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ArchivesSurname Pokatowicz
Rare last name belonging to my Grand Uncle. His daughter stated he came from Russia and I've found him on passenger lists in 1913. It states he came from Soroky, Russia. Googling the name (and city) and searches in ancestry websites have not produced anyone else with the name, nor any information on the name or city. Given name Lukasz. Canadian border crossing states Pokatovich, perhaps by border clerk misinterpretation.
Looking for where this last name originated. Any help would be appreciated.
Looking for where this last name originated. Any help would be appreciated.
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It's curious that Soroky would have been listed as Russian, because while Poland didn't technically exist in 1913, Soroky was part of the Austrian partition form 1772 to 1918 (with possibly a small break in the early 1800's, I'm too lazy to check if Soroky was part of the land that briefly changed hands but that land was back in Austria again by 1815 so I doubt it would matter in the case of a person arriving in the States in 1913 anyway).
Here's a pre-WWI map of Europe:
If you look at the piece of Austria that's kind of digging into Russia you can see the towns Stanislaw, Tarnopol, and Czernowitz. Soroky sits within that triangle, so even though it's not marked on the map, it was clearly in Austria.
Your grand uncle was definitely Polish, though. Łukasz Pokatowicz is a uniquely Polish spelling, Łukasz is a uniquely Polish given name, and before the partitions Soroky was in Poland.
The surname seems to be now extinct in Poland (or almost extinct, the government database won't show single occurrences so there can be at most one man and one woman who have Polish ID numbers with this surname). As for etymology, the commenter below is right that -owicz is a patronymic suffix, in Polish it's the result of Ukrainian and Belarusian influence. However the origin of the root is trickier. I'm going to guess that it might have something to do with покато which seems to possibly mean "sloping" in Russian and/or Ukrainian (I don't speak either but fwiw there's a Russian wiktionary page on it, and a pronunciation example on forvo, so it seems like it's a real word).
Here's a pre-WWI map of Europe:
If you look at the piece of Austria that's kind of digging into Russia you can see the towns Stanislaw, Tarnopol, and Czernowitz. Soroky sits within that triangle, so even though it's not marked on the map, it was clearly in Austria.
Your grand uncle was definitely Polish, though. Łukasz Pokatowicz is a uniquely Polish spelling, Łukasz is a uniquely Polish given name, and before the partitions Soroky was in Poland.
The surname seems to be now extinct in Poland (or almost extinct, the government database won't show single occurrences so there can be at most one man and one woman who have Polish ID numbers with this surname). As for etymology, the commenter below is right that -owicz is a patronymic suffix, in Polish it's the result of Ukrainian and Belarusian influence. However the origin of the root is trickier. I'm going to guess that it might have something to do with покато which seems to possibly mean "sloping" in Russian and/or Ukrainian (I don't speak either but fwiw there's a Russian wiktionary page on it, and a pronunciation example on forvo, so it seems like it's a real word).
This message was edited 4/13/2023, 2:06 PM
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Thank you so much for the insight on Pokatowicz. The Polish-Americans are my Grand Aunt (my grandmother's sister) and her daughter, whom is still with us at the age of 89. I'm attempting to determine when and where they were married. His daughter was 4 years old when he passed and doesn't remember much about him. I'm hoping to locate the marriage info to provide her with a copy of their marriage.
Again, thank you!
Again, thank you!
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-wicz is the Polish form, -vich the common Roman transliteration of the Russian form. They are the extended forms of the attributable suffix -icz used as a masculine patronymic. East Slavic patronymics are not family names or surnames, so you might not find them. They are gendered and change every generation to match the father's name. Commonly the form is Ivan Alexandrovich Radomsky, son of Alexander Petrovich Radomsky, brother of Irena Alexandrovna Radomsky etc.
A related surname is Pokatov/Pokatova, but if your uncle is Pokatovich, that won't help you, his family name would have been different.
Now let's change tack, if you're uncle's name was Lukasz Pokatowicz, that's entirely Polish, not Russian, and in Polish usage Pokatowicz can be a family name. Not common though, the only Google results are a Polish-American mother and daughter.
Soroky may have been in the Russian empire at the time, but it's in western Ukraine, formerly ruled by Poland and until WWII probably had a significant Polish population.
A related surname is Pokatov/Pokatova, but if your uncle is Pokatovich, that won't help you, his family name would have been different.
Now let's change tack, if you're uncle's name was Lukasz Pokatowicz, that's entirely Polish, not Russian, and in Polish usage Pokatowicz can be a family name. Not common though, the only Google results are a Polish-American mother and daughter.
Soroky may have been in the Russian empire at the time, but it's in western Ukraine, formerly ruled by Poland and until WWII probably had a significant Polish population.
This message was edited 4/11/2023, 10:08 PM
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