[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Borma Surname

[Günther Böhm]

At 09:07 PM 07/09/2006, Joe Pessarra wrote:

>We would appreciate any information concerning the surname of 
>Borma.  Specifically, we are searching for the previous home of a 
>Borma family who lived in Texas.  Matey Borma with wife Theresa, and 
>children John, Celestina, and James, arriving in the USA in 
>1896.  We have no immigration data, but US census shows them to be 
>of Polish/Russian origin.   Any idea also of whether the name Matey 
>could also be equivalent to Mateusz.  Thanks for any help.
>
>Joe in Texas
>  
>
Hello Joe,
the name BORMA sounds Dutch. It has no entry in the German telephone register. Its correct spelling could be BOERMA (216 entries, most of them close to the Netherlands border). The -ma suffix is not common in German but typical in Netherlands. There is of course the very common German name BORMANN, deriving from Bauer (peasant)+ Mann, but hardly a link to BORMA. Even in the present Poland there is neither BORMA nor BOERMA but you can find several BORMANN. Also in Russian or Ukrainian there is no such name.

Concerning the christian names, their spelling is neither German nor Polish but mostly Anglo-American.
(English) John = (German) Johannes/Johann/Hans = (Polish) Janusz/Jan
(English/French/Italian) Celestina = (German, rare) Coelestine = female of the pope name Coelestinus
(English) James = (German) Jakob = (Polish) Jakub/Jaczek
(English) Matthew = (German) Matthäus = (Polish) Mateusz/Maciej = (Russian/Ukrainian) Matfej/Matwej
(English) Theresa/Teresa/Terese = (German) Theresia/Therese = (Polish) Tereza.

Guenther