Family name origins & meanings
- Slovenian (Polič) and Croatian (Polić) : from pol ‘half’, in any of various possible senses: most probably a status name for a peasant who held half the standard measure of land (i.e. half a ‘grunt’), or for a tenant of a farm who had to pay half of its produce in rent. It may also be from polič, a kind of jug-like drinking vessel containing half the standard measure of cubic capacity.
- Croatian (Polić) : on the Dalmatian coast, a pet form of the personal name Polo, a pet form of Paul under Venetian influence.
- Slovenian (Polič) : perhaps a metronymic from a short form of the personal name Polona, vernacular form of Apolonija, Latin Apollonia.
- German and Jewish (Ashkenazic) : occupational name for a distiller, from an eastern Slavic word meaning ‘to burn’ (Russian palit, Ukrainian palyty).