Guild of One-Name Studies
One-name studies, Genealogy
This study is no longer registered with the Guild, but this profile page has been retained at the member's request. Please note that neither officers nor members of the Guild are able to answer any questions about this study.
Purol One Name Study In 2014 a one name study began combining years of research with current information to answer questions about the Purol name.
The aims of the study are;
Dr. Barbara Czopek-Kopciuch Polish author and head of Department of Onomastics at the Polish Institute of Science in Krakow studied the Purol name and contributed much of this research.
The name is of Polish origin. It is not connected to Germans populating the country. It is a name formed from the common noun półrola meaning roughly, "half of the plow land." Names from common words began to develop in the thirteenth century. These common surnames were often equated solely with the people of lower social classes. So at the beginning the name was attached to a person who owned little or no land. An equal American colloquialism might be "dirt poor".
The spelling of the name changed over time. The Purol surname does not contain the first -ł- of półrola the noun because in many Polish dialects this sound disappears before r. In the noun there is another -ó- which is pronounced today as a -u-. Dr Czopek-Kopciuch suggests that perhaps the ancestral name was Półrol and it was written as it was spoken in the dialectal form Purol.
Purol is a very rare surname in Poland. There have been two name frequency studies in the last 14 years in Poland. In 1990 the population of Poland was about 38,119,000 and the number of Purols was 568 for a frequency of 1.49%.
In 2002 the population barely increased to 38,231,000 but the number of Purols dropped to 494 for a frequency of 1.29%. Recent data suggests a fall in overall population numbers which may suggest a continuing drop to Purol name frequency in Poland.
In Poland most of the 494 Purol residents as of 2002, live in or very close to the Vivoidship (Province) of Wielkopolskie. Cities with high numbers of Purol are Gniezno, Poznan and Znin. However, Purols are sprinkled across most of Western Poland.
The Purol surname is also found in Germany where 21 people with the name reside. In France there is one family, and Belgium has two.
The United States is the country of choice for those who emigrate from Poland. In 1840 there were no Purol in the US. However, by 1880 there was one family of eight. By the 1910 census the Purol residents measured 94. And in 1940, the last available census data, there were 138 Purols who lived mostly in the eastern half of the US. Current web information lists between 250 and 400 persons with the Purol surname as US residents. Michigan is currently the state with the greatest number of Purol residents. Perhaps in the foreseeable future the numbers of Purol in the US will surpass those who live in Poland.