[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] surnames ending in ski

Gary Warner gary at warnerengineering.com
Mon Apr 4 12:06:10 PDT 2005


To all,

But according to my Polish/Ukrainian friend, the "ski" ending is Polish, 
and the "sky" ending is Russian or Ukrainian.  I am currently corresponding 
with a person who has a name that ends "skyy", so that must mean that he is 
doubly Ukrainian??

Gary Warner
Gig Harbor, WA

At 08:38 AM 4/4/2005, Jerry Frank wrote:
>Yes.  Both are pronounced "skee".
>
>
>
>At 08:32 AM 04/04/2005, Michael & Maureen McHenry wrote:
>>Jerry is SKY ending just a variant?
>>
>>                   MIKE
>>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: ger-poland-volhynia-bounces at eclipse.sggee.org
>>[mailto:ger-poland-volhynia-bounces at eclipse.sggee.org] On Behalf Of
>>Jerry Frank
>>Sent: Monday, April 04, 2005 9:28 AM
>>To: dalo at cheqnet.net; ger-poland-volhynia at eclipse.sggee.org
>>Subject: Re: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] surnames ending in ski
>>
>>At 04:57 AM 04/04/2005, David Wade wrote:
>> >Can anyone explain to me why it seems there are so many surnames from
>>this
>> >area that end in 'ski' or some variation of 'ski' (or is it my
>>imagination)?
>> >
>> >Thank you,
>> >Lois
>>
>>
>>There are a variety of possibilities for this situation with respect to
>>Germans in East-central Europe.  First, understand that the 'ski' suffix
>>is
>>equivalent to 'von' in German.  Like von, it can have two
>>connotations.  One is nobility.  It implies that you are "from" a noble
>>family.  The other is locational, implying that your are "from" a
>>certain town.
>>
>>So how do peasant class people get such a name?  Several
>>possibilities.  One might be that a noble family loses its fortune or
>>the
>>fortune gets spread thinly among the descendants so that they become the
>>
>>same level as peasant class people.  Another way was that a nobleman
>>could
>>grant the right for a peasant to use his surname, especially for some
>>form
>>of meritous service, perhaps in battle.
>>
>>Sometimes names evolved.  I have the surname Girschewski in my ancestry,
>>
>>German Lutheran for many years.  As best I can determine, the surname
>>evolved out of the German name, Gersch.
>>
>>In other cases, ski was tacked on to the end of a German name that had
>>been
>>translated to Polish.  You can probably find some of those in the
>>surnames
>>equivalency list on the SGGEE website.
>>
>>Many of these Polish sounding names used by German ethnics (including my
>>
>>Girschewski) came out of the Kashubian region, mostly in western West
>>Prussia but extending into eastern Pomerania.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>Jerry Frank - Calgary, Alberta
>>FranklySpeaking at shaw.ca
>>
>>_______________________________________________
>>Ger-Poland-Volhynia Mailing List hosted by
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>
>Jerry Frank - Calgary, Alberta
>FranklySpeaking at shaw.ca
>
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