Surname Iwanowicz - Meaning and Origin
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Iwanowicz: What does the surname Iwanowicz mean?
The last name Iwanowicz is of Polish origin and it is a patronymic surname. This means it is derived from the personal name of a male ancestor, specifically the father, and then typically adds a suffix to indicate the relationship. In this case, 'Iwanowicz' originated from the popular Eastern European first name Ivan (the Polish equivalent is Jan), which is equivalent to John in English. The suffix 'owicz' implies 'son of' in Polish. Therefore, the surname Iwanowicz translates to 'son of Ivan' or 'son of John'. It suggests that the first person to bear this surname was most likely the son of a man named Ivan or Jan. Such surnames were commonly used in Poland and other Slavic cultures. Furthermore, like many surnames, the spelling may slightly vary among individuals or families based on regional dialects and transliteration over time.
Order DNA origin analysisIwanowicz: Where does the name Iwanowicz come from?
The last name Iwanowicz is commonly found throughout Eastern Europe, particularly in Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia.
The Iwanowicz surname originated in the regions of Galicia, Podlasia, and Lithuania in the late 1700s. It is believed to have been derived from the Polish male name Jan and the Polish word for son, wicz. This combination of name elements made the Iwanowicz surname one of the most common surnames in the region.
Today, the last name Iwanowicz is most notably found in Poland, where it is the 637th most common surname. This locality accounts for most of the Iwanowicz population, with particular concentrations in Wroclaw, Warsaw, and Łódź. There are also a substantial minority of Iwanowicz individuals in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus.
In the United States, Canada, and Australia the Iwanowicz surname is less common. It is estimated that the entire non-eastern-European population of Iwanowicz individuals is less than 2000. These countries have a particularly small concentration of Iwanowicz individuals with the greatest number of individuals residing in the United States. In the United States the number of Iwanowicz individuals is estimated to be less than 1000, with the largest concentrations being in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Wisconsin.
Variations of the surname Iwanowicz
The surname Iwanowicz originated from the given name Ivan, which is a cognate of the Greek name Ioannes. The spelling of the surname transcribed into Latin script has several variants, due to the differences in language, dialect and orthography. They include the following spellings: Iwanowicz, Iwanewicz, Iwanovitch, Ivanowitsch, Ivanovits, Ivánov, Ivánovics, Jwanowicz, Jwanewicz and Jwanovitch.
The patronymic variant of the surname comes from the matronymic feminization of the given name Iwan/Jwan. The transliteration of the feminine form of the given name is Iwanna or Jwana. So adding a suffix for feminization results in the variants Iwannowicz, Jwannowicz, Iwannewicz and Jwannewicz.
In some cases, surnames derived from the given name Ivan can also be found in which the spelling of the given name is Ruev, the Russian form of Ivan, or the Jewish version of the given name, Yevan or Gevan. Such surnames include the following: Ruevuchan, Ruevowycz, Yevanovich, Yevanowicz, Yewannowicz, Gevanovitch and Gevanowicz.
The surname Iwanowicz is also sometimes spelled Iwonowicz. The Stetel’s Polish surname dictionary lists this spelling as being one of the common variants of the surname in poland, along with the more commonly found spelling of Iwanowicz and Iwanewicz. The dictionary further states that this variant was often used in specific parts of the country, such as the regions of Masovia and Wielkopolska.
Famous people with the name Iwanowicz
- Galina Iwanowicz: Soviet film actress
- Mikhail Iwanowicz: Russian physicist
- Pawel Iwanowicz: Polish writer
- Alexander Iwanowicz: Belarusian figure skater
- Juliusz Iwanowicz: composer and music teacher
- Kasper Iwanowicz: Polish film director
- Leonid Iwanowicz: Belarusian weightlifter
- Paloma Iwanowicz: Brazilian actress
- Stanislav Iwanowicz: Russian Archeologist
- Iwan Iwanowicz: Russian surgeon and professor