Komorowski - Name

This is a Polish habitation name for a cottager or tenant, deriving from the Polish 'komora' meaning a hut or cottage, plus the possessive suffix '-ow' (a common placename, element) with the addition of the locational suffix 'ski'. In surnames -ski originally indicated association with a place and was equivalent to the French 'de'. Formerly, the namebearer would have been lord of the estate or manor to which the name referred, but gradually the name was applied to residents of every status. Coats of Arms granted to Komorowski families of Poland and Galicia are recorded heraldically in 'Rietstap's Armorial General'. One of the earliest has a red fess across a silver field. The fess is emblematic of the military girdle worn round the body over the armour. The Coat of Arms for the Komorowski family of Liptowa, Galicia, has three silver descending gradually truncated bars on a red field. The bar is the diminutive of the fess. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Komorowski of Poland, which was dated circa 1680 - 'Rietstap's Armorial General', during the reign of King John Sobieski III, The Last independent King of Poland, 1674 - Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.1697.