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Looking for information about my last name. Family history says it's from Austria, but the few others in the United States with the name claim Czech Republic. I'm sure it was changed with immigration, but not sure of the original name. Any thoughts?
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I'd say that it's a Slavic name. I've heard the name Divis in Czech Rep. (the ending pronounced '-ish', I just don't have Czech diacrits here). Besides, Czech Rep. used to belong to Austria.
There's a similar surname in Poland: Dziwisz (pronounced "jeevish", well, something like that). My etymological dictionary says that it's a medieval form of a Greek name Dionysios used in Poland and Czech. I don't know if that's right (the dictionary was written in 1927), but I'd say that those names are related.
There's a similar surname in Poland: Dziwisz (pronounced "jeevish", well, something like that). My etymological dictionary says that it's a medieval form of a Greek name Dionysios used in Poland and Czech. I don't know if that's right (the dictionary was written in 1927), but I'd say that those names are related.
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