Kalinowski
A Polish surname meaning “from Kalinów” or “from the place of kalina,” the viburnum shrub.
The #8,377 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 78,144 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Kalinowski is a Polish habitational surname. It most likely refers to someone from a place called Kalinów, Kalinowo, or a similarly named settlement built on the root kalina, meaning the viburnum or guelder-rose shrub. In Polish surname formation, the ending -owski usually means “of” or “from” a place, so the name broadly means “one from Kalinów.”
History
The surname is common in Poland and among Polish diaspora communities, where it was often carried abroad through 19th- and 20th-century migration. Like many Polish surnames ending in -owski, it may point either to an ancestral village name or, less directly, to a landscape feature associated with viburnum shrubs. In some families the name was later simplified or altered in spelling after immigration, but Kalinowski remains the standard form.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The root kalina is also found in other Slavic place names and surnames, so Kalinowski fits a very common Eastern European naming pattern based on local geography and plants.