Why do Polish names end in "ski"?

[name not needed]

Cause they can't spell "toboggan"! :D

[JohnKleeb]

1. its like their equiv

of the Irish "Mc" or "Fitz" or "O", the German "von", the Dutch "van"

[St. Jarvitude]

7. Von and Van are actually slightly different

They refer to blue-blooded noble family lines rather than peasant lines. I believe the Irish "O'" is this way as well, but absolutely do not bet your life on it (I say this only because one "O'" that I know stems from Irish royalty).

[Spider Jerusalem]

8. Yes...

"Mc", "Mac", "O'" and "Fitz" all mean "son of" (except "O'", which can mean daughter of)...and "Fitz" is Norman French, originally. "Von" and "Van" mean "of", and were used for nobility...the rest of the name generally referring to the lands held by the person's family.

[St. Jarvitude]

2. -ski I believe is "of" or something like that.

I do know that my Polish last name - "Jakubowski" - means "of the qualities of Jacob." (better translated as "like Jacob").

[JohnKleeb]

3. So its like Jacobson

[St. Jarvitude]

5. I guess so

My understanding (given to me by my Polish-born friend) of it was that it was referring to the prophet Jacob. I never thought of it your way, but it does make perfect sense to me.

[JohnKleeb]

6. Like my Irish friends are the Fitzgeralds

Son of Gerald I think it means. I dont think any of my names are like that.

[Susang]

16. Polack chiming in here...

It (the ski at the end of Polish names) is presumed to mean "son of".

I know this because my name ends this way. I spent most of my youth getting teased mercilessly because of my last name, as it was easily recognized as being Polish, was unusual and could be warped into cruel versions of the original.

Strangely enough, when I got married at 30, I decided that my last name and I had been through hell and back and that I was actually quite attached to it and had no intention of changing it after the wedding. Go figure. :shrug:

[ewagner]

20. My wife is Polish

and her parents, born in Poland, told me that the last names there ended in either "ki" for a male or "Ka" for a female...the ski was generic for imigrants taking names of the male members of the family.

Don't know how accurate but that's the story passed to the family.

[Susang]

22. Pretty accurate

Though not the part about the generic immigrant ski. My family has traveled to Poland to meet relatives and our name is one of the most common names over there.

Now over here, that's another story! ;-)

[JohnKleeb]

21. Are Polish weddings like how they are in Deer Hunter?

because that wedding was cool :D.

[Susang]

23. Not really

More like the movie, Polish Wedding with Claire Danes. ;-)

I will move heaven and earth to attend a Polish wedding. They are always a blast, with more food, booze and dancing and drama than you can possibly handle in that short amount of time.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

14. Or Jacoboid (nt)

[Lizzie Borden]

12. Many Russian names end in ski too...

but should be translated as skii, (as in Dostoyevskii). It means "of".

[Tom Kitten]

4. Because they're Ski Poles !

I mean, is this not so?

[JohnnyRingo]

9. I happen to be a Polish American......

....And that isn't funny.

I WAS funny the time my brothers took our dad's car to the drive-in... They didn't like the movie, so they cut up the seats.

[cheezus]

10. I knew this guy named Brewenski

everyone called him brewski

true story

[jmowreader]

11. Not all Polish names end in "ski"

Lech Walesa (founder of Solidarity), Karol Wojitla (the pope), and three out of four of the deputy mayors of Warsaw have no 'ski' in their names.

[NamVetsWeeLass]

13. transplants?

[samplegirl]

15. Whats with the Polish joke???????

I guess you dont care if you offend people.

[Ellen Forradalom]

17. I believe this is related to

other such Indo-European morphemes that transform a noun to an adjective.

-ski, -sko: Slavic languages
-sk: Nordic
-isch: German
-ish: English
-ois: French

etc. Note that they are all suffixes.

[JohnKleeb]

18. So that crazy Matthew Lasko guy is a slav

:cry: no way

[SoCalDem]

19. Because the Swedes had dibs on "son"

:)