What Does 'Curnick' Really Mean?

I don't know, but it's a question some have tried to answer.

Gary Curnick wrote this on the Ancestry UK message board...
"Regarding the origins of the name Curnick, it means 'chicken house'
in Polish. My father had a theory that the early Polish Curnicks were
shipwrecked on the dangerous Cornish coast and came ashore to populate
the area!
"A more likely explanation is that it is a derivative of the Polish
name 'Koenig' Polish miners came to Cornwall to work the tin mines and
then moved on to the Welsh coal mines, when the tin mines closed."
-https://www.ancestry.co.uk/boards/surnames.curnick/2.3.3.1.1/mb.ashx

On https://translate.google.com I typed in 'chicken house' in English,
and it translated it into 'kurnik' in Polish. There is a button there
that gives a Polish pronounciation, which I pressed, and the word came
out sounding like "Koooor-neek".

Besides 'chicken house', Google Translate gives two other definitions
for 'kurnik' - one is another type of animal cage, especially for
pigeons, and the other is 'hovel', or a small, shabby dwelling for
humans.

When I reversed the action, and typed in "kurnik" as Polish and had
Google translate that into English, it came out "hovel".

Google Translate also showed "kurnik", with the same meaning of
chicken house or coop, in the Bulgarian and Czech languages.

And according to Wikipedia, 'Kurnik' was the original name of "the
most popular on-line board game website in Poland", at this moment
known as PlayOK.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayOK

But Wikipedia also has another translation of 'kurnik', this time from
Russian...

"Kurnik (Russian: курник; "chicken pirog"), also known as wedding
pirog or tsar pirog, a dome-shaped savoury Russian pirog, usually
filled with chicken or turkey, eggs, onions, kasha or rice, and other
optional components. Sometimes, pirog was filled with boiled rooster
combs.... This pirog originated in Southern Russia, especially in
Cossacks communities, and was used as "wedding pirog" in the rest of
the country.... It is dome-shaped, unlike any other non-sweet pirog.
In special cases, it was served to tsar himself. Even today, this
pirog is served on special occasions in most of Russia."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurnik_(pirog)

I cut the Cyrillic of kurnik that was in Wikipedia and pasted it into
Google Translate, and it provided a Russian pronounciation, which
sounded to me something like "Koooor-neesh".

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As for 'koenig', it's the German word for king. The Google Translate
pronounciation of konig sounded to me much closer to how the word
'Curnick sounds today than do the 'kurnik' variants. But who knows how
words were pronounced 400 years ago?

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I found on the web three other opinions on where the name Curnick came
from. The first is from surnamedb.com...

This name is of Cornish topographic origin for one who dwelled by a
rocky hill. The name derives from the Celtic "carr", a rock plus the
Olde Gaelic "cnoc", a hill. Topographical surnames were among the
earliest created, since both natural and man made features in the
landscape provided easily recognisable distinguishing names in the
small country communities of the Middle Ages. The surname, with
variant spellings Carnock, Carneck, Kernock(e), Curn(n)ok(k), Curnick
and Curnucke, is well recorded in London and Cornish Church Registers
from the early 17th Century, (see below). On October 26th 1669, Avise
Kernocke and James Hawkyn were married in Michaelston, Cornwall.
Agnes, daughter of John and Lydia Curnock, was christened in St.
Dunstan's, Stepney on May 14th 1679 and on November 21st 1701, Grace
Curnock and Thomas Rundle were married in St. Endellion, Cornwall. The
first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of
Robart Curnock, which was dated August 26th 1607, christened at St.
Bride's, Fleet Street, London, during the reign of King James I of
England and VI of Scotland, 1603 - 1625. 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.

© Copyright: Name Origin Research 1980 - 2017

http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Curnick#ixzz5RTRrS1WN

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Forebears.io had this from a 1912 volume...

Curnick Surname Origin
(Origin English) a nickname or sign-name from the Crane [Old English cornoc].
Source: Surnames of the United Kingdom, A Concise Etymological
Dictionary; Henry Harrison; Vol.1 & 2.; The Eaton Press, 190 Ebury
Street, London, S.W; 1912.

https://forebears.io/surnames/curnick

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And finaly, archive.org has the full text of 'THE TEUTONIC NAME SYSTEM
APPLIED TO THE FAMILY NAMES OF FRANCE, ENGLAND, & GERMANY BY EGBERT
FERGUSON, Author of "The River-Names of Europe," " Swiss Men AND Swiss
Mountains," &c.', an 1864 book which postulates that 'Curnick' is one
of many diminuitives of an Old High German word for zeal. Here is that
whole section of the book....

Zeal.
From tlie Old High German zila, English
zeal, are the following.
SIMPLE FORMS.
Old German Zilo, Zello, 8th cent. Eng. Zeall, Zealey.
Mod. Germ. Ziehle. French ? Zei.le.
COMPOUNDS.
{Ger, spear) Old German Cilger, 10th cent. — French
Zelger. {Hari, warrior) French Zeiller, Zeller. (Man)
Old German Ciliman, 8th cent. — English Silliman 1 — Mod.
German Zillmann.
From the Old High German gerUy eager, are
probably the following.
SIMPLE forms.
Old Gei'man Cherno, Kerne. Gnrnay, Boll Batt. Abb. '
English Gurney, Chirney, Curno, Corxey. Mod. German
Gern, Kern. French Journe, Cornay.
DIMINUTIVES.
English Gurnell, Cornell — French Cornely, Cornil-
Leau. Eng. CuRNiCK, CoRNicK. French Cornichon. Mod.
Germ. Gernlein — French Cornillon.
PATRONYMICS.
English Corning. Mod. Germ. Gerning.
COMPOUNDS.
[Bert, famous) French Cornibert. (Hard, fortis) Eng.
Gurnard — Mod Germ. Gernhardt. (Hari, warrior) Eng.
GuRNEK, KiRNER, CoRNER — Mod. Germ. Gerner, Korner —
French Curnier. (Man) Old Germ. Gerneman, 9th cent.
— Eng. CoRNMAN — Mod. Germ. Kernmann. (Wald, power)
Old Germ. Gernolt, 9th cent. — French Journault.
There are several words which have the mean-
ing of joy, mirth, cheerfulness. From the Old
High Germ, mandjan, gaudere, mendi, gaudium,
Fcirstemann derives the following stem. As a
termination it is very liable to intermix with
man, homo. The form mance, mence, seems to
be High German.

https://archive.org/stream/teutonicnamesyst00ferg/teutonicnamesyst00ferg_djvu.txt