What’s in a (Polish) name?
Compiled by Our Warsaw Correspondent Robert Strybel



What does your Polish name mean?

Adamczyk = Adam’s kid

If your surname is Pietrzak, someone once described some distant ancestor of yours “Pete’s boy”, and it stuck. Dąbrowski was “the man from Oakville (Dąbrowa)”, Nowak was what they called “the new guy in town” and Bednarz made barrels for a living.


For a custom-researched analysis of the meaning and derivation of your Polish surname, how many people share it, where they live and whether the name is accompanied by a noble coat-of-arms, please airmail a $19 check (adding $10 for each additional surname) to:

Robert Strybel
Ulica Kaniowska 24
01-529 Warsaw, Poland