Cichos Surname

In Polish CICHOS is pronounced roughly "CHEE-hos," with the O in the second syllable a little longer than in "toss" but not quite as long as in "host." Also the second syllable begins with a sound a little more guttural than our H -- Polish CH is closer to the guttural "ch" in German "Bach." So if you can make that H a little guttural, that's more accurate. But "CHEE-hos" is pretty close.

As of 1990, according to the database at herby.com, there were 587 Polish citizens named CICHOS, living all over the country. The largest numbers were in the provinces of Katowice (164), Konin (102), and Opole (130); so the name tended to show up most often in west-central to southwestern Poland.

Polish name expert Prof. Kazimierz Rymut mentions this name in his book _Nazwiska Polakow_ [The Surnames of Poles]. He says names beginning CICH- come from the root seen in the adjective _cichy_, "quiet," and in the dialect term _cichosz_, "one who doesn't talk much." Most likely this originated as a nickname for an ancestor who was pretty quiet and didn't do a lot of talking. (William F Hoffman)

A surname search at moikrewni.pl (Cichos)reveals that there are currently 552 people with that surname residing in Poland. The greatest concentrations are in the south.