Re: Sikorski family Jewish connection?

I see what you mean, and I'm puzzled myself as to the historical meaning of the word "sikora."It certainly does not have any present reference that could imply anything other than it's just a name of a bird.I just referenced both the Polish dictionary and the Polish encyclopedia, but was unable to find any additional historical relevance or a hint of where the root "sikor" comes from.The word itself doesn't seem to have other "mutations" which would imply the suggested meaning of "dark/small" as the text from the website suggests.The only link I can make is that the bird (and the family of birds "sikory") is in fact rather small.So, I don't know how they arrived at the conclusion, and of course the Jewish connection to the surname...

However, for your amusement, here are some fun trivia facts about the bird itself that I happen to come across:

- There are seven types of sikora birds living in Poland
- All of them are under national protection
- They all look very cute, but they do look different
- "Sikorka" is a diminitive of "sikora", and it is "sikorka" that most Polish people commonly call these birds; specifically one type of this bird (with a yellow belly) is very popular in the wintertime
- Something not commonly used now, but definitelly used in the past, was the usage of the word "sikorka" in a friendly reference to young girls to imply that they are pretty and cute
- These birds are known to move fast, and move a lot.The Polish have a saying "mobile/moveable like the _tit"
- If your name is Sikorski, you're guaranteed to be called "sikor" or "sikora" at some point in your childhood.No harm in itself, however, because there is a diminitive version of the same word ("sikorka") many kids think that they'll insult or befriend you by calling you by this nick name.It's one of the peculiar qualities of Polish language.You can make a monster sound cute if you just properly transform it.Eg. "potwor" (monster) can cound absolutely adorable if you say "potworek" ("little monster" -> implies being cute, not small).You could very well say "maly potwor" wich would literally mean small monster, but not cute."Potworeczek" would mean an even cuter monster, and almost innately it would also mean it's small, etc.In the end, you have "sikora" -> "sikorka" -> "sikoreczka".Notice that by polish standards, sikora is always feminine.
- The english origins of the word "_tit" do have historical reference to the meaning "small":
[14th century. Alteration (influenced by mouse) of titmose , from obsolete '_tit_' - something small, runt (of uncertain origin: probably from Scandinavian) + mose titmouse (from Old English mâse ).]

Hope this was a fun reading for you.