Polish Surname Construction
This is my first time posting on the Surnames board, so hi, everyone. ^^
I was wondering how much you all know about constructing Polish surnames. Some background info: I've never gotten along with my dad's side of the family. They're very self-righteous, insincere, and judgemental people. On top of it all, the majority of them are openly racist. I was given my dad's surname at birth because that's the most common tradition, but I'm turning 18 in January and planning on changing it, then--I just want to remove myself from those people as much as possible.I would just change to my mom's original surname Malone, but her father was abusive, and that name belonged to him. Then again, don't want to arbitrarily choose a name, so I've decided to "start" a new name.My great-grandmother on my mom's side is a wonderful woman and I've always been close to her. She's a 1st gen. Polish immigrant, and I'm 1/4 Polish 4th gen. I'd like to create a Polish surname meaning "descendant of" using her first name, Catherine. My question: Do you know of a surname like that that exists already? WDYT would be the best way of creating one?All I know, really, is about basic suffixes -ski, -wicz, -czyk, etc... any help will be very appreciated.Thank you in advance!
♥♣ ♦♠
" i'd rather learn from one bird how to sing
than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance "
♠♦ ♣♥

This message was edited 9/23/2006, 10:04 AM

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Surnames created from the name Katarzyna are not very common. Here are some that I found:
Katarkiewicz, Katarzyńska, Kachelska, Kachlak, Kachniarz, Kachnikiewicz.
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Cathrine in Polish is Katarzyna, but I'd avoid that -rz- combination if I were you. Katarzynski is a Polish surname, but remember Polish surnames have male and female forms, Katarzynska is the feminine.
Here's something you can try.
Go to www.herby.com.pl (all in Polish, I'm afraid). At the top of the homepage you'll see the words "slownik nazwisk"; click on there and you'll get a search engine. Type the word "Kat", and see what you get - every Polish surname beginning with those three letters! Take your Pick.
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