Almost 30,000 entries are contained in the publicly accessible, online dictionary of surnames in Poland prepared by the Institute of Polish Language at the Polish Academy of Sciences in Krakow. It contains information on the origin of the surname, its variety and frequency of occurrence in individual voivodships and the world.

The online dictionary of surnames in Poland is an onomasticon, containing approximately 30 thousand surnames used in Poland today. Its most important element is the statistical-frequency and linguistic-lexicographical information on individual surnames. Work on the dictionary had been going on since 2014.

Each entry consists of the main form of the surname derived from the PESEL database, the feminine form, the number of its users in Poland (divided by gender, provinces, districts and communes with the highest frequency), historical records, sources of origin, probable etymologies and motivations of the surname, word-form structure and variants. Data on the distribution of the surname in other countries has also been prepared.

The dictionary allows alphabetical searching of surnames and sorting of query results. It is also possible to search by a user-defined combination of letters at the beginning, at the end or within a group of surnames. The programme has been adapted for display on mobile devices (smartphones, tablets, etc.).

The creators of the dictionary, researchers at the Institute of Polish Language of the Polish Academy of Sciences, are convinced that it should help in further scientific anthroponomastics research, as well as for private purposes, such as genealogical research. The dictionary has an open character; it will be constantly supplemented and developed. A continuation and addition of names with fewer users is planned for next year.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński