does anyone know any Polen's and can anyone tell me about the surname?

Answer 1

Hey LaDawn,

Swyrich.com has this to say about Polen:
Origin: English

Spelling variations of this family name include: Paulin, Paulyn, Pollen, Pollyn, Pollin, Polyn and many more.

First found in Staffordshire from very ancient times, and Lincolnshire where they were Lords of the Manor of Odcombe.

Some of the first settlers of this family name or some of its variants were: John Pollen who settled in Virginia in 1636; Peter Pollin settled in Philadelphia Pa. in 1813; William Polin landed in America in 1769; D. Paulin settled in San Francisco Cal.
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The GENFORUM site has a Forum for POLEN also, with lots of possible distant cousins for you to start posting with.

There are 40 Polen entries at Ellis Island.com, you can get an account for free.

There are 209 entries at the LDS Family Search site, these would be ancestors, back as far as 1513, where they appear in Poland. So, your first answer has the word correct most likely.

Answer 2

"Polen" is the German world for "Polish people."

It could have been given to the family as a "descriptive" surname for someone speaking Polish who had moved into a German-speaking area. Or it could have been chosen by the person himself to identify his origins.

In the USA 1930 census, there were 1,041 people with the surname Polen listed.