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Polish Surnames: Origins & Meanings

Polish Surnames: Origins & Meanings

Butch hawke (View posts)
Posted: 7 Aug 2002 3:01PM GMT
Classification: Query
Edited: 21 Feb 2004 6:09PM GMT
I did get a reply from this wonderful guy, I wanted to share this information with anyone who needs it. I hope this is helpful to all.

Peczarski,

I can't say for sure what your family origin is, but I can analyze this name from the point of view of Polish surnames and tell you what I come up with.

As of 1990, according to the best data available (the_Slownik nazwisk wspolczesnie w Polsce uzywanych_, "Directory of Surnames in Current Use in
Poland," which covers about 94% of the population o Poland), the name PECZARSKI was listed with frequency 0, which means that name did appear in the database from which the Directory was compiled, but data was incomplete or corrupted. Most often such entries turn out to be misspellings.

I would say it is highly likely this is a variation of PIECZARSKI,pronounced roughly "p'yeah-CHAR-skee." Standard spelling of names of this sort in Polish includes the -i-, but it would not be at all unusual to encounter the name sometimes spelled without it; so it's very plausible
PECZARSKI is just a slightly different form of PIECZARSKI. As of 1990 there were 57 Polish citizens by the latter name. The largest numbers lived in the following provinces: Koszalin 19, Krakow 7, and Legnica 18. Unfortunately I
don't have access to further details such as first names or addresses, so I can't tell you how to find that info.

Koszalin and Legnica are in western Poland, but I should point out that this does not necessarily mean that's where those Pieczarskis came from. After World War II large numbers of people were forced to relocate from east to
west. It is possible some or most of those Pieczarskis originally came from eastern or southeastern Poland. Unfortunately, I have no data to prove or disprove this; but it is worth keeping in mind.

Polish name expert Prof. Kazimierz Rymut mentions this name in his book _Nazwiska Polakow_ [The Surnames of Poles]. He says it comes from the noun _pieczara_, meaning "cave, cavern, den." PIECZARSKI would mean literally "of the cave, cavern, den." It might refer to the kin of one whom people
associated with nearby caves; it might also refer to a family connection with a place named Pieczary or something similar because of nearby caves.
This is the sort of thing that can be established only through genealogical research into the history of the family in question.

I should mention that the noun meaning the same thing is quite similar in Ukrainian: we would spell it _pechera_, pronounced roughly "peh-CHAIR-ah," but by Polish orthography it would be spelled _peczera_ or _pieczera_
(depending on whether or not the one pronouncing it included the slight "y" sound indicated by -i-). So you see the noun is very similar in both languages, and surnames formed from these nouns would be quite similar:
perhaps Pieczarski in Polish, Pecherskyi in Ukrainian. Factor in spelling variations and human error and the two are almost indistinguishable.

So whether your Peczarksis turn out to be ethnic Poles or Ukrainians, either way the name almost certainly refers to some perceived connection with caves, or with a place named for nearby caves. "One from the place of the caves" is a reasonable interpretation of the surname, whether Polish or
Ukrainian.

That's about all I can tell you. I hope it's some help, and wish you the best of luck with your research.

William F. Hoffman
Author, "Polish Surnames: Origins & Meanings"


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