Słownik Nazwisk – Polish Surnames
Slownik nazwisk współcześnie w Polsce użyvanych
(Dictionary of Surnames in Current Use in Poland)
by Kazimierz Rymut, ed. 10 volumes.
Kraków: Polska Akademia Nauk – Instytut Języka Polskiego, 1992
Slownik nazwisk is a 10-volume alphabetical dictionary of the majority of Polish surnames used in Poland. It is based on information in Polish databanks at the end of 1990. It gives you an idea of where in Poland the largest concentration of a particular sumame lives. If you don’t know the area of Poland from where your ancestors emigrated, this may be a clue as to which geographic area to research.
While the website is in Polish, it is easy to navigate – you just click on the first letter of a surname and all the options for surnames starting with that letter show up (it may take a minute to open as there are a lot of names that get brought up for each letter of the alphabet).
The Slownik nazwisk website can be found here.
PGS-MN Newsletter Articles about Słownik Nazwisk (Dictionary of Surnames)
| Newsletter Issue | Page | Topic |
| Fall 1997 | 6 | Origins of the Kita Surname |
| Winter 1997 | 8 | Origins of the Kulas Surname |
| Spring 1998 | 7 | Origins of the Muchliński Surname |
| Summer 1998 | 6 | Origins of the Jakubik, Soboszczyk and Pluskwik Surnames |
| Fall 1998 | 6 | Origins of the Laskowski and Kalka Surnames |
| Winter 1998 | 6 | Origins of the Lamczyk, Klarkowski and Wrzeszcz Surnames |
| Summer 1999 | 12 | Origins of the Zilka (Zylka) and Piekarski Surnames |
| Fall 1999 | 10 | Origins of the Warzecha Surname |
| Summer 2000 | 11 | Origins of the Kuczek Surname |
| Summer 2000 | 25 | Origins of the Zamysłowski and Niezgocki Surnames |
| Fall 2000 | 20 | Origins of Trader/Treder/Trejder Surname |
| Fall 2000 | 22 | Origins of the Magryta Surname |
| Winter 2000 | 12 | Origins of the Matros Surname |
| Summer 2001 | 22 | Origins of the Kraft/Kreft Surnames |
| Fall 2001 | 8 | Origins of the Broz Surname |
| Spring 2002 | 14 | Origins of the Stenzel/Stencel and the Lamusga/Lamuszga Surnames |
| Spring 2003 | 8 | Origins of the Klawa, Kalka and Pruski Surnames |
| Summer 2003 | 6 | Origins of the Briese Surname |
| Fall 2003 | 10 | Origins of the Wilczek Surname |
| Summer 2004 | 10 | Origins of the Bias, Kuropka, Staloch, and Pietrok Surnames |
| Fall 2004 | 15 | Origins of the Wanzek, Kozitza/Kozica, Dulas, and Glowik Surnames |
| Winter 2004 | 10 | John Rys provided an overview of the Slownik nazwisk Surname Reference tool |
| Winter 2004 | 1 | Origins of the Guzmann Surname |
| Spring 2005 | 5 | Origins of the Bielawny Surname |
| Spring/Summer 2006 | 16 | John Rys wrote an article entitled “Website Analysis of Polish Surnames Using Słownik Nazwisk |
| Spring/Summer 2006 | 22 | Origins of the Budzyński Surname |
| Winter 2009 | 23 | Origin of Kiszka Surname |
| Spring 2010 | 9 | Origin of Łażewski Surname |
Other PGS-MN Newsletter Articles
The Winter 2006 issue of the PGS-MN newsletter has a listing of two other reference books related to Surnames, with descriptions about the books (on page 11).
The Spring 2020 issue of the PGS-MN newsletter has an article (on page 4), entitled, The Trouble with Polish Surnames, by Michal Wysocki of the Pomeranian Genealogical Association.
Books
Polish Surnames: Origins and Meaning
by William F. Hoffman
2nd Edition, revised
Chicago: Polish Genealogy Society of America, 1998
Articles
How Surnames Came into Being in Poland
Polish Origins Website