Merhaba,

I have a untypical question this time...

Do you think my last name, that is Kuldanek could be of Turkish origin?

This is very uncommon name and rare in the country where I live (Poland), so it must´ve came from another language. Unfortunately no one in my family holds information that would penetrate the history of our origin in that deep. After all, I realized that my name contains a typical Turkish suffix -dan and it even follows the vowel harmony rules with the first part "kul".. so it could be Kuldan ek. Would such a phrase make sense in Turkish at all?

Does it have a meaning in your language? 

-ek is some kind of a suffix in Polish? the ending doesn´t make sense for me but it could be something like -ov / -ev in Russian. If so, that may be considered as a suffix without thinking much the relation. But still that doesn´t look like a Turkish lastname.

And; (I dont know if this is in the context but) lastname laws came in Turkey in 1934 which sounds like it should have been a known fact by your family members if there is a Turkish lastname in your family. Before 1934 there werent lastnames here.

kuldan ek would literally mean "slave/servant addition" or "addition from slave/servant" or "repairment from slave/servant" or in a different meaning would mean "partner from slave/servant"

coming from the fact that tatars took slaves from poland and ukraine regions and sold them to turks it wouldnt be surprising. but that sounds too cheesily obvious.

another logic would be to assume that turkish words dont usually end up with a vowel and -k, you could think that maybe it deformed into the sounds of the region that you live in, having been put a -k at the end of the word. so it would be kul + dane. dane has several meanings and not turkish, but is an old word, meaning the first stage of a flower, bird food, mace, flail or cannon ball.

or just kuldan. and -ek is the localization.

or just the derivation of this word:

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kultanen

It sometimes shows up when we try to create "less formal / casual" form of some male name. Few examples:

Tomasz (name, corresponds to English Thomas) -> Tomek (Tom)

Krzysztof (Christopher) -> Krzysiek (Chris)

Maciej -> Maciek

Władysław -> Władek

etc.

I think it is sometimes used with masculine nouns. For example, "stół" means "table", and "stołek" means "stool", although I´m not quite sure if origins of these two words are really related.

Not sure if it helps here, but I always like to add my 5 eurocents

With a very wild guess, one can say your name corresponds to Güldenak (gülden ak), in today´s Turkish. "gülden ak" means "whiter (more virtuous) than a rose"

Ok, thank you all for your contribution to determine my name´s origin and meaning. I still think there is a ray of hope my ancestors could have something to do with Turkey I really like the idea with Güldenak as well!

Check who ALFRED BILINSKY (1862-1936) is, in your own history. If you can not find anything, I will tell you about him.

Poles and Ottomans were mysteriously close in history.

Poland was divided between Russia, Prussia and Austria around 1700´s.

Ottomans never accepted this occupation and did not hesitate to politically oppose it thru the next 120 years.

In meetings with foreign ambassadors, the Ottoman Sultan would always ask his aide, discretely but in an audible voice, "Where is the Polish ambassador? Did he not arrive yet?"

The aide, in the same quiet but audible tone, would answer "There may be some problems on the road Your Majesty, but he will definitely arrive".

This ritual was repeated for 120 years, untill Poland was free again. The first Polish ambassador to Istanbul, upon his first meeting with the Sultan, proudly announced "The Polish Ambassador has arrived. Your Majesty".

There were many taverns on the way, Your Majesty.