Last year, the European country of Poland welcomed approximately 272,000 babies.
What were the most popular names among all these babies? Zofia and Nikodem.
Here are Poland’s top 50 girl names and top 50 boy names of 2023:
Girl names
- Zofia, 4,968 baby girls
- Zuzanna, 4,800
- Laura, 4,602
- Hanna, 4,565
- Maja, 4,461
- Julia, 4,254
- Oliwia, 3,846
- Pola, 3,692
- Alicja, 3,593
- Maria, 3,137
- Lena, 2,966
- Antonina, 2,912
- Emilia, 2,785
- Amelia, 2,759
- Klara, 2,660
- Michalina, 2,644
- Iga, 2,563
- Liliana, 2,561
- Wiktoria, 2,531
- Helena, 2,511
- Marcelina, 2,351
- Gabriela, 1,883
- Aleksandra, 1,878
- Nela, 1,768
- Kornelia, 1,761
- Lucja, 1,732
- Blanka, 1,636
- Anna, 1,581
- Nadia, 1,565
- Natalia, 1,441
- Lilianna, 1,422
- Jagoda, 1,410
- Mia, 1,232
- Milena, 1,148
- Róza, 1,132
- Kaja, 1,127
- Rozalia, 1,103
- Anastazja, 1,063
- Nina, 1,001
- Aniela, 984
- Weronika, 959
- Sara, 937
- Nikola, 917
- Barbara, 892
- Aurelia, 880
- Matylda, 845
- Liwia, 779
- Karolina, 752
- Martyna, 712
- Agata, 656
Boy names
- Nikodem, 6,532 baby boys
- Antoni, 5,663
- Jan, 5,638
- Aleksander, 5,625
- Franciszek, 4,965
- Leon, 4,916
- Jakub, 4,474
- Ignacy, 4,166
- Mikolaj, 4,081
- Stanislaw, 3,874
- Filip, 3,506
- Szymon, 3,269
- Wojciech, 3,078
- Adam, 2,889
- Tymon, 2,782
- Marcel, 2,759
- Kacper, 2,684
- Maksymilian, 2,655
- Oliwier, 2,578
- Wiktor, 2,347
- Michal, 2,183
- Igor, 1,899
- Julian, 1,855 (tie)
- Milosz, 1,855 (tie)
- Tymoteusz, 1,724 (tie)
- Gabriel, 1,724 (tie)
- Oskar, 1,683
- Piotr, 1,630
- Dawid, 1,276
- Bruno, 1,186
- Hubert, 1,159
- Krzysztof, 1,069
- Natan, 1,065
- Bartosz, 1,053
- Dominik, 1,022
- Mateusz, 900
- Cezary, 886
- Henryk, 880
- Alan, 869
- Karol, 866
- Tadeusz, 861
- Fabian, 837
- Tomasz, 830
- Maciej, 783
- Teodor, 761
- Ksawery, 752
- Milan, 733
- Artur, 722
- Leo, 669
- Pawel, 640
(Because L-with-a-stroke and Z-with-an-overdot don’t render properly on my site, you’ll have to imagine they exist in several of the above: the girl names Lucja and Róza, and the boy names Mikolaj, Stanislaw, Michal, Milosz, and Pawel.)
Poland’s data goes all the way down to names with just two instances of usage, so here’s a sampling of the rare baby names at the opposite end of the spectrum:
| Rare girl names | Rare boy names |
| Aryna, Burla, Christine, Dziyana, Esti, Flavia, Goja, Hafsa, Iwanna, Jutrzenka, Kleopatra, Latika, Miszel, Nasturcja, Oryslava, Polianna, Raya, Svitlana, Tinatin, Ursula, Vienna, Wiera, Yevahelina, Zoryana | Arseniusz, Bozydar, Czarek, Dachi, Ege, Ferdinand, Gabrielius, Hleb, Ioannis, Joszko, Kerem, Lotar, Maciek, Nicolai, Oktawiusz, Przemek, Reece, Szarbel, Tymek, Umut, Vitali, Wolfgang, Yanis, Zawisza |
On the girls’ side: Jutrzenka means “morning star” in Polish, and Nasturcja is the Polish word for nasturtium (a type of flower).
On the boys’ side: Hleb (Belarusian) comes from Gleb (Russian), which comes from Guðleifr (Old Norse: “god” + “heir”), and Zawisza can be traced back to a Slavic word meaning “envy.”
Finally, here are Poland’s 2022 rankings, if you’d like to compare last year to the year before.
Sources: Imiona nadawane dzieciom w Polsce – Otwarte Dane, Births drop to new postwar low in Poland as population falls almost 1 million in a decade – Notes from Poland, Behind the Name, Jutrzenka – Wiktionary
Image: Adapted from Flag of Poland (public domain)
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