"Ardan" Etymology

06/02/2012 21:11

I’m sure that we’ve all had to deal with many Ardan-related questions in our lives (yes, even those Wardrop kids), and have found ourselves saying things like “That’s Ardan: a-r-d-A-n,” at which point the person writing it down of course writes “Arden.” Or, I’m fairly certain we’ve all gotten the weird “accent-on-the-end” thing from time to time, making us sound Parisian: “Mme. et M. arDAN.” Or, when we tell people that we’re of Slavic descent, we often hear, “Well, in that case, your name must have gotten shortened at Ellis Island. Was there a 'ski' on the end originally?” To set the record straight: “Ardan” is the way it was always spelled. It is neither French nor even Austrian, as some have supposed. It was never spelled with a ski on the end, and it was not shortened after we arrived into the States.

According to a Polish language book entitled “Lemko Vocabulary and Nomenclature,” the name “Ardan” was found in a place called Żydowskie and other Lemko villages, with our native town of course being Polany. The two villages are around four miles apart as the crow flies. The book states “Od łem. Ardan „Jordan [święto Trzech Króli]”, meaning “From the Lemko Ardan ‘Jordan (the holy day Feast of the Three Kings).’” This feast commemorates the baptism of Christ in the river Jordan, and takes place in January. The traditional Lemko service is held on the bank of a stream, during which a crucifix is cut out of the ice. The priest blesses the water in the stream. Afterwards, all of the parishioners dip vessels into the water, and then take it home with them to be used as holy water throughout the year. It was also traditional to walk animals as well through the blessed water of the stream to protect them during the upcoming year.

In the end, people in the States will continue to mispronounce and misspell Ardan. When this happens, however, it might help to think of what a cool history the name has, and to know that we have not compromised it or Americanized it by changing the spelling just to make things more convenient.

Finally, I have always thought that it’s cool to see it written in Cyrillic. The codified Lemko language uses this lettering system instead of the Latin version. So, this is how our grandfather would have known it originally: Ардан.

The letter “A” shows Żydowskie, with Polany approximately 3-4 miles away through the hills.

A painting on glass depicting the Feast of the Three Kings holiday. This is a painting that I own, done by an artist acquaintance of mine from Ukraine.