As I investigated our Gainowski origins, I saw an evolution of the spelling of their name. From their arrival around 1886 to about 1900 the name was generally spelled as Gainowski. However around the turn of the century, a few variants started appearing. For example, Anna used Ganowsky on her 1893 Marriage Record and the Chicago Directory entry for 1896 used Geinewski. Later the 1900 Census taker wrote down Geinosky and in 1902, the Chicago Directory used Geinovski. Years later, their children recorded Geinosky on their tombstone.

Similar to what was learned about saying Pajewski as Payefskee. I believe Gainowski was pronounced as 'Geinofskee' where 'ein' sounds as the number one in the German 'ein'.

Thus it appears the Gainowski family changed the spelling of their name to help with the pronunciation. This is in contrast to the Pajewski/Page family who changed their name completely.