[Surname] Re: Meaning of the surname 'Hrusovsky'
in reply to a message by John Hrusovszky
The proper spelling in Czech and Slovak is Hrušovský which is derived from Hrušov, a common placename as you can see at tinyurl.com/y94nwam3. I don't know the origin of the toponym Hrušov.
Replies
The -ov is just a genetive suffix, comparable to Sorbian and Polish -ow. Hruš- defies analysis, not uncommon for place names. It occurs in western Poland (near the Urkainian border) as Hruszow, and the Ukraine as Hruszow/Hrushiv. It may be a mangled version of someone's name, or it may relate to the pear tree, hrúša in Ukrainian and Belarusian, grusza in Polish. Modern Czech and Slovak use the derivative hruška, which may have originally denoted the fruit (Polish gruszka) as opposed to the tree.