	AllExperts > Polish Language
	Search

About Maciej St. Ziêba
Expertise
I am native Polish and I used to teach Polish to foreigners. I know (passively of actively) more than 15 other languages - so I can answer many questions concerning Polish grammar, pronounciation, spelling, ethymology and usage - as compared to English, French, German, Russian, Dutch, Esperanto or Norwegian. Also questions concerning other Slavic languages, Sanskrit, Chinese, Tibetan, or general linguistics, especially scripts (writing systems and transcriptions) - are welcome.

Experience
Teaching English and French to Poles, Polish to foreigners, teaching Sanskrit, Chinese and Tibetan to philosophy students.

You are here: Experts > Arts/Humanities > Languages > Polish Language > last name Mishner or Myznir

Polish Language - last name Mishner or Myznir

Expert: Maciej St. Ziêba - 11/3/2009

Question
I'm wondering if you know where the last name Mishner comes from?? My grandfather thinks that it was originally spelled myznir or something like that but we're not really sure. Do you know how the proper spelling would have been?

Answer
Dear Julie,

I am sorry but I cannot answer you with certainty where this name comes from. Especially I am unable to comment upon the last remarks of your Grandfather. The only Google link to "Myznir" is http://www.pub.umich.edu/daily/2000/feb/02-16-2000/sports/04.html

The name quoted by you [Mishner] is certainly not of Polish origin. It might be German (most probable), with an original spelling "Mischner", or Jewish (from Yiddish language), with the similar spelling (if written in Germany) or else with spelling "Miszner" if written in Poland, "Misner" if written in Hungary or "Mišner" if written in Czech Republic or Slovakia (to quote just but a few examples; remember that Yiddish language [see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yiddish_language ] is originally written in Hebrew script but for administrative purposes the names of the Jewish population were written in Latin or Cyrillic script, depending on which script was official in the country of Europe concerned; always the phonetical principle was applied to such transcription [see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcription_(linguistics) ]).

See e.g. the repartition of the name Mischner in Germany
http://www.verwandt.de/karten/absolut/mischner.html

When you compare it with the data from Canada:
http://www.dynastree.ca/maps/search.html?nameInputField=Mischner
you'll find no such form as "Mischner", but several sound-alike or look-alike forms (the system gives 144 such "similar" names, but according to me more than half of them can hardly be taken seriously into consideration). Some of them are quite close to your Grandfather's spelling. Try and check some or all of them in Canada, or else in other countries. On this website http://www.verwandt.de/karten/ you have links to maps showing geographical repartition of surnames in various countries [in the order of appearance, originally in German]:
Germany, Argentina, France, The United Kingdom, Canada, The Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Switzerland, Spain and USA.
Yes, the website is originally written in German, but don't panic if you don't speak that language - searching is childlish easy. Put the surname searched for to the first cell and choose the country from the second one, and wait for the result.

I hope the name is pronounced [mish-ner] with short "i" as in "fish", and not with long "i" as in "mice". Otherwise the original German spelling could be Meissner. Some such forms can be found in the link for Canada I have given above.

Good luck in your search.

Best regards,

Maciej

PS. I have not noticed that in the Google link to "Myznir" name it was mentioned that the person from Michigan (Otto Myznir) was of Austrian origin. Now, I have noticed it and checked with the website with maps shown to you. The result for Austria is however null [See: http://www.verwandt.at/karten/absolut/myznir.html ]. The text says that there are more than 200,000 surnames' maps, but this one is not shown. Maybe you should use another spelling?

The link for Canada http://www.dynastree.ca/maps/search.html?nameInputField=Myznir shows 144 names as before, and you should yourself checke if all of them are the same or not

The link for USA is broken if you go from that website.

If the name was from Austria, and of German origin, it would be pronounced [mits-neer]; it might be however of Slavic origin (Czech, Slovak, Slovenian or Croatian) or else of Hungarian origin - in all these cases it would be read [meez-neer].

Best regards again

MAciej

Add to this Answer Ask a Question