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Help[Surname] Re: Gamarnik
in reply to a message by thegriffon
Must be Hamarnik as opposed to Hamornik, as the second syllable is stressed here (unstressed o is pronounced somewhat like an a). The Ukrainian pronounciation is hah-MAHR-nick, the Russian would be gah-MAHR-neeck. Looking at the Russian Wikipedia articles of famous Gamarniks I realized that all of these people were both Jewish and born in Ukraine. This lead me to suspect that the etymology is probably Yiddish. I also stumbled upon the actual article of the surname's etymology. It turns out that it is either from German/Yiddish Hammer, so a metalworker or smith. Alternatively, it could be from Aramic, Gamr, meaning "Study". Hope this helps.
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Гамарник
Amateur Onomastician with a particular interest in Slavic and Anglo-Saxon names.
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Гамарник
Amateur Onomastician with a particular interest in Slavic and Anglo-Saxon names.
This message was edited 1/27/2019, 12:08 PM
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Replies
"Smith" seems most likely. Hamarnik would then be the Ukrainian version of Slovak Hamornik, the latter then borrowed into Ukrainian as the word Google renders "wanderer" (originally a "journeyman" smith or tinker?). In many European languages words for tinker or tinsmith are synonymous with "traveller" or "Romany".
This message was edited 2/7/2019, 5:47 AM
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