{"tag":"declination","articles":{"blog\/life\/quirks-of-polish-names":{"key":"blog\/life\/quirks-of-polish-names","type":"article","published":true,"meta":{"createdAt":"2017-06-26T10:04:27+02:00","publishedAt":"2020-04-18T13:47:00+02:00","group":"names","category":"blog","subcategory":"life","slug":"quirks-of-polish-names"},"content":{"en":{"slug":"quirks-of-polish-names","title":"Quirks of Polish names","intro":"\u003Cp\u003EHaving lived in three different countries and interacted with people from all around the world\nmade me realise that Polish names have some pretty unique quirks \u2013 to which, as a native speaker,\nI didn\u0027t give too much thought, while foreigners find them quite strange.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Csvg xmlns=\u0022http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\u0022 style=\u0022display: none;\u0022\u003E\u003C\/svg\u003E","content":"\u003Cp\u003EHaving lived in three different countries and interacted with people from all around the world\nmade me realise that Polish names have some pretty unique quirks \u2013 to which, as a native speaker,\nI didn\u0027t give too much thought, while foreigners find them quite strange.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe most obviously tricky part is the pronunciation.\nMy name, \u201cAndrzej\u201d, is pronunced \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/forvo.com\/search\/andrzej\/pl\/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener\u0022\u003E\u003Csvg class=\u0022icon\u0022\u003E\u003Cuse xlink:href=\u0022#light-link\u0022\u003E\u003C\/use\u003E\u003C\/svg\u003E like this\u003C\/a\u003E, with the \u201crz\u201d as \/\u0290\/.\nBut hardly anyone outside of Poland knows that and has no problems pronouncing it and writing it down.\nThat\u0027s why I usually go by \u201cAndre\u201d, as a simplification. And recently also as \u201cAndrea\u201d, to make it gender-neutral.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EBut dificult pronunciation is almost a given when talking about other languages. What\u0027s quite specific to Polish then?\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Ch3\u003E(Doubly) diminutive-able first names\u003C\/h3\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EMany languages have \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Diminutive\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener\u0022\u003E\u003Csvg class=\u0022icon\u0022\u003E\u003Cuse xlink:href=\u0022#light-link\u0022\u003E\u003C\/use\u003E\u003C\/svg\u003E diminutives\u003C\/a\u003E.\nMany use them also for names (eg. English: Tim \u2192 Timmy, Richard \u2192 Dick, ...).\nSome languages even have a concept of double diminutive (Italian: casa \u2192 casetta \u2192 casettina).\nBut Polish just \u003Cem\u003Eloooves\u003C\/em\u003E its diminutives!\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EAccording to \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/ksiega-imion.pl\/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener\u0022\u003E\u003Csvg class=\u0022icon\u0022\u003E\u003Cuse xlink:href=\u0022#light-link\u0022\u003E\u003C\/use\u003E\u003C\/svg\u003E ksiega-imion.pl\u003C\/a\u003E, my first name, Andrzej, can be tuned into:\nAndruszko, Andrzejek, J\u0119drek, J\u0119dru\u015b, J\u0119drzejek, Ondrzejek, Ondraszek, or Ondrysz.\nDiminutives of Katarzyna are: Kacha, Kachna, Kasia, Kasie\u0144ka, Kasiunia, Ka\u015bka, Katarzynka, Katka.\nOf Jan: Janek, Janosik, Jasiek, Jasio, Ja\u015b, Ja\u015bko. And so on, and so forth...\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EAnd the thing is: which one to use can depend on so many things... Most are regional forms.\nSome you can use more like a joke or a nickname rather than a diminutive of a name.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EI\u0027ve noticed that many follow a three-level pattern. For instance:\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cul\u003E\n\u003Cli\u003EPiotr \u2192 Piotrek \u2192 Piotru\u015b\u003C\/li\u003E\n\u003Cli\u003EGrzegorz \u2192 Grzesiek \u2192 Grzesiu\u003C\/li\u003E\n\u003Cli\u003EMa\u0142gorzata \u2192 Go\u015bka \u2192 Gosia\u003C\/li\u003E\n\u003Cli\u003EWojciech \u2192 Wojtek \u2192 Wojtu\u015b\u003C\/li\u003E\n\u003Cli\u003EJan \u2192 Janek \u2192 Ja\u015b\u003C\/li\u003E\n\u003Cli\u003E...\u003C\/li\u003E\n\u003C\/ul\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe first one is \u003Cem\u003Every\u003C\/em\u003E formal. That\u0027s what\u0027s in your documents. That\u0027s what you probably hardly ever use\noutside of formal situations \u2013 at least I wouldn\u0027t, if I had one of those names.\nI\u0027ve had friends and family members who would always go by \u201cWojtek\u201d and never \u201cWojciech\u201d, always \u201cGosia\u201d and never \u201cMa\u0142gorzata\u201d, etc.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EIt sounds so formal that my sister Ma\u0142ogrzata, upon moving to the UK,\nwouldn\u0027t go by the English version of her name \u2013 Margaret -\nbut by an artificial anglicisation of the Polish diminutive \u201cGosia\u201d: so she\u0027s now known as \u201cGosha\u201d.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe second one is usually what you use informally, what friends call you, what the extended family calls you.\nThe third one is pretty intimate and quite infantile. You might call your romantic partners that, you might call children that.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EUsually. It all differs from name to name, it differs from person to person.\nSometimes it can get quite tricky to decide which form of one\u0027s name to use,\nin order not to sound too formal, or too familiar, or too childish...\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThat\u0027s why I\u0027m very glad that my name is not one of those \u201cthree-level\u201d names.\n\u201cAndrzej\u201d just doesn\u0027t sound \u003Cem\u003Eso formal\u003C\/em\u003E that it would be weird to call your friend that.\nOne can form a diminutive of it, if one wants, but \u201cAndrzej\u201d itself is pretty neutral.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EAnd they did, btw. My parish priest, for example,\njokingly called be \u201cJ\u0119drek\u201d, because he\u0027s from the mountains where this form is popular.\nAnd my mother called me \u201cAdu\u015b\u201d, completely ignoring the fact that it\u0027s not in the slightest a diminutive of \u201cAndrzej\u201d.\nIt is a male-ified version of a diminutive of a female name \u201cAda\u201d.\nBut she also called my brother \u201cMaciu\u015b\u201d, even though it\u0027s a diminutive of \u201cMaciej\u201d, not \u201cMarcin\u201d,\nand she called his daughter \u201cMagda\u201d even though her name is \u201cWiktoria\u201d, so what does she know \ud83e\udd37\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003ESumming up: the Poles can get pretty inventive with their names, and chosing a proper form can get tricky sometimes.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Ch3\u003EDeclinable surnames\u003C\/h3\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EAnd then there\u0027s surnames. Most are quite straight-forward, but there\u0027s one category that behaves a bit unexpectedly.\nThose surnames, ending in -ski and -cki, are basically adjectives, which means they get declined.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EPolish, as a \u003Ca href=\u0022\/blog\/genderneutralizacja-polszczyzny\u0022\u003E\u003Csvg class=\u0022icon\u0022\u003E\u003Cuse xlink:href=\u0022#light-people-carry\u0022\u003E\u003C\/use\u003E\u003C\/svg\u003E stronly genderised\u003C\/a\u003E language,\ndistinguishes between male and female way more often than necessary.\nSo for example, my surname is Prusinow\u003Cstrong\u003Eski\u003C\/strong\u003E, but my sister\u0027s is Prusinow\u003Cstrong\u003Eska\u003C\/strong\u003E.\nThe family name is Prusinow\u003Cstrong\u003Escy\u003C\/strong\u003E, but a subset of two or more women would be called Prusinow\u003Cstrong\u003Eskie\u003C\/strong\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003ELet\u0027s look at \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Wachowskis\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener\u0022\u003E\u003Csvg class=\u0022icon\u0022\u003E\u003Cuse xlink:href=\u0022#light-link\u0022\u003E\u003C\/use\u003E\u003C\/svg\u003E Lana \u0026amp; Lilly Wachowski\u003C\/a\u003E,\ncollectively known as \u201cThe Wachowskis\u201d or \u201cThe Wachowski sisters\u201d.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EIf they lived and transitioned in Poland (or treated their Polish heritage more to the letter),\nthey would probably change not only their first names, but also surnames.\nIt would be \u201cLana Wachowska\u201d and \u201cLilly Wachowska\u201d, and collectively \u201csiostry Wachowskie\u201d.\nAlso, the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/forvo.com\/search\/Wachowski\/pl\/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener\u0022\u003E\u003Csvg class=\u0022icon\u0022\u003E\u003Cuse xlink:href=\u0022#light-link\u0022\u003E\u003C\/use\u003E\u003C\/svg\u003E pronunciation\u003C\/a\u003E\nwould be vastly different from the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/forvo.com\/search\/Wachowski\/en\/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener\u0022\u003E\u003Csvg class=\u0022icon\u0022\u003E\u003Cuse xlink:href=\u0022#light-link\u0022\u003E\u003C\/use\u003E\u003C\/svg\u003E anglicised version\u003C\/a\u003E, just saying...\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Ch3\u003EName day\u003C\/h3\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EAnd finally, something more loosely related to names:\npeople in Poland celebrate \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Name_day\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener\u0022\u003E\u003Csvg class=\u0022icon\u0022\u003E\u003Cuse xlink:href=\u0022#light-link\u0022\u003E\u003C\/use\u003E\u003C\/svg\u003E name days\u003C\/a\u003E.\nIt\u0027s also popular in some other Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox countries,\nbut not as universal as birthdays, so worth mentioning, I guess...\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EBasically, if a person died and became a saint, there would be a \u201cmemory\u201d day put in the liturgical calendar,\nusually on the day of their death. That way the priest will know to read a short note about their life\nbefore the mass. Eventually, those names ended up in regular calendars,\nand people bearing those names started celebrating the feast day of their patron saint.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003ESo in Poland you usually have two celebrations of your person every year \u2013\na birthday, usually celebrated with family,\nand a name day, usually celebrated by getting super drunk with your friends.\nUnless you\u0027re a child, then you only get a birthday, sorry.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Csvg xmlns=\u0022http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\u0022 style=\u0022display: none;\u0022\u003E\u003C\/svg\u003E","tags":["name","first name","last name","surname","declension","declination","gender","language","linguistics","poland","polish"],"hasMore":true,"image":null,"introLite":"\u003Cp\u003EHaving lived in three different countries and interacted with people from all around the world\nmade me realise that Polish names have some pretty unique quirks \u2013 to which, as a native speaker,\nI didn\u0027t give too much thought, while foreigners find them quite strange.\u003C\/p\u003E","contentLite":"\u003Cp\u003EHaving lived in three different countries and interacted with people from all around the world\nmade me realise that Polish names have some pretty unique quirks \u2013 to which, as a native speaker,\nI didn\u0027t give too much thought, while foreigners find them quite strange.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe most obviously tricky part is the pronunciation.\nMy name, \u201cAndrzej\u201d, is pronunced \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/forvo.com\/search\/andrzej\/pl\/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener\u0022\u003E like this\u003C\/a\u003E, with the \u201crz\u201d as \/\u0290\/.\nBut hardly anyone outside of Poland knows that and has no problems pronouncing it and writing it down.\nThat\u0027s why I usually go by \u201cAndre\u201d, as a simplification. And recently also as \u201cAndrea\u201d, to make it gender-neutral.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EBut dificult pronunciation is almost a given when talking about other languages. What\u0027s quite specific to Polish then?\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Ch3\u003E(Doubly) diminutive-able first names\u003C\/h3\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EMany languages have \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Diminutive\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener\u0022\u003E diminutives\u003C\/a\u003E.\nMany use them also for names (eg. English: Tim \u2192 Timmy, Richard \u2192 Dick, ...).\nSome languages even have a concept of double diminutive (Italian: casa \u2192 casetta \u2192 casettina).\nBut Polish just \u003Cem\u003Eloooves\u003C\/em\u003E its diminutives!\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EAccording to \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/ksiega-imion.pl\/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener\u0022\u003E ksiega-imion.pl\u003C\/a\u003E, my first name, Andrzej, can be tuned into:\nAndruszko, Andrzejek, J\u0119drek, J\u0119dru\u015b, J\u0119drzejek, Ondrzejek, Ondraszek, or Ondrysz.\nDiminutives of Katarzyna are: Kacha, Kachna, Kasia, Kasie\u0144ka, Kasiunia, Ka\u015bka, Katarzynka, Katka.\nOf Jan: Janek, Janosik, Jasiek, Jasio, Ja\u015b, Ja\u015bko. And so on, and so forth...\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EAnd the thing is: which one to use can depend on so many things... Most are regional forms.\nSome you can use more like a joke or a nickname rather than a diminutive of a name.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EI\u0027ve noticed that many follow a three-level pattern. For instance:\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cul\u003E\n\u003Cli\u003EPiotr \u2192 Piotrek \u2192 Piotru\u015b\u003C\/li\u003E\n\u003Cli\u003EGrzegorz \u2192 Grzesiek \u2192 Grzesiu\u003C\/li\u003E\n\u003Cli\u003EMa\u0142gorzata \u2192 Go\u015bka \u2192 Gosia\u003C\/li\u003E\n\u003Cli\u003EWojciech \u2192 Wojtek \u2192 Wojtu\u015b\u003C\/li\u003E\n\u003Cli\u003EJan \u2192 Janek \u2192 Ja\u015b\u003C\/li\u003E\n\u003Cli\u003E...\u003C\/li\u003E\n\u003C\/ul\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe first one is \u003Cem\u003Every\u003C\/em\u003E formal. That\u0027s what\u0027s in your documents. That\u0027s what you probably hardly ever use\noutside of formal situations \u2013 at least I wouldn\u0027t, if I had one of those names.\nI\u0027ve had friends and family members who would always go by \u201cWojtek\u201d and never \u201cWojciech\u201d, always \u201cGosia\u201d and never \u201cMa\u0142gorzata\u201d, etc.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EIt sounds so formal that my sister Ma\u0142ogrzata, upon moving to the UK,\nwouldn\u0027t go by the English version of her name \u2013 Margaret -\nbut by an artificial anglicisation of the Polish diminutive \u201cGosia\u201d: so she\u0027s now known as \u201cGosha\u201d.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe second one is usually what you use informally, what friends call you, what the extended family calls you.\nThe third one is pretty intimate and quite infantile. You might call your romantic partners that, you might call children that.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EUsually. It all differs from name to name, it differs from person to person.\nSometimes it can get quite tricky to decide which form of one\u0027s name to use,\nin order not to sound too formal, or too familiar, or too childish...\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThat\u0027s why I\u0027m very glad that my name is not one of those \u201cthree-level\u201d names.\n\u201cAndrzej\u201d just doesn\u0027t sound \u003Cem\u003Eso formal\u003C\/em\u003E that it would be weird to call your friend that.\nOne can form a diminutive of it, if one wants, but \u201cAndrzej\u201d itself is pretty neutral.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EAnd they did, btw. My parish priest, for example,\njokingly called be \u201cJ\u0119drek\u201d, because he\u0027s from the mountains where this form is popular.\nAnd my mother called me \u201cAdu\u015b\u201d, completely ignoring the fact that it\u0027s not in the slightest a diminutive of \u201cAndrzej\u201d.\nIt is a male-ified version of a diminutive of a female name \u201cAda\u201d.\nBut she also called my brother \u201cMaciu\u015b\u201d, even though it\u0027s a diminutive of \u201cMaciej\u201d, not \u201cMarcin\u201d,\nand she called his daughter \u201cMagda\u201d even though her name is \u201cWiktoria\u201d, so what does she know \ud83e\udd37\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003ESumming up: the Poles can get pretty inventive with their names, and chosing a proper form can get tricky sometimes.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Ch3\u003EDeclinable surnames\u003C\/h3\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EAnd then there\u0027s surnames. Most are quite straight-forward, but there\u0027s one category that behaves a bit unexpectedly.\nThose surnames, ending in -ski and -cki, are basically adjectives, which means they get declined.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EPolish, as a \u003Ca href=\u0022\/blog\/genderneutralizacja-polszczyzny.lite\u0022\u003E stronly genderised\u003C\/a\u003E language,\ndistinguishes between male and female way more often than necessary.\nSo for example, my surname is Prusinow\u003Cstrong\u003Eski\u003C\/strong\u003E, but my sister\u0027s is Prusinow\u003Cstrong\u003Eska\u003C\/strong\u003E.\nThe family name is Prusinow\u003Cstrong\u003Escy\u003C\/strong\u003E, but a subset of two or more women would be called Prusinow\u003Cstrong\u003Eskie\u003C\/strong\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003ELet\u0027s look at \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Wachowskis\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener\u0022\u003E Lana \u0026amp; Lilly Wachowski\u003C\/a\u003E,\ncollectively known as \u201cThe Wachowskis\u201d or \u201cThe Wachowski sisters\u201d.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EIf they lived and transitioned in Poland (or treated their Polish heritage more to the letter),\nthey would probably change not only their first names, but also surnames.\nIt would be \u201cLana Wachowska\u201d and \u201cLilly Wachowska\u201d, and collectively \u201csiostry Wachowskie\u201d.\nAlso, the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/forvo.com\/search\/Wachowski\/pl\/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener\u0022\u003E pronunciation\u003C\/a\u003E\nwould be vastly different from the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/forvo.com\/search\/Wachowski\/en\/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener\u0022\u003E anglicised version\u003C\/a\u003E, just saying...\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Ch3\u003EName day\u003C\/h3\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EAnd finally, something more loosely related to names:\npeople in Poland celebrate \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Name_day\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener\u0022\u003E name days\u003C\/a\u003E.\nIt\u0027s also popular in some other Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox countries,\nbut not as universal as birthdays, so worth mentioning, I guess...\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EBasically, if a person died and became a saint, there would be a \u201cmemory\u201d day put in the liturgical calendar,\nusually on the day of their death. That way the priest will know to read a short note about their life\nbefore the mass. Eventually, those names ended up in regular calendars,\nand people bearing those names started celebrating the feast day of their patron saint.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003ESo in Poland you usually have two celebrations of your person every year \u2013\na birthday, usually celebrated with family,\nand a name day, usually celebrated by getting super drunk with your friends.\nUnless you\u0027re a child, then you only get a birthday, sorry.\u003C\/p\u003E","words":904,"readTime":4,"lang":"en"}}}}}