I’ve seen Steve’s page, but I also found this: According to Polish surname expert Kazimierz Rymut:Stuczyn~ski (accent over the N), pronounced roughly “stoo-CHIN-skee,” was the surname of 774 Poles as of 1990. The largest numbers lived in the following provinces: Bydgoszcz 97, Konin 70, Krakow 60, Torun 101. This data tells us this name, too, is found all over the country, with some concentration in northcentral to northwestern Poland. It would almost certainly come from the root seen in sztuka, “piece, play, art,” and sztuczyna, “a miserable piece.” Names and words with S and SZ often alternate, so it’s not odd that Stuczyn~ski might come from a word beginning with sz-. In fact, Sztuczyn~ski (“shtoo-CHIN-skee”) is a perfectly plausible variant of this surname; but for some reason it’s less common, borne by only 80 Poles as of 1990, in the same general area as Stuczyn~ski. This might have started as a nickname for one who got stuck with a really pathetic piece of something, or produced rather miserable products, something like that. Or it might refer to a place with a name along the lines of Sztucz- or Stucz- or Sztuk- or Stuk-. Without a lot more detail on the individual family bearing the name, there’s really no way to be sure.
Ken J Stuczynski
on October 6, 2005 at 12:17 AM
A possibly depressing etymology, but I also heard from local geneaologists that it might be from the Polish word for “to hit / strike.” And if it goes back much father than the 19th Century, I fear we may never know …
I’ve seen Steve’s page, but I also found this: According to Polish surname expert Kazimierz Rymut:Stuczyn~ski (accent over the N), pronounced roughly “stoo-CHIN-skee,” was the surname of 774 Poles as of 1990. The largest numbers lived in the following provinces: Bydgoszcz 97, Konin 70, Krakow 60, Torun 101. This data tells us this name, too, is found all over the country, with some concentration in northcentral to northwestern Poland. It would almost certainly come from the root seen in sztuka, “piece, play, art,” and sztuczyna, “a miserable piece.” Names and words with S and SZ often alternate, so it’s not odd that Stuczyn~ski might come from a word beginning with sz-. In fact, Sztuczyn~ski (“shtoo-CHIN-skee”) is a perfectly plausible variant of this surname; but for some reason it’s less common, borne by only 80 Poles as of 1990, in the same general area as Stuczyn~ski. This might have started as a nickname for one who got stuck with a really pathetic piece of something, or produced rather miserable products, something like that. Or it might refer to a place with a name along the lines of Sztucz- or Stucz- or Sztuk- or Stuk-. Without a lot more detail on the individual family bearing the name, there’s really no way to be sure.
A possibly depressing etymology, but I also heard from local geneaologists that it might be from the Polish word for “to hit / strike.” And if it goes back much father than the 19th Century, I fear we may never know …