Last Names

[edsiejka]

Last Names
by Edmund Siejka

Whenever I meet someone
At a party, a restaurant or in line at a store
And the conversation turns to last names
I respond politely
When they ask
What nationality is that?
The question strikes me as anachronistic
Like how old were you when you were born?

For some of us
The spelling and pronunciation
Of our last names can be challenging
Harboring a jumble of
Consonants and vowels
Without rules
But we need to remember
That each last name has a proud past
And each name has a future.

If rudely pressed for an explanation
I sometimes describe my last name as “American”
Clearly stating
That my great grandparents immigrated from Europe
Over a hundred fifty years ago
And we’ve been here ever since.

In this day of fluid identities
My answer seems somewhat vague and evasive
And occasionally met with arched eyebrows
From people I hardly know
But it stops them from asking additional questions
As I feel under no obligation to say more
After all
Didn’t we all come from somewhere else?

[mtmynd]

I can understand your "problem" with people who want to know the origin of your name,
it is in some parts of the country not easy to think one can pronounce the word.
I worked in the moving & storage business for many years, (primarily moving our military families),
and there were several different names that somehow challenged me as to the proper pronunciation.
As you can see my own last name rarely was mis-pronounced. But I for years took ones last name as
a sign of respect to attempt to pronounce unusual names as correctly as possible
and in so doing I was rarely met with negativity.

That being said, may I ask what is the origin of Siejka (seek-yah ?).

[sasha]

As a bit of a linguiphile (else I wouldn't be here), I'm often curious about the language in which an unusual name might have been coined. I've also been known to try mimicking someone's accent (not in their presence!), not to mock but to try to understand the linguistic structure that gave rise to the systematic "errors" comprising accent. (In this context, "error" does not mean "mistake" - but in the statistical sense of deviation from what is considered average.)

It's also unfortunate that we're apt to associate language with "nationality", implying a false equivalence between the two.

My own last name is fairly common in the north country of England, but much less so here in the USA. It's a simple enough name - Sunter - but when I say it aloud, whoever is writing it down stops dead and looks at me. "Hunter, with an S" only seems to confuse them. Sumpter, Sumner, Suttner, Sutton, Sumter... I've seen/heard them all.

I will take a wild, uninformed guess at Finnish or maybe Polish for the origin of Siejka.

[edsiejka]

The last name Siejka is Polish and is pronounced SHAKE.KA. I used to tell people "If you can say 'Shake It Up Baby than surely you can say Siejka." In most cases this simple explanation was met with smiles.

[sasha]

Ahh, well I was half-right. Because of all the Finnish Hakala's, Hutala's, & Seppala's hereabouts, I almost went with Polish - but stuck with Finnish because I expected Polish would be more Slavic. I guess first impressions aren't always the best after all.