Chodko Jurewicz, chamberlain to Grand Duke
Vytenis, was probably the ancestor of the whole clan and gave it the name Chodkiewicz, meaning "son of Chodzko". Surnames were not used in that time, but apparently later in history, the name Chodzko became a surname after Christianization of Chodzko Juriewicz, father of Iwan (later Jan) Chodkiewicz. They bore the
Chodkiewicz coat of arms. In 1572, Jan Hieronimowicz Chodkiewicz converted from
Calvinism to
Roman Catholicism with his two sons, which made them the first
Polonized generation of the once Lithuanian-Ruthenian family. Emperor
Charles V granted them the title of
Imperial Count.
^Chester S. L. Dunning, Caryl Emerson, Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin, The Uncensored Boris Godunov, Univ of Wisconsin Press, 2007, SBN 0299207641,
Google Print, p. 498