, January 31, 2011 5:19 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [POLAND] The names Marian and Marianna Lindy asked that I clarify a few items... and it may be a wise thing to do here since one can easily get confused with these names. With regard to origins... Marian (male) and Marianna (female, also Mariana) have Latin origins and designate someone belonging to Mariusz or that family or to Mars (the Roman god of War). The Latin form for Mariusz is Marius (as in Gajus Marius). In particular, these names are not Polish equivalents of the English name Maryann, a combinational form of Mary Ann, nor do they originate from the name Mary (which has Hebrew origins). With regard to grammar... The Polish Masculine Genitive Singular case endings are -a and -u. A noun stem ending in -n will almost always form the genitive case by attaching the ending -a. This means that the Genitive Case for the male name Marian is Mariana (not Marianna). The Female Genitive Case of Marianna is Marianny. Hope this helps a bit. Roman

My dad's name was Marion and he always signed his name as Maryan. I always thought that this was a male version of Mary. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Roman" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, January 31, 2011 5:18 PM Subject: Re: [POLAND] The names Marian and Marianna > Lindy asked that I clarify a few items... and it may be a wise thing to > do here since one can easily get confused with these names. > > With regard to origins... > > Marian (male) and Marianna (female, also Mariana) have Latin origins and > designate someone belonging to Mariusz or that family or to Mars (the > Roman god of War). The Latin form for Mariusz is Marius (as in Gajus > Marius). > > In particular, these names are not Polish equivalents of the English > name Maryann, a combinational form of Mary Ann, nor do they originate > from the name Mary (which has Hebrew origins). > > With regard to grammar... > > The Polish Masculine Genitive Singular case endings are -a and -u. A > noun stem ending in -n will almost always form the genitive case by > attaching the ending -a. This means that the Genitive Case for the male > name Marian is Mariana (not Marianna). > > The Female Genitive Case of Marianna is Marianny. > > Hope this helps a bit. > > Roman > > On 1/31/2011 2:40 PM, Lindy Kasperski wrote: >> Just to add to this and I trust Roman and others to clarify any mistakes: >> Maryan or Marian is a very common male Polish name that in a different >> grammatical case could show up as Marianna or Maryanna. >> >> My official name is Lindy Marian Kasperski. Please don't ask about >> Lindy, >> but I am a male. However my 1950 birth certificate is Lindy Maryan >> Kasperski. I changed Maryan to Marian after my second visit to Poland in >> 1974 at a Polish folk dance school in Lublin when officials there >> suggested >> my middle name was not correct i.e. Maryan should be Marian. I send this >> email with humorous intention but also to point out that in official >> documents of Poles arriving in Canada before WW2 a female could have her >> name listed as Maria, Marya or Marja and a male Marian, Maryan or >> Marjan. >> Obviously this is nominative case but reflects persons who recorded the >> documents. >> >> Fred Hoffman wrote an article on this sometime back that is interchange >> of >> i j and y. I will track it down or better yet ask Fred to identify it. >> >> >> Lindy Marian Kasperski >> Regina, Sk >> > ********************************* > Need to contact the list manager? Write to Marie at > [email protected] > ---------------------------------- > Discussion of Polish food, culture, and customs are welcome on the list as > long as the discussion stays pertinent to the topic of this list: > researching our Polish roots. > ---------------------------------- > Browse the list's archives here: > http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index?list=poland-roots > Search the list's archives here: > http://archiver.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/search?aop=1 > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message