This article is missing citations or needs footnotes. Please help add inline citations to guard against copyright violations and factual inaccuracies. (December 2009)

Abramczyk (variously transliterated into other languages as: Abramczik, Abramcyk, Abramcik, Abramchik, Abramchyk, Abramtchik, Abramschik, Abramtshik, Abramtschik, Abrahmchik, Abrahmtzik, Abramtzik, Belarusian: Абрамчык, Russian: Абрамчик; Hebrew: אברמצ'יק, Yiddish: אַבראַמטשיק, Arabic: أبرامـشـك) is a Polish Jewish and Polish surname. It is a patronymic surname derived from the Hebrew name 'Abram'

This surname was given around XVIII century to the Mizrahi Jews from Ottoman Empire who came to Poland about XVI – XVII century with a small group of Turkish Sephardi Jews during the time period of the Turkic peoples', Karaites' and Armenians' migrations to Central Europe. Instead of Arabic 'Ibrahim', the Mizrahi Jews were given the 'Abram' version of this name as the purest and original. Therefore, the 'Abramczyk' surname is defined as coming from the Polish Jews of Arab origin and is an evidence of the Semitic ancestry of its owner.

The ending 'czyk' signifies "son of" which results in the meaning: "the son of Abram", "little Abram" or "Abram junior". In case of the ethnic minorities in Poland, this suffix was in fact more commonly given to Jews from the Arab countries living in Poland, while for example such suffixes as 'ski' or 'wicz' were more often seen in the Ashkenazi Jewish or Polish Armenian surnames.

After the Mizrahim have settled on the territories of Poland, they have gradually blended with the Ashkenazi culture for example by mixed marriages.

This is why the surname is not only known in Hebrew, but also had its version in Yiddish. The Central and Eastern European Jews saw Mizrahi as Sephardim and did not distinct their separate culture. However, after about few generations, the Mizrahim, lost in their identity and the pressure of great Ashkenazi majority around them, were easy to convert. As a result, many of them were baptized and became the Christian neophytes. According to the sources, their surnames were left unchanged, because they already contained a Polish suffix. Letting the surnames consist of a Semitic name was a sign of Polish tolerance to the Jewish ethnicity, which could be commemorated in a form of surname. The suffix criterion was not fulfilled in case of some typical German Ashkenazic surnames like for example those with the endings 'man' or 'stein'. Having a Polish-sounding surname was an important condition to become a full member of a Christian Polish society.

Nowadays many owners of 'Abramczyk' surname are usually adapted for being the Poles, although there are many of them still conscious of their roots. The surname is actually most common in Poland, but also appears in other countries like Israel, France, United States, Canada, Belarus, Germany, Argentina and Brasil.

[edit] People

• Mikoła Abramchyk (Belarusian: Мікола Абрамчык, 1903 - 1970)
• Rüdiger Abramczik (born 1956, Gelsenkirchen), a German football player and coach
• Volker Abramczik (born 1964, Gelsenkirchen), a German football player

[edit] References

• Surname information in a Polish genealogical archive
• Abramczyk surname at the online Wiki dictionary (Polish)
• The Lodz ghetto surname records search at the JewishGen.org genealogy site
• Search results for Abramczyk surname at Ancestry.com
• The surnames of Middle Eastern background list
• Jewish surnames in Argentina

This page or section lists people with the surname Abramczyk, Abramczik, Abramcyk, Abramcik, Abramchik, Abramchyk, Abramtchik, Abramschik, Abramtshik, Abramtschik, Abrahmchik, Abrahmtzik, Abramtzik, Абрамчик, Абрамчык. If an internal link intending to refer to a specific person led you to this page, you may wish to change that link by adding the person's given name(s) to the link.