View Message

This is a reply within a larger thread: view the whole thread

[Surname] Re: Wykow
Wyqu i t z s v v, that's what it says, right? I don't know about the ending, but the first part is probably Wykow, the name of at least one Polish city (Krotoschin district).
vote up1vote down

Replies

Found this from a Google of Wykow:

Wykowski is not so common, but still not rare; as of 1990 there were 689 Poles by that name, living all over but with the largest numbers (more than 50) in the provinces of Gdansk (52), Lomza (265), Ostroleka (74), and Suwalki (66). By now you can probably guess: the name means "person from Wyki or Wykow or Wykowo," and there are several places with names that qualify, so we can't pinpoint any one area where this name started. I would think the place name comes from wyka, the vetch (a kind of plant); there are a couple of other possible derivations, but this strikes me as the most likely one. So the Wykowskis were "the people from the village with lots of vetch."

vote up1vote down