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Grandmother's maiden name is listed as Kowesnki. I have not been able to find any such surname. Do you have any idea on the correct spelling?

lejonet
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Kowesnki
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    Do you have any information about which country the surname might originate from? You can edit the question to add the information using the edit button below it. –  Oct 03 '16 at 15:21
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    Are you sure it's Kowesnki and not Kowenski? –  Oct 03 '16 at 18:32
  • no it is listed as Kowesnki – Kowesnki Oct 19 '16 at 22:09
  • Which could be a spelling mistake.... –  Oct 20 '16 at 05:59
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    Kowenski is from the poland/Lithuania /Belarus area – Jacob Jun 14 '17 at 17:08
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    I totally agree that Kowenski is probable Polish or Belarusian surname. More - there is a guy with such surname "Ковенский" – GEORG GAAL Jun 15 '17 at 06:17
  • Also a "n" imediately before "ski" always takes an accute accent in Polish. Also, your grandma should have the feminine variant of the name, ending in "-ska", but if she was born in a non-slavic country the authorities might not have allowed that. – Bregalad Jun 15 '17 at 06:48
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    One thing to keep in mind is that you should consider that a name is not absolute. A better way of looking at it is "this person/family is known as Kowesnki/Kowenski/...". I have many people in my tree that are listed using very different spelling. Which one of those is THE correct one? None. They were known under all of those. That's why I list all names. – gvd Jun 16 '17 at 18:04
  • My name is Kowenski. My Dad was a Holocaust survivor and came to the US after the war. If you'd like, you could contact me – hal Kowenski Nov 12 '17 at 20:37

2 Answers2

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I have actually heard and known of people with the last name Kowenski. I know it is a Jewish surname. I am pretty sure the spelling of "Kowesnki" is a typo.

I began by looking on Avotaynu in the their surname search, and here's what I found:

Kowenski

Source Material:

It seems that it is a Polish-Jewish surname, based on the evidence above.

Like I said before, it seems highly likely that the other spelling was a typo, seeming that only two letters have been switched.

PolyGeo
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Being a Kowenski, I can tell you that in Poland while that would be the spelling of a man, the woman would be spelling the name as Kowenska.

user7207
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