Vladyslovia is not a Polish Female Name. There is no "V" in the Polish Alphabet. You probably mean WLADYSLAWA which is the feminie form of WLADYSLAW (WALTER). ----- Original Message ----- From: "Beautiful Things" <btgifts@telus.net> To: <polandbordersurnames@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, October 09, 2007 12:09 PM Subject: Re: [PBS] Gladys > Vladyslovia > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Barbara Sosnowski " <bsosnowski@falmouth.k12.ma.us> > To: <polandbordersurnames@rootsweb.com> > Sent: Monday, October 08, 2007 3:03 PM > Subject: [PBS] Gladys > > >> Hi >> >> In my "Baby Book" there is a listing of my ggmother with >> the name Gladys Sawicki. Is there a Polish form of >> Gladys? >> >> Barbara Sosnowski >> bsosnowski@falmouth.k12.ma.us >> >> ------------------------------- >> To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >> POLANDBORDERSURNAMES-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' >> without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >> > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > POLANDBORDERSURNAMES-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' > without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Hi, Barbara Sosnowski asked if there was a feminine form of Gladys. I think we can say with some confidence that this name is not used by Poles, either in that form or in a direct equivalent. Rymut's compilation of data on first names borne by Polish citizens as of 1994 showed 1 (one) Polish citizen by that name. If I were a betting man, I'd bet she was not born in Poland; or if she was, her parents intentionally gave her a foreign name that they knew would stand out. This just isn't a name Poles tend to use, any more than most Anglos would name their child Yamamoto. Gladys, according to the best sources I have, is a name of Welsh origin. There are some Celtic names that came to be used by Poles, but offhand I can't think of any Welsh names that ever caught on in Poland. Now it is entirely possible a Polish woman living in an English-speaking country went by Gladys! We run into that sort of thing all the time. Someone mentioned that Gladys might be used as a substitute for Klaudia (the Polish form of Claudia, which is Latin in origin). This is not out of the question. Many Poles who emigrated came to realize that their given names sounded foreign and odd to their new neighbors. They wanted to fit in, so they chose to go by names that sounded more "normal" to Americans (or Canadians, Englishmen, Australians, etc.). Often they chose a name that was common among English-speakers and had some of the same sounds as their original name. Phonetically, Glad- is fairly close to Claud- or Klaud-; so it wouldn't be odd at all for a Polish woman named Klaudia to decide "Gladys" was a good name to go by in America. Another possibility is Wladyslawa. Both Gladys and Wladyslawa names have that -ladys- in common (though Poles pronounce that L like our W). Wladyslawa (pronounced roughly "v'wah-diss-WAH-vah") sounded really foreign to English-speakers, and it wouldn't surprise me if some Polish women by that name chose to go by Gladys. Another English name some Wladyslawa's chose to go by was Lottie, for the same basic reason. The similarity in sound isn't overwhelming, but it's there if you listen closely. Incidentally, Danuta wrote: > You probably mean WLADYSLAWA which is the > feminie form of WLADYSLAW > (WALTER). Just to clarify things, Wladyslaw is not a true equivalent of Walter. Wladyslaw is Slavic, from ancient Slavic roots meaning "authority/power + fame/glory." Walter is Germanic, from ancient Germanic roots meaning "rule + lord." But again, a Pole named Wladyslaw might have gotten really tired of Americans saying "Your name is WHAT?" Walter was a familiar name to Americans, and it has some of the same basic sounds as Wladyslaw. So it's not unusual at all to find out that your ancestor Walter actually started life as Wladyslaw. (There are Poles named Walter -- some 4,609 of them as of 2002 -- but mainly in areas with a large German component to the population.) OK, now that I've told you way more than you ever wanted to know about this, I'll get back to work. Fred Hoffman