Coat of Arms & Family Crests Store
 Jackowski Coat of Arms / Jackowski Family CrestIt was not until the 10th century that modern hereditary surnames first developed, and the use of fixed names spread, first to France, and then England, then to Germany and all of Europe. In these parts of Europe, the individual man was becoming more important, commerce was increasing and the exact identification of each man was becoming a necessity. Even today however, the Church does not recognise surnames. Baptisms and marriages are performed through use of the Christian name alone. Thus hereditary as we know them today developed gradually during the 11th to the 15th century in the various European counties. The name of JACKOWSKI was a Polish baptismal name, from the given name JACENTY, and rendered in medieval documents in the Latin form HYACINTHUS. This was the name of a 3rd-century saint who was martyred together with his brother Protus. He enjoyed a certain cult in Portugal as well as in Poland. His name, which is almost certainly of pre-Greek origin, in classical times denoted a flower (not the modern hyacinth, but a lily), and it was borne by a mythological character from whose blood the flower was supposed to have sprung up. The name is also spelt JACINTO, JACKOWICZ, JACKIEWICZ, JACKOWSKI, JACKOWIAK and JACZEWSKI. The earliest Polish surnames were patronymic. The personal names from which they were derived were mainly Slavonic, but as the Middle Ages progressed, traditional Slavic given names, began to give way to saint's names, mainly of Latin origin. Surnames derived from Slavonic personal names are of early origin, and tend to be borne by aristocratic families. Some names were changed by immigrants whilst on the boat heading for America and Australia. These transformations were usually to names thought by the immigrants to be more respected in his native land than the one he bore. Many Poles added 'ski' to their names to attain a higher social status since such names were accorded more respect from people of Polish extraction. Thus a larger proportion of Polish names carried this termination in America and Australia than in Poland. In the Middle Ages heraldry came into use as a practical matter. It originated in the devices used to distinguish the armoured warriors in tournament and war, and was also placed on seals as marks of identity. As far as records show, true heraldry began in the middle of the 12th century, and appeared almost simultaneously in several countries of Western Europe. |
