Forum | PolishOrigins :: View topic - Variations of same name Adamowski?

Author

Message

Arlene

Joined: 21 Mar 2009
Replies: 1

Back to top

Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2009 7:45 pm Post subject: Variations of same name Adamowski?

I was researching a woman with the maiden name of Adamowska. I believe I found her marriage but the church records list her as Adamozanka and her father as Adamczak. Since her husband's name and town match and a marriage witness matches with a later child's godparent, I suspect that I have found the correct marriage record. But is it possible that her father's name of Adamczak would change to Adamozanka for the daughter who would later be known as Adamowska?

dkupil

Joined: 01 Nov 2008
Replies: 16
Location: PA
Back to top

Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2009 7:43 pm Post subject: Spellings Variations

Arlene
Polish surnames spellings variations are very common. My last name Kupillas was originally spelled Kupilas I also seen other variations. My great-grandmother name Wasielewska I seen several variation. The point is during the 19 th century many people couldn,t read or write at baptisms the priest spelled name as the people told him. My great-grandfather was from Opole in Silesia which is mostly german, the priest that baptised him was polish since in polish they don,t use double letters in german they use double letter so if the priest was german hence double letters. There are many reasons for variations maybe someone who is fluent in polish might be able to help you answer your question better than I.
dkupil

Zenon
PolishOrigins Team Leader

Joined: 28 Apr 2007
Replies: 1532
Location: Poland
Back to top

Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 5:10 am Post subject:

You hit the nail on its head, dkupil. In your research case Arlene, we have to deal again with Polish language nuances plus (most probably) name change.

Surnames Adamczak and Adamowska (female) or Adamowski (male) both derive from the same root - "Adam" first name. So if the remaining details from records you Arlene have match, I think it is very probable that the surname Adamczak was changed into Adamowski (more about name changes in our Forum other topic: http://forum.polishorigins.com/viewtopic.php?t=84 ). In Polish, Adamowski (with -ski ending) "sounds better", more nobly Wink

. You can read more about that in the article How Surnames Came Into Being in Poland

And Adamczanka means just "daughter of Adamczak".

PolishOrigins Forum