Wojciech George ROBAKOWSKI

1848 - 30 JUN 1913

• BIRTH: 1848, Prussian Poland
• BURIAL: St Joseph Cemetery
• DEATH: 30 JUN 1913, Warren Twp, St Joseph Cty, Indiana

• MARRIAGE: 29 AUG 1881, Prussian, Poland

1.  Steve ROBAKOWSKI
2. +Stanley ROBAKOWSKI
3.  Priawia ROBAKOWSKI
4.  Ewa ROBAKOWSKI
5. +Rose ROBARKOWSKI
6. +Frank Walter ROBAKOWSKI
7. +Joseph ROBAKOWSKI
8. +Marie ROBAKOWSKI
9.  Peter ROBAKOWSKI

INDEX

[N4110] Birth: 1848, Poland
Death: Jun. 30, 1913

Married to Nepomucena Bednarowicz on 8-29-1881 in Poland.

Family links:
Children:
Marie Robakowski Wozniak (1887 - 1976)*
Rose Robakowski Hes (1891 - 1965)*

Burial:
Saint Joseph Cemetery
South Bend
St. Joseph County
Indiana, USA

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Analysis of the Surnames ROBAKOWKI vs. ROBOKOWSKI.
Source Fred Hoffman

Hi, Jim,
I received your note dated April 19, asking about ROBAKOWKI vs. ROBOKOWSKI.
Im sorry I didnt answer sooner. This is one of those times each year when deadlines for three different publications come together at more or less the same time. I usually have to ignore my correspondence until the deadlines are met; then I have a mountain of correspondence to catch up on. Generally speaking, it's really tricky work trying to compare similar names of this sort and decide what to make of them. For one thing, Polish has a jillion names, many differing from others by a single letter. Some may be quite rare, to the point that no scholars have ever really analyzed or studied them. You soon realize that a name like ROBOKOWSKI may be rare, or has died out -- but that tells you nothing about whether it did once exist, and if so, whether it was connected with ROBAKOWSKI. The only real way to answer such a question is through detailed research into the family history. That can turn up circumstances that affected the name that no scholar could
possibly foresee or know about. But I try to start with hard data, if I can get any, and see where that takes me. I checked the 2002 surname data from a Polish government agency database, available online at the Moikrewni site. For ROBAKOWSKI, you can see the data, and a nice color map illustrating it, here:

http://www.moikrewni.pl/mapa/kompletny/robakowski.html

But remember that this is not the full picture. There's also the feminine form ROBAKOWSKA, traditionally borne by females:

http://www.moikrewni.pl/mapa/kompletny/robakowska.html

This data tells us as of 2002, there were 930 Robakowskis and 983 Robakowskas. The name shows up in many different parts of Poland, but is most common in the area around Poznan, and especially in the powiaty (counties) of Krotoszyn (115 and 141) and Poznan city (37 and 44). On the map, these are among the powiaty colored red. On that map, position your cursor over a powiat and its name appears; that's how you tell which is which. Krotoszyn and Poznan are both in west central Poland. That is the general area where the name shows up most often. By comparison, a search for ROBOKOWSKI/ROBOKOWSKA comes up empty. That's true for the 2002 data, and also for the less accurate 1990 data available at http://www.herby.com.pl/indexslo.html>. If that name did once exist, it has died out.

I looked to see what the late Polish scholar Prof. Kazimierz Rymut had to
say about these names. He listed ROBAKOWSKI, saying it appears in Polish
records as early as 1457, and it usually refers to a family connection with
any of several villages names Robakowo and Robakow. He did not list
ROBOKOWSKI at all.

Rymut does not say so, but these places named Robakowo and Robakow probably
got the names from a connection with a person called Robak, from the term
_robak_, "worm, maggot." So presumably, there were guys nicknamed Robak, and
places they owned or founded could be called Robakowo or Robakow, "the
worm's [place]." Then a family who came from such a place could be called
ROBAKOWSKI, "one from the worm's place." It is also conceivable that the
name might have started out meaning "of the kin of the worm." But surnames
in the form X-owski are especially likely to connect with place names that
start with the X part.

You can get some information on places that might qualify here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robakowo_(disambiguation)

http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robak%C3%B3w

You'll note that most of them are in western Poland, not far from where the
surname ROBAKOWSKI shows up most often. So a given ROBAKOWSKI family -- and
all people by that name may NOT be the same family, remember! -- probably
came from one of those places. Only research into the family history might
nail down which one, however. This Robakowski family may have come from
Robakow in Czermin gmina of Pleszaw powiat; that one might have come from
Robakowo in Kornik gmina, Poznan powiat; and so on.

Notice, nothing comes up for Robok-. I strongly suspect that's just a
variant form. I have often noticed that Polish names with the vowel O can
sometimes switch with A, and vice versa. In other words, ROBOKOWSKI could
very well be nothing more than a variant of ROBAKOWSKI. The sounds of Polish
O and A are not too different, and in some dialects they can be switched.
Also possible is that someone wrote down ROBAKOWSKI on a document, but
didn't write the -a- very clearly, and it was misread as an -o-. That sort
of thing did happen from time to time.

All told, I really think ROBOKOWSKI is probably not an independent name in
its own right, but just a rare variant of ROBAKOWSKI. Research into the
family history might prove me wrong, of course. But that's what looks most
likely to me.

I'm not sure there is a German effect involved in that a/o switch. However,
one area where we do see the switch often -- with -a- becoming -o- -- is in
the region of Silesia, in southwestern Poland. There, it is perfectly normal
for standard Polish -a- to be modified to -o-. We see things like BEDNORZ
instead of BEDNARZ, and so on. SIlesia has long been heavily populated by
Germans, and Germany ruled it for a long time. But the switch from -a-
to -o-, especially in endings, seems to be more a Silesian thing than a
German thing, as best I can tell.

To sum up, ROBAKOWSKI is a clearly attested Polish surname, probably
referring to a family connection with any of several places named Robakowo
and Robakow, which in turn probably came from a Polish word meaning "worm."
It is possible, in some cases, the name might have started out meaning "of
the kin of the worm." But probably, in most cases, it meant "one from
Robakowo or Robakow" -- and the meaning of the Robak- part was irrelevant.
As for ROBOKOWSKI, I can find nothing that suggests it's an independent
name; I strongly suspect it's just a variant. It's not unusual to find that
names with an -a- may have variants with -o-, and I think that's what
happened here. In any case, the name ROBOKOWSKI does not show up in Poland
in recent data. So if such a name existed, it has since died out.
ROBAKOWSKI, however, is a moderately common name (by Polish standards).

I hope that helps, and wish you the best of luck with your research.

Fred Hoffman
Author of _Polish Surnames: Origins & Meanings_
www.fredhoff.com

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