GEN-SLAVIC-L Archives

From: "William F. Hoffman" <>
Subject: Re: Marushak
Date: Thu, 18 May 2000 09:59:48 -0500

Hi,

Patty Milich <> wrote:

> Hello Slavic researchers (esp. Wm. Hoffman):
>Could SKS tell me about the "-shak" ending for surnames? The name I've been researching is Marushock. That is the spelling in US records. I have just found out that that branch of the family corrupted the original spelling from Marushak.
> I am especially curious about the ethnicity of this surname, as well as any clues as to geographic location this gives, including as general as country.

I wish I could tell you something definitive about this name, but I'm afraid some names just don't give you much to work with. MARUSHAK is most likely an Anglicized phonetic spelling of the original name, but it's hard to say for sure even what
language that original name was. It could be Polish Marusiak or Maruszak; it could be Czech Marusak (little hacek or v over the s, accent over the second a); it could be a transliteration of the Cyrillic spelling of Ukrainian Marusyak. Any of
these, and probably more, could plausibly end up as "Marushak" in English, which could then be further Anglicized as "Marushock" because that's how the name sounded to the ears of English-speakers.

About the only thing we can say is that the name probably means something like "kin of Mary, descendants of Mary." The suffix -ak (which is generally spelled -iak or -jak or -yak after palatalized consonants) is an all-purpose Slavic suffix
indicating some sort of integral connection with the lexical meaning of the stem to which it is added. Thus -ak can mean "native of," as in "Krakowiak" (native of Krakow) or "Podolak" (one from Podolia); it can also just be a way of saying "one
who is X" where X is the first part of the name, as in Polish "Trzeciak" and Russian "Tretyak," meaning "third one," or Polish "Nowak," Czech "Novak," which just means "new guy in town." When added to first names or nicknames, it generally
means "kin of, closely related to or associated with."

Marus- is generally associated with nicknames from first names beginning with Mar-, as in Marcin or Martin, Marek or Marko (Mark), and especially Maria. "Marusia" is a diminutive we see for the first name "Mary" among Ukrainians and (if memory
serves) others as well, and Maruska (hacek over the s) is a Czech diminutive for "Mary.". Thus a name beginning Marus- could conceivably come from those other first names, but the connection would usually be as a nickname for "Mary." The
combination Marus- + -ak yields Marusak, Marusiak, Marushak, Maruszak, etc. -- all meaning more or less "kin of Mary."

So much as I'd like to help you, this name, in and of itself, doesn't give us much to work with. It's probably Slavic, and probably means somewhere along the line there was an ancestor named Mary. That's about all it tells us.

Still, I hope this is a little help, and wish you the best of luck with your research.

William F. Hoffman
Author, "Polish Surnames: Origins & Meanings"

This thread:

• Re: Marushak by "William F. Hoffman" <>