Does anyone know the country of origin for my (now changed) surname "Olovitz"?? I can't find a thing on it.

Question

Does anyone know the country of origin for my (now changed) surname "Olovitz"?? I can't find a thing on it.

Answer 1

The Jewish name Orelowitz is likely the surname yours is derived from. "Orel"  means eagle in Russian-Slovakian.

Gail just google "surname etymology Orelowitz" and you will find family websites from all over the globe!

Cheers!

Q

Answer 2

Hmmm... well, the suffix "vitz" (also spelled vich, vitz, vych, wicz, wiecz, witz, witch) means "son of" in slavic languages such as Polish and Russian.  But slavic names can be found all over eastern Europe.  You'd have to trace your family tree back generation by generation to find out exaclty where YOUR Olovitz ancestors came from.

As for the meaning: the name literally means "son of Olo"... which could come from the name Olaf (or Oliver in it's English form).

Answer 3

This is the closest that I got by googling the last name.

http://ancestrylibrary.com/facts/Olovitz...

You might have trouble if the name was changed at any point in the ancestry line.  For example a family member disgraces the family in some way and the Kelley family gets changed to Kelly to keep the family honor.

In your case a letter may have been added, since when I googled the surname, Lovitz came up.

Just keep digging and good luck.

Answer 4

Hi, that IS a rare surname!  Ancestry shows there were 3 records in the USA in the 1920 Census with the surname of Olovitz.

1 (Simon Olovitz) was 20 years old, born in Connecticut, lived in Brooklyn, Kings county, NY...  and both his parents were born in Poland/Russia (meaning both parents were listed with both country names as their birthplace).

Another (Steven) was born in Ohio and both his parents were born in Hungary.

The third one (Olovitz of Holy Names) was a female living in a convent in Marion County, Indiana - - her parents were both born in Michigan but their native tongue was German.

That doesn't narrow it down a LOT, but it's a start!

If you do a web search like this, you will find these records plus more information:  olovitz census usa

I hope that helps!