So where does our surname originate?  Several of you have written to me with your insights on this topic. 

Yehoshua Kolodny provided this information: 

"Here is my penny-worth to the origin of our surname: I was told by my father (Nechemia Kolodny, 1903-1982) the origin of "Kolodny" is not the Russian Kholodny (or Cholodny) meaning "cold" or "cold man". We are as many jews are named after the locality from which we stem, the small village Kolodnoye near Pinsk. Indeed I think practically all Kolodnys can be traced to Pinsk or its vicinity." 

Gerald Kolodny wrote: 

"My brother, Ed ... has been to Pinsk with a large group from Israel and the United States. Our sister in law Emmy Kolodny lives in Columbia, Maryland. I am curious if anyone knows the origin of the name Kolodny. I have heard that there is a Russian word Cholodna, which means something like tree trunk or lumber. Pinsk is at the confluence of some rivers and the Merchants used to go up the river and buy trees and so Pinsk became the center for many saw mills. My brother tells me that someone in Israel suggested that the name comes from Salonika in Greece !  Another explanation is that since most Kolodnys are cohanim, that it is a corruption of Kol Adoni, which afterall is what the cohen represents as he duchens. However my brother also tells me that there are 2 branches to the family, which may actually represent 2 different families, one of cohanim and one of leviim."  

J Michael Kolody  wrote:

"I am not sure that I may be of help in terms of the name Kolodny. I have spent less then three years researching the Kolody name, which is in fact a derivitive of Kolodziej and Kolodij of Polish and Ukranian origin respectively.  I will be in Poland in the next few weeks and if all goes well I may learn a good bit more. My name is often misspelled Kolodny and I am interested in weather there is a connection as Kolodny is a somewhat popular name." 

Ann K Kolodner wrote:

"I was doing some research yesterday ... into Belarussian history, specifically about Pinsk.  There is an organization in Minsk that specializes in heraldic research for families native to the region. They have a representative in America who is the go  between for them. They are able to go to the actual region checking property documents, graveyards etc. The drawback is we need to know the original spelling of our name-- which Yehoshua may know. I found that in the 1300s to 1800s Belarus was a province of Lithuania. Amazing that this never came out in any Russian history I have ever studied and this was my undergraduate major and I studied abroad in Lithuania ironically enough.   Back to the main point, as the records were kept in Lithuania and not in Moscow by the Communists and Bolsheveks many of them still exist. I found registries of documents dating back that far, on microfilm for births, deaths and marriages for the town of Pinsk( organized by towns).  I found all of this using Infoseek and yahoo, searching under Belarus and Pinsk.  Our family had land so documents of that may still exist. I'd like to find out more about the history of the region and see if our family played any major roles in it. On a sadder note, during WWII, 2.5 million Jews were sent to concentration camps from that region, though I don't know if any lists of names exist?" 

From Meyer and Sarah Kolodner:

"We don't think we are blood relatives, but we think we might be "lanslite", since Meyer's parents and your grandparents came from the same area in Eastern Europe.  Pinsk is also near Antopol.    Our surnames come from the same roots.  There is or was a town called "Kolodne" somewhere in that area, and a person who is from that area is a "Kolodner", and I think it applies to your name also.  Kolodne also means "cold" in Russian, Polish, Ukranian, and Belarus."