Find out how popular the last name Polansky is in the United States and learn more about the meaning, history, and race and ethnic origin of people in America who are named Polansky.

Polansky, like all of the last names we have data for, is identified by the U.S. Census Bureau as a surname which has more than 100 occurrences in the United States in the Decennial Census survey. The most recent statistics we have for the Polansky surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Polansky in America

Polansky is the 11928th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Polansky surname appeared 2,624 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 1 people would have the surname Polansky.

We can also compare 2010 data for Polansky to data from the previous census in 2000. The table below contains all of the statistics for both years in a side-by-side comparison.

The history of the last name Polansky

The surname Polansky originated in Poland, deriving from the Slavic word "pole" meaning "field" or "plain." It likely emerged as a habitational name, referring to someone who lived in an area with expansive plains or fields.

In its earliest forms, the name was spelled variants like Polanski, Polańsky, and Polansky. It first appeared in written records during the 13th century in regions like Silesia and Lesser Poland.

One of the earliest known bearers of the name was Jan Polański, a landowner mentioned in a 1387 deed from the town of Bochnia, near Kraków. Another early record is of Maciej Polansky, a merchant active in Wrocław in the late 15th century.

The name spread as Poles migrated across Europe in later centuries. Notable people with this surname include Roman Polanski, the acclaimed French-Polish film director born in 1933, still active today. Ignacy Polansky (1760-1847) was a Polish general who fought in the Napoleonic Wars.

In the United States, the name arrived with Polish immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Michael Polansky (1869-1937) was a labor activist involved in the coal mining unions of Pennsylvania. Edwin Polansky (1932-2015) was an American chess master and writer.

Other bearers include Józef Polansky (1879-1962), a Polish priest and philosopher, and Kazimierz Polansky (1923-2007), a Polish boxer who won a bronze medal at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Polansky

We also have some data on the ancestry of people with the surname Polansky.

The below race categories are the modified race categories used in the Census Bureau's population estimates program. All people were categorized into six mutually exclusive racial and Hispanic origin groups:

1. White only
2. Black only
3. American Indian and Alaskan Native only
4. Asian and Pacific Islander only
5. Hispanic
6. Two or More Races

For the most recent 2010 census data, the race/ethnic origin breakdown for Polansky was:

Note: Any fields showing (S) means the data was suppressed for privacy so that the data does not in any way identify any specific individuals.

Since we have data from the previous census in 2000, we can also compare the values to see how the popularity of Polansky has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

Data source

The last name data and ethnic breakdown of last names is sourced directly from the Decennial Census survey, conducted every 10 years by the United States Census Bureau.

The history and meaning of the name Polansky was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of Polansky, please contact us.

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