Mi Apellido

I have a unique last name – “Krozek.” Its uniqueness lends itself to both inspired nicknames and creative misspellings.

Let’s start with the nicknames. In the waning years of high school I had a number of nicknames: Zeak (ostensibly from the “zek” part of Krozek), Kro, and Krazy Krozek (my friends were into alliteration for awhile, what can I say). Later on, in college, when I joined my fraternity, I had to go up in front of the chapter and give my name, my hometown, a nickname, and a few points of interest about my life. Needless to say, I never got to the “interesting points about my life” because I chose “Krazy” as my nickname. I thought I was cool…I was young and dumb. I left the room to endless heckling and empty beer cans thrown at my head. I thought that because I was in a fraternity, that the nickname Krazy would be well received, and, perhaps it was even as common a name as Smith or Johnson in the “real world.” I was wrong. I never lived it down.

Nowadays, most people just call me “Kro” and that seems to fit me just fine.

Some of the better misspellings (which, now that I think of it, some have actually transcended “misspellings” and leaked into the “nickname” category) include: Krovek (“Mr. Krovek, we have ways of making you talk…” – say it with a Russian accent for ultimate effect), Korzak, Crowsack, Crozak, and Krozak (VERY common). The funny thing about my last name is that at one point the name was supposedly spelled “Krozack.” Krozack seems much more intuitive. When my paternal grandfather died in the early 90’s we came across his birth certificate and it was spelled Krozack. The mystery of the Krozek spelling died with him.

I have other data points to discuss on this last name thing, but I will close with this (for now): I am a true American mutt. I am Welch, German, English, Swedish and Czech (at least). My ancestors last names included: Barkledge, Wendell, Gustafson, Nestor, and Wilson, all of which are easy to pronounce and common(ish)…and I ended up with Krozek.

Long live Kro.