Different ways to pronounce a polish last name ?

Question:Was watching American Idol last night and one of the hopefuls came up, Ryan pronounced her last name Whoa ja COW ski. I thought it sounded odd, since it's close to mine, and low and behold, its spelled the same?! Wojciechowski... I pronounce it Whoa ja HOW ski. Is there more than one way to pronounce that or other polish last names?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Was watching American Idol last night and one of the hopefuls came up, Ryan pronounced her last name Whoa ja COW ski. I thought it sounded odd, since it's close to mine, and low and behold, its spelled the same?! Wojciechowski... I pronounce it Whoa ja HOW ski. Is there more than one way to pronounce that or other polish last names?

yay, Katie! I wasn't the only one to pick up on the Polish name, although not in terms of it being close to mine.
Anyway, Wendy's 2 cents on the topic- we are LUCKY if anyone can agree on a 'correct' pronounciatian in a Polish name. I am fortunate (??) that my Polish family had no 'z' in the name, and has a short run before my mom, and switch to alternate names. But.. it really has a bunch to do with open minded in research, even with non Polish names. What shows up in records, is how the CLERK thought it should be spelled.
I am subbed to an excellent Polish research list, if you are going that direction. Drop me a note. Not in the next 2 hrs. I confess to being an Idol-aholic.

no, im polish...my last name is Zbikowski...its pronounced Zba-cow-ski

not that hard...

I can tell you that the way you are pronouncing it is probably how your family of polish descent pronounces it. For example if you are in Poland thats how you pronounce it. But you know most americans, any last name bigger than seven letters is like quantam physics..

There are different dialects in Poland. But the common pronuciation is Voy-cha-huv-ski.

The difference between Polish and English is that the letter W is "double U" in English, but it's a "double V" in Polish. C's are semi-silent.