Sijer

[henerte]

Hi,

I have a friend in Poland, whose surname is Sijer. He pronounces his surname in a quite unusual way, namely "Siyer" while in regular polish, it should be something like "Shiyer". Surprisingly, his surname is not that uncommon in Poland, even though it sounds quite exotic.

Does anyone here know its origins? I have a suspection that it might be of dutch origin and a simple google yields some results in north-western Germany, naturally also in Poland (looks like it's most common in Poland). Astonishingly, it looks like there were also Jews in Poland who had this surname and there are also people from ex-Yugoslavia, whose surname contains this root (e.x. Sijercic). It might be of islamic origin as well, I suppose.

Any ideas?