# Holevinski - origin of the name



## eylusion

I read in About.com that polish family names commonly referred to a career and a place of origin, such as "baker" from "village".

My last name is Holevinski, and I have always wanted to know what it means, it may not mean anything for all I know. I sure do wish I could figure out who my ancestors were from Poland.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you kindly,

Matt


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## arturolczykowski

You should look for Cholewinski on English language websites or if you know someone who speak Polish for Cholewiński on Polish language websites as this is probably the origin of the surname.


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## eylusion

cholewinski.com

If that really is my family in poland.... They make handbags?...

Ohh god, maybe I shouldn't of asked


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## Thomas1

eylusion said:


> cholewinski.com
> 
> If that really is my family in poland.... They make handbags?...
> 
> Ohh god, maybe I shouldn't of asked


I don't suppose there is much probability that making handbags is their tradition... 

If I were to associate, the surname is redolent of _cholewa _which means leg (a part of a boot from the ankle up to the knee).

Cholewińscy (that's the plural of the surname in question) also had their coat of arms.

Tom


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## eylusion

Wow a coat of arms, and aristocracy. I'd like to think i'm descendent from some kings or something, but I figure that being the case is very unlikely.

My ancestors probably just renamed themselves to something cool when they came to America.

I see all these cool cholewinski's but I don't really know for sure if they are related to me the Holevinski's...


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## slowik

I don't want to raise your hope, but Polish _szlachta_ (it's a name for Polish aristocracy) was an incredibly large group of people - it numbered 10-12% of all Polish citizens (though AFAIK technically there was no such thing as "a citizen" back in those times) and about 25% of ethnic Poles! So maybe you do have aristocracy roots?


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## eylusion

slowik said:


> I don't want to raise your hope, but Polish _szlachta_ (it's a name for Polish aristocracy) was an incredibly large group of people - it numbered 10-12% of all Polish citizens (though AFAIK technically there was no such thing as "a citizen" back in those times) and about 25% of ethnic Poles! So maybe you do have aristocracy roots?



Boy I sure do wish I was an aristocrat right now  Might help me pay the bills.

So know one really knows for sure if Holevinski is a derivative of Cholewinski?


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## eylusion

So (no) one really knows for sure if Holevinski is a derivative of Cholewinski.


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## mietagosia

I do know it for sure  There is no such word in Polish as "holewa" or "holeva". There is only a word "cholewa" that has the same pronounciation as "holeva" - its transliteration into English. Your ancestors, as many immigrants, must have changed the spelling of their surname to make it look the American way (i.e. easier to write and pronounce than the Polish version ). 

It is said that all the Polish surnames ending with "-ski" and "-ska" are artistocratic surnames.However, there are soooo many of them in Poland that I don't think every one of those people comes from nobelty . But I can't definitely exclude that possibility in your case either. 

And my guess as to the origin of your surname would be that perhaps you had some shoemakers in the history your family (since 'cholewa' means 'top of a shoe' in Polish). 

Greetings from Poland 
MietaGosia


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## Oletta

In the 13th century there was a village/town Cholewice and Cholewa started to be a surname and a coats of arms since the 14th century. The origins of the surname might be rooted from the medieval Cholewice. You'd better look your surname up in  *Kazimierz Rymut*, *Nazwiska Polaków. Słownik historyczno-etymologiczny*, Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, Kraków 2001.


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## sokol

eylusion said:


> Wow a coat of arms, and aristocracy. I'd like to think i'm descendent from some kings or something, but I figure that being the case is very unlikely.



Don't get carried away too far, because many of the Polish _szlachta _were rather poor (or anyway, not rich at all), some (quite some!) were so-called 'one-tower-knights' because they owned hardly more than a large farm which they called 'castle'.

Also, it could be a professional name as suggested by mietagosia.

Apart from that, Holevinski too could have been an Ukrainian variant of the Polish name - Poland once had a great Ukrainian minority (it stretched further east, once), and in Ukrainian Polish 'ch' is rendered 'h' in many cases; I don't know for sure if in this case too, but I'd guess so.


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## eylusion

Does anyone know how I would go about taking Oletta's advice by looking up Holevinski or Cholewinski?


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## Oletta

eylusion said:


> Does anyone know how I would go about taking Oletta's advice by looking up Holevinski or Cholewinski?


Hello, unfortunatelly I don't have the book on Polish surnames by Kazimierz Rymut, but once someone sold it via Allegro, I didn't manage to buy it but the person who sold it answered my questions regarding my family surname. So you have two solutions, either find someone who possesses the book and ask them your questions or buy it somewhere.


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## slowik

eylusion said:


> Does anyone know how I would go about taking Oletta's advice by looking up Holevinski or Cholewinski?



There is a number of websites devoted to Polish roots of Americans. Try searching for "Polish surnames origins" or something like this.


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## Oletta

PS. I found in Nasza klasa http://nasza-klasa.pl/, 242 people joined the Cholewiński family site under *Klan Ród Rodzina Familia Cholewińskich (Cholewińscy Cholewińska Cholewiński) *I guess you may find some answers to your questions within the people there. You'd have to register there, in case you have any problems, you can always ask us. 

The person who initiated the Cholewiński family in Nasza klasa quotes the following info:

"Klan herbu Cholewa. 
Herb Cholewa wg Semkowicza znany był z zapisek są­dowych dopiero z 1408 r. Mówiąc o herbie Cholewa trudno pominąć i jego le­gendę, którą przytoczył Bartosz Paprocki, wiążący ów herb z Bolesławem Śmia­łym. Warto zwrócić uwagę na fakt, który z tą wierszowaną legendą się wiąże. Wynika z niej, że gdzieś tam na granicy z Jadźwingami osiadł ten pierwszy cieśla - Cholewita. 
Paprocki w swym drugim dziele przy opisie herbu podaje, że większość spo­śród przez niego wymienionych Cholewitów zamieszkiwała ziemię dobrzyńską. Na potwierdzenie tego mamy liczne przykłady. W „Słowniku geograficznym Królestwa Polskiego" odnotowany został fakt, że „... Bolesław Książę mazowiec­ki potwierdził, iż Paweł z Wiszniewa sprzedał 10 łanów nad rzeką Kołomyją pię­ciu Cholewom z Kołomyi za 30 kop groszy. Od nich też wieś wzięła nazwę..." W słowniku tym znajduje się wzmianka, iż „... Cholewy - Kołomyja była wsią szlachecką leżącą w pow. łomżyńskim w gminie Kossaki, parafii Kałaki. Jest to gniazdo cholewińskich wspomniane już w 1414..." 

Source: http://madalinski.info/historia/his_10801.html

Among the people bearing the Cholewiński surname in Nasza klasa (i.e. Our class), there are people who live in the UK, so you could easily communicate with them in your mother tongue.


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