Polish Personal Names

The aim of the current page is to provide information about the structure of Polish personal names and discuss some of the cataloging issues involved.

1. Structure of Polish forenames

Polish forenames consist of one or two elements (the second element, “drugie imię,” may be considered a middle name):

Examples of male forenames: Andrzej, Marek, Jan Krzysztof, Henryk Ryszard

Note: Some Polish male forenames use the female forename “Maria” as a second element; e.g., Jan Maria, Józef Maria

Examples of female forenames: Agata, Helena, Anna Maria, Franciszka Urszula

Note: Polish forenames consisting of more than two elements are rare, e.g., Maria Wisława Anna. They were more common historically, e.g., Henryk Adam Aleksander Pius

2. Structure of Polish surnames

Male surnames take the form of nouns (e.g., Zaremba, Opałko, Rawicz, Nowak) or adjectives with the masculine ending –ski, -cki, -dzki, -y (e.g., Kowalski, Nowacki, Sieradzki, Dymny)

Female surnames take the same form of nouns as male surnames (e.g., Zaremba, Opałko, Rawicz, Nowak) or adjectives with feminine ending –ska, -cka, -dzka, -a (e.g., Kowalska, Nowacka, Sieradzka, Dymna)

Note: Polish women living outside of Poland or those with an international background living in Poland may opt to use the masculine form of their surname instead of the feminine one (e.g., Violetta Ozminkowski, Dorota Czakon-Tralski, both of whom live in Poland)

Rarely used or obsolete forms of female surnames refer to names of married women with a special ending added to the husband’s surname (e.g., Rawiczowa, Zarembina, Orzeszkowa are based on male surnames Rawicz, Zaremba, Orzeszko) or unmarried women with the special ending added to their father’s surname (e.g., Rawiczówna, Zarembianka, Orzeszkówna). These forms were commonly used before the 1950s. Currently, both types are rarely used, mostly in the artistic world or in colloquial language, regardless of the marital status (e.g., Elżbieta Zającówna and Agnieszka Krukówna are actresses).

Surnames in the plural denote more than one person and may take masculine or feminine endings. For example, Kowalscy, Centkiewiczowie, Golcowie, Nowaccy, Sieradzcy, Nowakowie, Dymni, Matejkowie, Malcowie (masculine plural or mixed gender; e.g., two brothers, a husband and wife pair) or Kowalskie, Sieradzkie, Nowackie, Dymne (feminine plural; e.g., two sisters).

Compound surnames are more common in female names (e.g., Ewa Szelburg-Zarembina, Teresa Budzisz-Krzyżanowska, Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska) and less common in male names (e.g., Witold Jodko-Narkiewicz, Bolesław Wieniawa-Długoszowski, Michał Siwiec-Cielebon). The first element in a compound surname may denote a women’s maiden name, mother’s name, family name (e.g. nobility), nickname, etc.

3. Plural forms of names and name authority file

Surnames in the plural may occasionally occur in the names of writing teams made up of married couples or siblings.

Example (in MARC format):

ALINA I CZESŁAW CENTKIEWICZOWIE

ODARPI

SYN EGIGWY

WYDANIE TRZECIE

1953

SPÓŁDZIELNIA WYDAWNICZA “CZYTELNIK”

In this case, the title page presents a husband and wife pair, “Alina i Czesław Centkiewiczowie” (i.e. “Alina Centkiewicz and Czesław Centkiewicz”; mixed [masculine and feminine] form), who are the authors of the book. This is a grammatical form that denotes two individual authors working in collaboration and it will be exactly transcribed in the statement of responsibility (see RDA 19.2.1.1 and 19.2.1.3 for examples of “two agents responsible for the creation of the work performing the same role”). The authorized forms, used as access points, will be as follows: Centkiewicz, Alina and Centkiewicz, Czesław. Alina Centkiewicz appears as the first author on the title page and her name will be given in the 100 field of a MARC record. Her husband’s name will be given in the MARC 700 field:

100 1 Centkiewicz, Alina, ǂe author.

245 10 Odarpi syn Egigwy /ǂc Alina i Czesław Centkiewiczowie.

700 1 Centkiewicz, Czesław, ǂe author.

4. Genitive cases of personal names in statements of responsibility

Typically, the personal names on title pages are presented in the nominative case. There are, however, instances where the names of individual editors or a group of editors are presented in the genitive case, typically with a preceding prepositional phrase: e.g., “pod redakcją Jana Kowalskiego” (i.e., “edited by Jan Kowalski”; masculine singular form). These names should be entered in the nominative case in the MARC 700 field as:

700 1 Kowalski, Jan, ǂe editor.

“pod redakcją Aliny Kowalskiej” (i.e., “edited by Alina Kowalska”; feminine singular form):

700 1 Kowalska, Alina, ǂe editor.

“pod redakcją Jacka i Jana Kowalskich” (i.e., “edited by Jacek Kowalski and Jan Kowalski”; masculine plural form):

700 1 Kowalski, Jacek, ǂe editor.

700 1 Kowalski, Jan, ǂe editor.

“pod redakcją Aliny i Anny Kowalskich” (i.e., “edited by Alina Kowalska and Anna Kowalska”; feminine plural form):

700 1 Kowalska, Alina, ǂe editor.

700 1 Kowalska, Anna, ǂe editor.

“pod redakcją Aliny i Jana Kowalskich” (i.e., “edited by Alina Kowalska and Jan Kowalski”; mixed [masculine and feminine] form):

700 1 Kowalska, Alina, ǂe editor.

700 1 Kowalski, Jacek, ǂe editor.

Table for a few typical surnames in nominative and genitive forms (singular, plural, and mixed numbers):

*Rare or obsolete feminine form
**Some users of a surname with this ending opt not to decline their surnames and prefer to use the masculine nominative singular form only for all cases and numbers
***Rare or obsolete feminine forms exist; for pattern see under “Nowak”

Note: Only feminine forms ending with –a decline.

5. Prepositions in historic personal names

Some historic personal names may consist of a place name in the genitive case preceded by the preposition “z” or “ze” (“from”), e.g., “Marcin ze Sławska.” Following “general guidelines on recording names containing neither a surname nor a title of nobility” (RDA 9.2.2.18), our entry in the MARC 100 field should look as follows, with variant forms given the 400 field:

100 0 Marcin, ǂc ze Sławska, ǂd approximately 1398-1453?

400 1 Ze Sławska, Marcin, ǂd approximately 1398-1453?

400 1 Sławska, Marcin ze, ǂd approximately 1398-1453?

6. Diminutive forms of forenames

Polish diminutive forms of forenames, once reserved for family and friends, are becoming more common in the official, publishing world, particularly outside of Poland. Examples in NAF:

100 1 Klimpel, Kasia (Kasia is a diminutive form of Katarzyna)

100 1 Walczak, Antek, ǂd 1968- (Antek is a diminutive form of Antoni)

Frequently, the official form is used interchangeably with the diminutive form, e.g., “Wojciech” (official) and “Wojtek” (diminutive), “Bartosz” or “Bartłomiej” (both official) and “Bartek” (diminutive), “Joanna” (official) and “Asia” (diminutive), “Barbara” (official) and “Basia” (diminutive). Following is an example of a NAR where the diminutive and official form of the forename were used interchangeably in publications but the diminutive form was established as the preferred form of the forename:

100 1 Konopka, Bartek

400 1 Konopka, Bartosz

For more examples of the Polish diminutive and official forms of forenames, please see the last link after #7.

7. Peculiarities

7. i. Maiden and married names

Example #1. Some female names use the following construction: [forename] + [preposition “z” or “ze”] + [maiden name (family)] + [surname (husband’s name)]. For example, the statement of responsibility shows: “Maria z Kowalskich Nowacka.” This form indicates that Maria comes from the Kowalski family, her maiden name was “Maria Kowalska”, and her current, married name is “Maria Nowacka.” She publishes exclusively under her married name and the maiden name with the surname appears for the first time. There are no specific provisions for this type of grammatical form in RDA. The solution in NAR will be to add a 400 field in MARC format for her maiden name:

100 1 Nowacka, Maria
400 1 Kowalska, Maria

Example #2. In some older resources we may find the following structure of female names: [forename] + [letter “z” or “ze”; may be substituted for “de domo” or “neé”] + [maiden name] + [married name, usually from the last marriage] + primo voto [married name from the first marriage] + secundo voto [married name from the second marriage]. Obviously, the number of the “votos” may differ from case to case. For example, the statement of responsibility may show: “Agnieszka z Borowskich Jankowska, primo voto Zarzycka, secundo voto Grodzka.” This form indicates that the most recent form of her name was from the third marriage: “Agnieszka Jankowska,” her maiden name was “Agnieszka Borowska,” her name after the first marriage was “Agnieszka Zarzycka”, and after the second marriage “Agnieszka Grodzka.” This is the first and only time her name appears in a resource. There are no specific provisions for this type of personal names in RDA. The suggested solution in NAR, in MARC format, is to select the most recent married name as the authorized form of the access point and to give the maiden and earlier married names as variants in the 400 field:

100 1 Jankowska, Agnieszka

400 1 Borowska, Agnieszka

400 1 Zarzycka, Agnieszka

400 1 Grodzka, Agnieszka

7. ii. Surnames with “vel” are very rare in Polish names. The conjunction “vel” means “or” in Latin and in conjunction with the name means “also known as.” Typically, in Polish grammar, “vel” is used to make a distinction between two entirely separate names for the same person: e.g., “Pola Negri vel Apolonia Chałupiec” (i.e., Pola Negri also known as Apolonia Chałupiec; Pola Negri was Apolonia Chałupiec’s artistic pseudonym). These two forms are presented in NAR in MARC format:

100 1 Negri, Pola, ǂd 1899-1987
400 1 Chałupiec, Apolonia, ǂd 1899-1987

There are, however, names with “vel” when this conjunction became part of a surname: e.g., Przemysław Piotr Żurawski vel Grajewski. The background of this surname is unknown, but this unusual form may be traced to discrepancies in the official historical documents for the same family. This form is presented in NAR in MARC format:

100 1 Żurawski vel Grajewski, Przemysław Piotr, ǂd 1963-
400 1 Grajewski, Przemysław Piotr Żurawski vel, ǂd 1963-

For further discussion of Polish names see:

Created by Leszek Czubik on June 22, 2019