Surname Woschny - Meaning and Origin
all surnames with 'W'
Woschny: What does the surname Woschny mean?
Woschny is a German surname derived from the word 'Wosch', meaning sheep. The surname is thought to have derived from someone who worked as a shepherd, someone who looked after sheep, or possibly from someone who owned sheep or lived near a flock of them. The surname Woschny is not overly common, but still found today in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and parts of Eastern Europe, including Hungary and Poland.
In Germany the surname is considered relatively rare and is only found sporadically in some regions, particularly the eastern and southern parts of the country. In Austria, the name is more common then in Germany and is found widely throughout the country. It is also found in Switzerland, Romania and parts of Croatia. In Poland, the name is actually quite common and is found especially in the northern and western parts of the country.
The use of this surname in German-speaking countries like Germany or Austria is likely to go back to the Middle Ages when surnames first started being used. It is likely that a person who worked with sheep, such as a shepherd or a wool merchant, was given the name by their local community in order for them to be easily identified. The name then stuck with the family and was passed down from generation to generation.
Order DNA origin analysisWoschny: Where does the name Woschny come from?
The last name Woschny is most common in Germany today. It is a German name, and it is estimated that there are approximately 14,200 people with the surname living in that country.
The surname follows is German naming conventions, where the last name indicates place or origin. In this case, the name Woschny may have originated from a place called Woschny. Alternatively, the name may come from the old German word "Wošen", which could mean forest or bushland.
The area around Woschny is now located in what is now Belarus, which is bordered by Poland and Ukraine. The name is considered of Slavic origin.
There are also people with the name in Austria, Switzerland, France, and the United States. There is also a possibility that the name was brought to the US from Germany as part of the wave of German immigrants through Ellis Island in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Woschny is not currently a very common name, but it is far from being extinct. There are fewer than 20,000 people with the surname in the world today, but that number is slowly growing as German immigrants and families settle around the globe.
Variations of the surname Woschny
Woschny is a surname of German origin, derived from the Old German language. It is related to the words "wosch" or "visch", meaning field or meadow. The most common variant spellings for Woschny are Wostschny, Wostschenny and Wostchny, with other less-common variants including Voschny, Woschensny, Wostshny and Woschny.
Alternate surnames of similar origin include Voshon, Waschnay, Oshon, Wasson, Wahsen, Washon, Waisen and Wesson. Because the origin of the surname is derived from a topographical reference to a meadow, some bearers of the surname Woschny also adopt the surname Marsh, which is likewise derived from Old German and shares the same meaning of meadow.
Some variant surnames may have also emerged from dialectical or regional variations of the original family name. For example, in the Silesian dialect of German, "woschenny" is pronounced "vostenky", which led to the formation of the surnames Wostenky and Vostenky. Likewise, surnames such as Ostensky, Wostinsky and Vostensky may have emerged in other dialects of the same language.
The Woschny surname has spread to many countries in Europe, including Germany, Poland, France, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. Surname bearers in America tend to be of German descent, but the name can also be found in other countries of Central and Eastern Europe.
Famous people with the name Woschny
- Clemens Woschny: German aviator and one of the pioneers of modern rocketry.
- Ernst Woschny: pioneer in German aeronautics and aerodynamics and founder of the German aircraft manufacturer Focke-Wulf.
- Lothar Woschny: German astronomer and director of a German astronomical observatory in eastern Berlin.
- Oskar Woschny: German architect and one of the most important representatives of the New Objectivity and Functionalism in the late Bauhaus period.
- Rudolf Woschny: German engineer and industrialist who developed the V2 rocket during World War II.
- Wilhelm Woschny: German diplomat and politician who became the first German ambassador to the United Nations in the post-war era.
- Hans Arnold Woschny: German industrialist and entrepreneur who founded several factories in what was then East Germany.
- Joachim Woschny: German lawyer and senior diplomat who held a number of posts in the German Foreign Office.
- Jürgen Woschny: German historian and professor of modern European history at the University of Regensburg.
- Barbara Woschny: Austrian singer and composer who was a member of the Vienna Boys’ Choir from 1932 to 1936.