Family in Polish: Every Word, and the Ending That Means Love

Polish › Vocabulary › Family words

Updated August 2026 · Everyday Polish · 7-minute read · 🔊 every name has native audio

Every family word, spoken

Polish	Say it like	Means	Notes	Listen
babcia	BAHB-chah	grandmother	The warmest word in the language. Call her directly and it becomes Babciu (BAHB-choo).
dziadek	JAH-dek	grandfather	Directly: Dziadku (JAHT-koo).
mama	MAH-mah	mum	Directly: Mamo. Polish changes the ending when you speak to someone.
tata	TAH-tah	dad	Directly: Tato.
matka	MAHT-kah	mother	The formal word — on documents, not at the table.
ojciec	OY-chets	father	Formal, same as matka.
siostra	SHOH-strah	sister	Little sister, affectionately: siostrzyczka.
brat	braht	brother	Nothing to do with the English word.
ciocia	CHOH-chah	aunt	The everyday word. Formal is ciotka.
wujek	VOO-yek	uncle	Mother’s brother, strictly — though nobody polices it now.
kuzyn	KOO-zin	cousin (male)	Female: kuzynka (koo-ZIN-kah).
córka	TSOOR-kah	daughter	That ó is an oo sound.
syn	sin	son	One syllable.
żona	ZHOH-nah	wife	The ż is the s in “measure”.
mąż	mownsh	husband	A nasal vowel, then a devoiced ending — sh, not zh.
rodzina	roh-JEE-nah	family	The whole point of this page.
rodzice	roh-JEE-tseh	parents	Literally “the ones who gave birth”.
wnuk	vnook	grandson	Granddaughter: wnuczka (VNOOCH-kah).
teść	teshch	father-in-law	Mother-in-law: teściowa (tesh-CHOH-vah).
prababcia	prah-BAHB-chah	great-grandmother	Pra- stacks: praprababcia goes back another generation.
chrzestna	HSHEST-nah	godmother	Godfather: chrzestny (HSHEST-nih). In Polish families these are real roles, not honorary ones.
krewni	KREV-nee	relatives	The blood ones. Rodzina is wider and warmer.
dziecko	JETS-koh	child	Plural: dzieci (JEH-chee).
chłopiec	HWOH-pyets	boy	That chł is a throaty h then a w.
dziewczyna	jef-CHIH-nah	girl	Little girl: dziewczynka.
siostrzenica	shoh-stzheh-NEE-tsah	niece	Nephew: siostrzeniec.
szwagier	SHVAH-gyer	brother-in-law	Sister-in-law: szwagierka.
synowa	sih-NOH-vah	daughter-in-law	Son-in-law: zięć (zhench).
chrześniak	HSHESH-nyahk	godson	Goddaughter: chrześniaczka (hshesh-NYAHCH-kah).
przodkowie	pshoht-KOH-vyeh	ancestors	The word you will meet in every archive.
pokolenie	poh-koh-LEH-nyeh	generation	Useful when someone explains the tree to you.
dom rodzinny	dohm roh-JEE-nih	family home	Literally the family house — and it carries weight.

Why there are two words for mother and father

Matka and ojciec are the real words for mother and father — and almost nobody uses them at home. They belong on documents, in church and in formal speech. At the kitchen table it is mama and tata.

Using matka to your own mother sounds cold in a way that is hard to translate. It is closer to saying “my female parent” than “my mum”.

Godparents are not honorary

Chrzestna and chrzestny — godmother and godfather — hold a real position in a Polish family. They are named at the christening, they turn up for name days and first communion, and they are counted as family for the rest of a person’s life.

If you are working through old family papers and a name appears at a baptism with no obvious blood connection, you have almost certainly found a godparent — and godparents were usually chosen from close friends or relatives, so the name is a lead, not a dead end.

The diminutives

Polish softens family words the way English softens almost nothing. Siostra becomes siostrzyczka. Brat becomes braciszek. Córka becomes córeczka. None of these mean anything different — they simply carry affection, and adults use them about each other without embarrassment.

The pattern runs the other way too. Pra- stacks backwards through the generations: prababcia is a great-grandmother, praprababcia a great-great-grandmother, and you can keep going as long as your tree does.

The vocative — the ending that means love

English has one form of a name. Polish has one for talking about someone and
another for talking to them, and the second one is where the warmth lives.

It is called the vocative, and for family words it is almost always a small softening at
the end:

babcia → Babciu!  ·  dziadek
→ Dziadku!  ·  mama →
Mamo!  ·  tata → Tato!
 ·  ciocia → Ciociu!  · 
syn → Synu!

This is why so many people remember their grandmother as “Babciu” rather than
“babcia”. They were not hearing the word for grandmother. They were hearing her
being spoken to, every time.

English quietly does something similar — nobody says “Mother, pass the
salt” if they can say “Mum” — but Polish builds it into the grammar
rather than leaving it to tone.

Who counts as family

Polish draws the circle wider than English does, and with more precision inside it.

Rodzina is the warm, wide word: everyone you would invite. Krewni is
narrower and cooler — blood relatives specifically, the ones on the tree.
Powinowaci are relatives by marriage. Most people use rodzina for all of it
and never think about the others.

The precision shows up in the in-law words, which English handles with a hyphen and Polish
handles with real vocabulary: teść and teściowa for a
spouse’s parents, szwagier and szwagierka for their siblings,
zięć for a daughter’s husband and synowa for a son’s wife. Six
words where English needs six phrases.

The words you will meet in the archives

If you get as far as Polish parish records — and family research usually does —
a handful of these words appear on nearly every page.

Ojciec and matka head the parents’ columns, not tata and
mama: records are formal. Chrzestni lists the godparents, and they are named
on every baptism. Przodkowie means ancestors. Małżeństwo is
marriage, ślub the wedding itself, urodzenie a birth and
zgon a death.

One quiet warning: a woman appears in old Polish records under her maiden name far more
often than in English ones, frequently with z domu — “of the house
of” — before it. Anna Kowalska z domu Nowak is Anna Kowalska, born Nowak.
If you are searching only married surnames you will miss half the women in your tree.

Questions people ask

How do you say grandmother in Polish?

Babcia (BAHB-chah) — and Babciu (BAHB-choo) when you are speaking to her directly.

What is the difference between mama and matka?

Mama is what you call her; matka is the formal word for mother, used on documents and in church. Saying matka at home sounds cold.

How do you say family in Polish?

Rodzina (roh-JEE-nah). It is warmer and wider than krewni, which means blood relatives specifically.

Why did my family call grandma something different?

Regional and family variants are everywhere — Busia, Babci, Babunia. None of them is wrong, whatever anyone has told you.

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