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[Surname] Holinko?
by raina (guest)
1/1/2007, 9:24 PM
where is this surname from?
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- Jim Young (guest)   +4
1/2/2007, 6:07 AM
It's Ukrainian, that much is certain. The -inko ending could be diminutive ("little ...") or patronymic ("son of ..."). A couple of other Ukrainian surnames beginning with Hol are Holova and Holyk. The first is said to mean "head", the second "naked". Being in complete ignorance of the Ukrainian language I'm not in a position to agree or disagree with these explanations.
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- Jim Young (guest)   +2
1/3/2007, 7:08 AM
Having looked at a Ukrainian dictionary I think we can get rid of head (holova) and stick with naked (holiy) or shaved/shaven (holiyty).
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- Elena Alexandra   +1
1/4/2007, 7:24 AM
I agree :)
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- Jim Young (guest)
1/5/2007, 5:36 AM
The Oxford Dictionary of Surnames has a couple of Slavic names that might be considered cognate - Czech Holyk and Polish Golinski. The suggested explanations for these are "naked" or "hairless" , which seems to confirm our previous ideas.
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- Elena Alexandra
1/2/2007, 5:05 PM
I speak Ukrainian, and I would say it comes from the word "holyty", - "to shave", but maybe it has some relation to "naked".. i'm not sure.
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