--- title: "Other Smud families" url: https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/other-smud/ lang: en work: "The Smud Family: A Jewish Family History from Ludza, Latvia to Entre Ríos, Argentina" author: "Mateo Smud" licence: CC0-1.0 summary: "The surname Smud does not identify a family, for two reasons. (1) Other words ended up spelled the same way: the Croatian Smuđ —the name of a fish—, the Polish and Czech Smuda, the Polish Żmuda or Zmu" --- # Other Smud families The surname Smud does not identify a family, for two reasons. (1) Other words ended up spelled the same way: the Croatian Smuđ —the name of a fish—, the Polish and Czech Smuda, the Polish Żmuda or Zmuda; in Argentina any of them could end up written Smud, and there are families named Smud in the city of Buenos Aires that, as far as is known, have no connection to this one and no Jewish or Samogitian origin. (2) The same origin is not enough either: Zmud meant “the one from Samogitia”, and a great many people left Samogitia; unrelated families were identified by the same word. There are Zhmuds in Estonia, and Zhmuydas in Russia and Belarus, with no connection to this line. In Lithuania “Zhmud” was a common surname meaning “the Samogitian”. Two families can share surname, spelling, alphabet, etymology and region of origin and have no ancestor in common. The only thing that distinguishes this line is documentary evidence: the 1858 Novy Zlatopol census, the 1899 Mariupol synagogue birth record, the 1904 Buenos Aires immigration register and the Paraná gravestone. This research does not claim that everyone named Smud, Zmud or Zhmud belongs to a single family. ## Zmud, the origin of this family Žemaitija · Ludza · the Ekaterinoslav colonies · Toponymic From the Slavic name of Žemaitija, the region of western Lithuania: Żmudź. Zmud meant, more or less, “the one from Samogitia”. It is the only one on this list that is documented from start to finish: the 1858 Novy Zlatopol census, the 1899 Mariupol synagogue birth record and the 1904 Buenos Aires immigration register show the same family line with the surname written in three different ways. That is what identifies this family. Not the surname: the documents. The surname, on its own, does not distinguish it from anyone. Because a place-based surname points not to a family but to an origin, and a great many people left Samogitia. In Lithuania “Zhmud” was a common surname and simply meant “the Samogitian”: most of those Lithuanian records are not this family. The same goes for the other spellings: there are Zhmuds in Estonia, and Zhmuydas in Russia and Belarus, several of whom have no known connection to this line. Sharing the word —even in the same spelling— proves absolutely nothing. ## Smuđ, in Croatia Croatia · around Sisak and Zagreb · Nickname In Croatian, smuđ is the name of a fish: the zander (Sander lucioperca). Surnames taken from animal names are common in the region. It is written with đ, a letter that tends to be lost in foreign records: that is why the same surname also appears as Smud, Smudj, Smudy or Smugj, which is exactly how it could cross paths with this family without having anything to do with it. According to the Croatian surname register Acta Croatica, about eighty people named Smuđ live in Croatia today, in some thirty households, mainly around Sisak and in Zagreb. There were about ninety in the middle of the last century. The PDF of this research already said so on its first page: no connection is assumed between this family line and the Smud families of Croatia without documentary evidence. ## Smuda, in Poland and Czechia Silesia · Lesser Poland · Moravia · Nickname · uncertain Two explanations circulate and they do not agree: one derives it from the Czech smudit (se), “to look sour”; the other from the dialectal Polish smudzić. Surname dictionaries do not agree. Some give it as a Czech nickname for someone with a sour expression; others link it to the Polish idea of a smudge or soot, and from there to a trade that dirtied the hands. A third possibility, the one that matters most here, is that Smuda is a variant of Żmuda: in areas of German influence the initial ż was simplified in writing, and Żmuda became Smuda or Schmuda. It is found mainly in Silesia and Lesser Poland, and since the nineteenth century also in the United States, Canada and Argentina through emigration. Here, like the Polish Żmuda, it may have lost its final vowel and ended up as Smud. ## Żmuda and Zmuda, in Poland Poland · Two origins at once This is the most interesting crossing of all: the same Polish surname can come from two different places, and one of them is this family's. On one hand, żmuda in Polish means tedious, unrewarding work; from the old verb żmudzić, to waste time. A nickname, like so many. On the other, Żmudź is the Polish name for Samogitia —the same region Zmud comes from—, and from it come Żmudziński and Żmudny, which marked someone who came from there. In other words, there may be Polish Żmudas who share this family's etymology without sharing its lineage, and others who do not even share the etymology. Two surnames coming from the same word does not make them relatives: it means two people, in two centuries and two countries, were identified by the same place of origin. And here is the point that matters most on this whole page: in Argentina, a Polish Żmuda or Zmuda became Smud by the same route as a Baltic Zhmud. Customs did not distinguish etymologies. There are people named Smud in this country who are not related to this family and whose surname comes from here, not from Ludza. Sharing the surname, the country and even the century of arrival is not enough: a document is needed. --- The Smud Family · genealogical research by Mateo Smud, published under CC0 1.0. Machine index: https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/llms.txt