Nazwiska kobiet w Polsce dawniej i dziś

• Authors: Małgorzata Magda-Czekaj

Title variants

EN

WOMEN’S SURNAMES IN POLAND LONG AGO AND TODAY

• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

In Poland, the tradition of women’s taking the surnames of their husbands is very strong. Today, however, more and more women retain their maiden name or choose to take a surname with two elements. Women were designated with surnames based on their father’s (maiden name) and on their husband’s long ago (in the 18th century), as formants indicate, for example, Anna Holubowna Abramowiczowa. In tombstone inscriptions, maiden names were followed by the preposition phrase z domu, by the preposition z, or by d.d., de domo: Marta Kowal z d. Ligor (1996). Married women were secondarily identified with the use of their maiden name as well as the surname of their current and previous husband, for example, Maria de domo Kossak primo voto Bzowska secundo voto Pawlikowska tertio voto Jasnorzewska (1891-1945). In the 17th century, in the case of noblewomen, the inscription was as follows: Maryna Bereznickiego pierwszego malzenstwa Konstantowa Porwaniecka, a teraz wtornego Aleksandrowa Strybuniecka [Bereznicki, by her first marriage Konstantowa Porwaniecka, and now by her second Aleksandrowa Strybuniecka]. Women were designated in Małopolska in, for example, the form of juxtaposition. The byname of a husband, Chromy Janek (1569), served to create his wife’s surname: Chroma Jankowa or Anna Chromowa Jankowa. In Greater Poland, such formulations were created on the principle: first name + maritonymic formation, for example, Dorothea Marczingierczyna (1587). At present, formants creating feminine surnames have been completely eliminated from the official language. They have been preserved to some degree in colloquial language or in dialect. One of the few tolerated by women that indicate female gender) is the format –ska. Attested in historical anthroponymic sources and also contemporaneously are women’s surnames with the masculine -ski (Maria Lipinski 1890). The identical situation takes place in the case of adjectival surnames equal to masculine adjectival formations, thus Halszka Gorny, not Gorna. Similar means of designating women were noted as early as the 17th century in Silesia (Anna Czarny).

Keywords

EN

ANTHROPONYMY; FEMALE SURNAMES; MAIDEN NAME; SURNAMES FROM ONE’S HUSBAND’S NAME; MULTI-ELEMENT DESIGNATIONS

• Publisher: Instytut Języka Polskiego Polskiej Akademii Nauk
• Journal: Onomastica
• Year: 2013
• Volume: 57
• Pages: 155–165

Contributors

author

Małgorzata Magda-Czekaj

• Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN, al. Mickiewicza 31, 30-125 Kraków