Do you have peasant or noble roots? The name will tell you a lot. It’s not about “-ski” and “-cki”

The clothes we wear can tell us a lot about our family history. The nobility in Poland had not only a family coat of arms, but also characteristic surnames that distinguished them from peasants. What is your name? Check if you belong to a noble family.

How to recognize a noble surname? How were peasant surnames created?

There is a common belief that surnames ending in -ski or -cki are noble surnames. — If a nobleman owned a town called Dobra Wola, he was called Dobrowolski – she explained to prof. Monika Kresa, linguist from the University of Warsaw. The nobility were the first to use surnames. As their popularity and demand increased, peasants also began to use them. Peasants’ surnames were simpler, e.g. if someone was a blacksmith, they were given the surname Kowal.

The ending -ski or -cki does not always indicate noble origin. How to check where our surname comes from?

Kinga Urbańska, genealogist and founder of Your Roots in Poland and the Your Roots Association in Poland, noted in an interview that the endings of surnames do not always indicate origin. — The clerk asked the peasant: ‘Who do you work for in the field?’ ‘At Potocki’s.’ ‘Then you will be Potocki.’ More than a hundred years have passed and today this peasant may be harboring the thought that he is the heir of an illustrious family, she explained and added that over time, the peasants deliberately changed their surnames to hide their origins. So how can we check what our roots are? It is worth using , and we will find out details about the surname – where it occurred, where it was first mentioned and whether it is derived from a proper name. This way we can find out exactly where our roots go and whether they are peasant or noble. In the investigation into the origin of the surname, population censuses and a review of land and town records will also be useful.