According to the government of Poland, the most popular baby names in the country last year were Zuzanna and Antoni.
Here are Poland’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2021:
Girl Names
- Zuzanna, 6,562 baby girls
- Zofia, 6,325
- Hanna, 6,065
- Julia, 5,954
- Maja, 5,585
- Laura, 5,569
- Oliwia, 4,770
- Alicja, 4,767
- Lena, 4,599
- Pola, 4,483
Boy Names
- Antoni, 7,821 baby boys
- Jan, 6,975
- Aleksander, 6,919
- Franciszek, 6,629
- Jakub, 6,427
- Leon, 5,296
- Mikolaj, 5,205 – cognate of Nicholas
- Szymon, 4,962
- Filip, 4,884
- Stanislaw, 4,679
Unfortunately, I had to de-stroke all the L’s with a stroke in this post (like the one in Mikolaj, and the one in Stanislaw) because they don’t render properly on my site.
It’s particularly unfortunate considering that, for this post, I thought it would be fun to find and define all the “-slaw” names on the boys’ side of the rankings (which go all the way down to names with just two instances of usage).
So just imagine that the L‘s in the 18 “-slaw” elements below have strokes through them. (Also, pronounce them like W‘s — and the W‘s like V‘s — so that “-slaw” sounds like the English word suave.)
- Stanislaw (ranked 10th): “to become” + “glory”
- Przemyslaw (83rd): the name Przemysl (“trick, stratagem”) + “glory”
- Radoslaw (92nd): “happy” + “glory”
- Wladyslaw (108th): “power” + “glory”
- Boleslaw: “greater” + “glory”
- Boguslaw: “god” + “glory”
- Czeslaw: “honor” + “glory”
- Miroslaw: “peace” + “glory”
- Mieczyslaw: “sword” + “glory”
- Bronislaw: “protection” + “glory”
- Jaroslaw: “fierce” + “glory”
- Zdzislaw: “build” + “glory”
- Leslaw: short for Lechoslaw, the name Lech (the legendary founder of Poland) + “glory”
- Miloslaw: “gracious” + “glory”
- Gniewoslaw (2 baby boys): “anger” + “glory”
- Gromoslaw (2): “thunder” + “glory”
- Witoslaw (2): “lord, master” + “glory”
- Zdobyslaw (2): “to obtain,” “to win” + “glory”
Back in 2016, the top names in Poland were also Zuzanna and Antoni.
Sources: Imiona nadawane dzieciom w Polsce – Gov.pl, Behind the Name
Image: Adapted from Flag of Poland (public domain)
